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Petri Damstén

Personalizing my bags with killer zippers

When one of my zipper pull broke, I thought, “well, that’s not a big deal. I will just add some paracord to replace it”. I like the saying from Mythbusters: “If it is worth doing, it is worth overdoing”, so just adding paracord was not an option. I wanted to personalize my pull and add my logo to it.

I designed a little button in Fusion 360 that fits the paracord pull and has my logo in it. It took some test prints to test the right fit, logo recess depth and filling material. In the end, it looked so nice that I ended up adding it also to my other bags, which were perfectly fine. Paracord can be found in several colours so it’s easy to find your brand colour or a colour you just like.

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How I made a DIY remote on a pole adapter for operating both camera and light on my own

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I recently created a one-man setup for light painting with strobes. It’s a quick and simple solution for operating the camera while holding the light by yourself.

I ripped off the legs of an old light stand, so it’s just a handheld pole with the light. I also want to use the camera remote control when holding the light. That way, I can operate my camera on a tripod when I don’t have an assistant.[Read More…]

The Dark Room photo project mixes life-size models with 1:6 scale DIY props

I was listening to my favourite band Sentenced and their album “The Cold White Light”. While listening I started thinking “Should I make images from the songs in my favourite album?”. Well, that was the original plan in February 2020. Now ideas have gone on their way and I have over forty sketches in my sketchbook. I have picked some pieces from other bands too like Queen, Metallica, Mötorhead, Stam1na…

When ideas started to circulate I ended up pretty quickly in the idea that all the images would have the same environment. Some kind of room or a cell with a dark and depressing feel. It was clear from the beginning that images would also have some surreal and dreamlike elements. It is a collection of images of what a dark mind might look like from the inside.

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How I built a DIY GOBO projector for under $30

I wanted a device that can throw light patterns onto a wall or a model. There are some commercially available but they are quite expensive and I this was only for occasional use. I thought that this is something that can be 3D printed. I bought a Bowens mounting ring and some cheap macro extension tubes (For the Nikon F mount since I already have lenses for it) from eBay and designed an adapter between them.

The adapter that I made has slots for different kinds of gobos between the strobe and the lens

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How I made a tiny smoke machine from an electric cigarette

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The plan

I have used an electric cigarette as a small smoke machine. My first version was bit and pieces glued together but that wasn’t very robust and broke. No that I have a 3D printer I wanted to revisit this project and make it properly.

Smokers can suck smoke to their lungs and blow big clouds of smoke. I’m not a smoker myself so that will only end up in coughing. So I wanted to reverse the operation and directly blow air into the cigarette and get smoke out directly. This way I also get great precision where the smoke goes, much more than with traditional smoke machines.

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