Cedar Camera

[William]

I've been using red and white cedar for my carvings lately and really like it, I bought the white cedar from a local supplier and the red is "found wood" it's from a dead cedar a friend found while cutting firewood.

Photography is my other hobby and I thought my next red and white cedar carving will be of my camera (red cedar) and my left hand (white cedar), I'm going to use the zoom lens and I think I like it better closed and not extended, here are picture's both ways.

The white cedar is really hard to work with so I may have to use basswood for my hand (and paint it) and make the body of the camera out of white cedar and the zoom lens out of red cedar.

That last paragraph was a thought that came to me as I was typing this post and I'm still digesting it but I think I like the idea.

Any thoughts on the open or closed zoom or the wood combination?

Bill
^v^

[Claude]

Hhhhmmmmm... Well, Bill, wouldn't ebony be a better choice , color-wise, for the lens?

Claude

[William]

Good idea Claude!

I have 4 black walnut logs about 2' long x 12" dia, I've not carved much of it because it's so darn hard but the lens should not be that hard to do and I can use basswood for the camera body.

yep..that's a plan and maybe carve just the camera and lens

Bill
^v^

[markken5889]

Hi Bill,

I'm with you on the enjoying photography as another hobby! I like the look of the closed-zoom picture. I'm not really sure if I can put words to the why - better balance and symmetry - just looks better to my eye.

Good luck with this one - I'm looking forward to seeing you post your progress!

Mark

[Kate]

I'm a bit of a photography addict m'salf. Not saying I am skilled but I enjoy it.

I like the look of the lens shorter. I wonder, how with it look without the lens hood on?

As far as wood, if the basswood is easier to carve than the cedar and will give you the same effect, go for it. Rather than paint, use a light stain maybe to tint it. You might be able to do the same with the rest of the piece too.

This is quite an ambitious project!

Oh... one more thing just popped into my head. Are you going to show the "subject" of the photo? .... I realize it's a telescopic lens, but what if there were a wee little critter looking back at you into the lens.

Ok, back under my log now

[William]

Wow! Mark and Kate, it's good to know there are other photographers in our group, I would love to see some of your favorite shots.

Kate, the original composition was to display the camera on a hand in the standard support position. I have been thinking about the hood too, it may look better without the hood and maybe just a filter so it would be flat on the end of the lens and could also be a place for a reflected critter type image, nice thought, thanks, I like that.

I was digging in the wood box this morning and found this ready to carve piece of black walnut, those other walnut logs were just cut about 6 months ago and will very likely crack before I can get the camera done.

This piece of red cedar did not have the crack down the center of the face when I started carving it but the crack is getting wider every day, I'm using sanding sealer on a finished area at the end of each carving session to try and slow the cracking.

Bill
^v^

[Kate]

Originally Posted by William

Wow! Mark and Kate, it's good to know there are other photographers in our group, I would love to see some of your favorite shots.

Ok, just for you, I posted a few of my favorites up on my photobucket account.
Photography pictures by 7SlotFever - Photobucket
Now... I've shown you mine, you have to show me YOURS!


K.

[William]

hehe...

Wow! you've taken some beautiful pictures Kate and in some great locations, what camera were you using? Will your camera do time exposures?

I'm new to photography as a hobby and it really started when I retired last August.

I wanted a digital camera to photograph the northern lights so I could make adjustments while taking the pictures,during the last solar maximum in 2000 I used my 40 year old film camera but the pictures were not that good because of my lack of experience.

I did not know that you could photograph the Aurora as far south as Texas.

The next solar maximum will be starting next year and will last about three years with the best and most active part in 2011 but I wanted to be ready for those rare early storms that will come this year.

I need to get my photo site up and running but here are a few of my favorite shots and this is my gear list so far, it's just an entry level SLR but it would fit in my budget.

Canon Rebel XTI
Canon Ef 20mm f2.8 (usm)
Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 II
Canon EF-S 55-250mm f/4-5.6 IS

Bill
^v^

[Kate]

Good Mornin' Bill!

Nice critter pictures, Critters are the hardest to capture for me. We have a lot of them out here in Tennessee but they just don't understand when I holler "Hold it! I forgot to take my lens cap off!"

The photos I posted are from a variety of different digital cameras. Some with an old Sony MVC. Remember the one that used 3.5 floppys as storage? That was my first digital. Then I graduated to an Olympus E10. Loved that camera. It took pictures that were unbelievable but it was slow, slow,slow.

Now I have an Olympus E500 and an Olympus 1030SW that is my Jeepin camera. The E500 is a good enough camera, but it doesn't take the quality of photos that the E10 did. Nothing I can do will make it produce the crisp, brilliant photos that the E10 did. I hope to someday be able to upgrade to a Canon or a Nikon. Maybe if I quit buying Jeep parts I'll be able to. Yes the E500 will take time exposures. For an entry level digital SLR, it's not a bad camera. You can get your feet wet for about three hundred dollars (when I bought mine it was $899, price has dropped of course) It even has a remote control so that you can take the group shot with you in it. I never use it, but it's there and it has the ability to accept different lenses. I have two for mine but what I need to get is a set of macro filters and a wide angle for it.

I've taken three different photography classes. For all of that, I may have just as well banged the book against my forhead because for soem reason the F-stop and aperture stuff refuses to settle in my head so that I "get it". I have even read the section about it in the books numerous times. It just won't stick, so I point and shoot. That's the joy of digital. You can shoot two hundred photos, keep three and it costs nothing to throw all of the rejects in the recycle bin.

The photos at the beach were in San Jose de Cabo, Mexico. My one and only real vacation. We went there for our tenth anniversary. The bridges and lake shots are from central California, where we used to live. The frogs were local characters.

When you do decide to go digital you won't regret it at all. But I DO recommend you hold out for either a Canon or a Nikon. No sense buying something twice if you don't have to.

What is your favorite subject? What are you taking in time exposure?
Mine favorite is macros. I love to get up close and see the whiskers on a caterpillar or the dewdrops on a plant, the curl of a thistle.

Hmm... now I wanna get my camera out and go play with it!
K.

PS: My favorite photos of all of those posted are the two of my grandson. Where he is learning to drink from the hose and the other one was funny. We had been playing with the water hoses and when it was time to dry him off and bring him in he stripped off all of his clothes and was dancing nekkid. He was celebrating. It was such a delightful, innocent moment that I had to snap a picture.

[William]

Morning Kate,

Both of those cameras are very good, my point-and-shoot is a dinosaur compared to your 1030 sw but your E500 and my XTi are about the same. Neat pictures of the grandson, candid pictures of loved ones are always the best.

I would like to move up to a full frame instead of my 1.6x crop sensor so I can get the full effect of the 20mm lens, it's the equivalent of a 32mm on this camera but that will have to wait until I hit the lottery.

I bought this camera to photograph the Aurora but to get the full effect the camera really needs a wide lens. On your camera with a 2.0x crop sensor the 20mm wide angle lens would be like a 40mm on a full frame but the image quality would be about the same.

My favorite type of photography right now is wild life with my zoom lens and next would be landscape with the wide angle but that will change to night photography with the wide angle when the Aurora activity starts. I have only taken a few macro shots and with a high resolution camera like yours I can see why you like it.

I have been experimenting with F-stop and aperture too but many times I'll reduce the camera to a point-and-shoot and set the camera to automatic just to be sure I get the shot.

Your camera will shoot in Bulb mode so all you will need to shoot the Aurora is a remote release and tripod but you probably already have those things, sometimes I'll use them to reduce glare and blur when I take pictures of my carvings inside without flash.

Here's an article from the beginning of the last cycle called brushfires in the sky and they even have a picture of the Aurora taken from Tennessee.

Brushfires in the Sky

HappY TrailS
Bill
^v^