I am on a budget and many times must "make do" when I cannot afford a new piece of equipment.  I am looking for the kind folks here to show me how you also "make do" by improvising and constructing equipment you cannot afford or need right away.

 

To start things off here is a home made slave flash trigger circuit I made in the 80's and encased in a piece of screwdriver handle plastic.  The small Vivitar flash has hook and loop material like velcro in several places to allow the slave trigger to attach there as it also has hook and loop material on it.  In this shot the slave triggers the flash when the camera flash goes off to eliminate the shadow cast by the flash on the background, a recently painted bathroom door on sawhorses.

The circuit is a Light Activated Silicon Controlled Rectifier and a 1,000 Ohm resistor.

Free men do not ask permission to bear arms!!

 

My first one is a light table or copy stand that may be a bit different from some. Pardon the photos because I didn't have enough time to haul it upstairs into better light. The table is a translucent diffusing white plastic piece which can slide out for cleaning. The top two lights can be swiveled over quite a range but the entire upper supports can be moved towards the tripod or away from it. The bottom lights are on a dimmer control and are adjusted to just get rid of shadows. The tripod is mounted tight against the box but the third leg (which would be coming out towards the viewer) has been removed. The head moves up at an angle which is compensated for by my custom shaped maple interface which I can show in another photo. When used near a window it has been quite effective. I used it mainly for close-up shots of electronic components for my books.

 

Here is a shot of the maple piece which compensates for the angle by which the head rises when the tripod crank is raised.

 

Another very necessary part was this thumbwheel that I had to make for my trusty video tripod which I knocked over at a wedding last year. Somehow the tripod managed to land squarely on the plastic of the original thumbwheel and it shattered like a celery stick dipped in liquid nitrogen. I found out later that all three thumbwheels on this tripod are slightly different and not interchangable.

 

My last contribution is an easel for photographing artwork. It will allow just about any framed art piece to be clamped between the two horizontal pieces, and at a variety of heights. In the photo I have an Ikea cork board mounted and I generally rest artwork on several small pins, some of which can be seen. A box of pins sits on the top right.

That thing on the upper left is just a bag of the bird feathers that I have been able to collect. I built this to photograph my mother's art that I sold after she passed away and I have found it to be quite handy since then. Note that this easel is very light construction and is fine for photography but if you want an easel for painting it would need to be a bit more sturdy than this. Pardon the floor as I am converting this room into a photo studio and the new floor is not yet installed

Thanks and three cheers whaleman.  This is exactly the kind of stuff I like to see.

Free men do not ask permission to bear arms!!

wow.

creative guys. improvisation always helps. doing things helps in getting the best of any situations.