May 9th, 2008

Desert Sage, Photography

Project 365, Day 35: DIY High-Speed Flash


Inside a Disposable Camera, originally uploaded by Here Be Dragons.

Today, instead of going out birding as I'd originally planned, I decided to stay in and build my own high-speed flash unit (with this kit). I knew it would push me a bit out of my comfort zone, in terms of DIY. Not only would I have to solder (which is no biggie; I've done a lot of work with stained glass, which involves a lot of soldering; this is the first time I've done any electrical wiring, though), but more than that, I would have to use a drill (and power tools scare me. Seriously. Almost to the point of a phobia). Still, I wanted this flash unit, and I wanted to build it without any help.

So, that's what I did.

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Since I decided to post one of these photos as my 365 today, I went back and edited my eariler entry to add the shot of Connor and his crazy hair. So, if you missed that, you might want to go back and have a look. :)

Desert Sage, Photography

OMG SO CUTE!

Just about every day, I see one of our local ground squirrels climb up on my back fence, and sit there, perched (probably on look-out duty while the others forage for food). I just looked outside . . .

And today there are TWO of them up there! And they had their tails crossed in a way that reminded me of holding hands. OMG THEY ARE SO CUTE! And, of course, my camera is set up in the bathroom for high-speed photography . . . I'm going to try and get some pictures anyway.

*runs to grab camera*

ARGH! They're too smart for me! They can see me walking around in the dining room. One of them ran away before I'd even set up the camera. I did get some photos of the other one, who was first hanging out in one of my empty terra cotta pots. The photos are fairly crap, though, since I took them with my small lens, and through a window. Still, I the squirrel is cute enough anyway for me to post this one photo:

Backyard Squirrel!

I think what I need to do for the future is set up the camera ahead of time, so I can sneak over and just snap the picture. Yeah. That sounds like a good plan for a day when I'm not doing other things with the camera.