So I’m regretting cleaning the new baby.
Me and my ridiculous need to clean her and make her mine… I scrubbed away 50 years of dirt and then realised the next day that it was the dirt that was the appealing thing. Those bits of detritus around the edges of the viewfinder were very beautiful. Like an old mirror that is starting to disintegrate. My favourite shots on the flickr stream are the grimy ones…
I’ll be adding some dirt back again somehow – not quite sure how yet, but I will.
In the meantime though, here is part 2 of the Duaflex story.
To mask off the light around the viewfinder you will need to create a tunnel. This is important because there is a certain amount of ambient light that reflects off the curved glass, and there is also the problem of your camera getting too close to the lense and taking a photo of the inside of the camera itself. You need to experiment with how long a tunnel you will need for your camera to avoid both of these problems.
I have seen fair few cardboard tunnels which look fantastic, but I wanted something that would be flexible and that I could fold and shove in a bag or drawer when I wasn’t using it so I made one from felt.
It has a strip of self-adhesive velcro to wrap around the camera and close it up tight. My Duaflex has lots of pins, screws and protrusions so I took some tailors chalk and rubbed on the outside of the felt to find the shapes and then cut them slightly smaller with some pointy-ended scissors. This helps the cover to fit and stay where it should without slipping.
There is still a slight problem of light coming in above the front lense, so I made wide elastic band to hold the tunnel flat and reduce the light further.
It works a treat and has the added ability of being able to be wrapped around your digital camera if there is any light sneaking in at the top.
Last night a friend and I wandered down Elwood beach and tried it out.
The only problem with the felt is that it gives off fibres, which to me is not a problem, especially as I’m regretting the cleaning idiocy….
So loving this new adventure, and looking forward to painting some of the results. Wheee! 🙂
love!!
i’ve been meaning to comment on your post from yesterday but hadn’t quite got there yet… so pleased that you are loving this, and it’s nice to inspire someone who inspired me so much a while back with her post on ‘personal colours’.
Did you see the tunnel made out of neoprene? I can’t remember where I saw it, but it was made out of the sleeve of a thrifted child size wetsuit. It wouldn’t be able to re-grub your viewfinder though… oh, and on the topic of your duaflex, can I ask where you got it from?
cheers, Jo x
Hi Jo!
Chapel St Bazaar – though it was the only one there…..
those photos are beautiful. i love the silvery light in the first one. grerat job on the felt thingy too, looks very smart.
Wonderful images! Amazing…
this looks soooo cool! and such fun.
loving your images.