tim ousley

*Start with a hardwood 1x2, I used oak.

 

*Cut two pieces about 6 inches long.

 

*Trace out about 1/3 of a circle on each piece. On my lens, the dust cover was the same diameter as the place for the tripod collar, so I used it as a pattern.

 

*Drill a hole for the tripod screw, and insert a brass wood screw holder. I don't know the name of this item, but it has screw threads on the outside to hold it into the wood, and on the inside to allow a machine screw to screw in. Tripods appear to use 1/4", 20 grooves/inch screws.

 

*Drill two more holes in each board for the 3" machine screws. Put a wood screw holder in each of these two new holes in the bottom piece.

 

*You may need to sand down the thickness of the boards slightly. The 1x2s I used needed to be slightly thinner than 1 inch thick, so I sanded about 1/16 inch off.

 

Things to be careful of:

 

*If the boards are too long, they may interfere with the camera's controls

 

*If the boards are too tall, they may interfere with the camera's built in flash.

 

Conclusions:

 

If I paid $150 for an all metal tripod collar, this would be a dissappointment, however for less than $10 in parts and some time this one works very, very well. This one grips the lens exactly, there is no wobble, nor is there any extra pressure on the lens. It is a perfect fit, and certainly much better than mounting the camera on a tripod.

 

I think the key was sanding the boards down to exactly the right thickness.

I like it. But wish there was a little more color. Maybe by waiting a few days so the plants can grow a little bit. Nice.

I like the saturated colors and repetition with subtle differences. This is my favorite picture of your portfolio (so far :-)

 

If you have a chance to take this picture again on a cloudy day with softer light, you may be able to keep the saturated reds and yellows, but darken the white columns and trim so that they are in the range of your film and scanner.

In addition to the the perfect lighting and composition of a difficult subject, the three birds have tons of expression and personality. This is really a fantastic photo. Excellent.

This sheep rancher near Akaroa leads a small conservation effort to keep a rare penguin species alive. The blue flippered penguin only nests at two sites, and one of them is on his ranch.

 

Normally these penguins nest in burrows on the side of this hill. The rancher, Francis Helps, added these wooden boxes as artificial burrows and checks on each nesting pair every 3 days.

 

If you hike the Banks Peninsula track, you will see these penguins at the second hut--Flea Bay Cottage (after the first full day of hiking). The rancher lives just down the trail 1/2 mi. and gives a tour most evenings for a small donation.

 

Unfortunately for photo.net, blue flippered penguins aren't the most colorful and were pretty scared of people so I didn't try to get a picture of one:

http://www.bankstrack.co.nz/pic5a.jpg

 

Until recently the blue flippered penguin was classified together with another penguin in the same species, Francis explained that blue flippered penguins will be updated to "species" status very soon.

 

Random knowledge: Both parents take turns raising the single offspring. They feed it until it is almost as big as the parents, before they all go out to sea. Their predators are feral cats, dogs, rats, and possums. We saw some penguins in the water and they looked a lot like ducks from a distance. They were pretty wary of people, so we didn't try to get too close except when the rancher opened up a box to show us.

heavy clouds.

This was shot at 28mm, but I think the fall off is from the cloud formation above and dark foreground objects below instead of the lens. DOF was narrower than I wanted because this was handheld in dim light.

 

Unfortunately I only had one shot to get this picture before my batteries died.

Title is quite appropriate. Very funny. I'm sure the driver appreciated your photo habit at the time.

 

After looking at your galleries, I'm really impressed. Your photos are humorous and funny. Thanks for sharing them.

Well this picture certainly bursts with joy. If I hung this on my wall, I'd never be gloomy again.

This simple, but excellent photo reminds me of

this one. Beautiful.

Fantastic! I like the way that the wall and gate frame the rest of the building. I like the subtle repetition of the stairstepping. I like the simple, almost symmetric composition. The sky is almost unreal, and the muted colors really work well with this building. Simple but sooo good.

This is a beautiful image. Well composed with incredible light. Enough is going on that it stays interesting, but it is arranged well so that it doesn't look cluttered, or busy. It is also impressive that you moved the boat in photoshop. I can't see any traces of editing.

 

I only wish that it could be bigger to show more detail. Great picture, thanks for sharing it.

I like the curves. I like the color. I like the shadow on the umbrella. Very well done. It looks abstract to me.

The warmth of the fire offsets the cool colors in the rest of the picture. Well done.

I actually like this crop quite a bit. The rock and the road add a lot by framing the bridge, in my opinion.

 

Rich, you are fantastic at nailing these night exposures. Not just this picture, but several of your other night pictures are all excellent. How do you meter these exposures?

This was a quick snapshot, let me know what you think...

There was a lizard or spider in the case that this kid was fairly

interested in.

The fence in the foreground really sets this image apart from most other ruins pictures. It adds to the foreground and helps frame the center. It also adds to the sense of time in the picture. It is an excellent picture. I wish I could shoot like that.

The leaves in the upper left add a lot to this image. I also like the hint of detail in the lower left-- enough to anchor the image but not enough to distract from the bridge.

This is certainly one of your best portraits. The blanket makes the girl and the picture seem real. It's looks so personal, it could be someone's home. But the bride's dress shows how big of a day it is. The girl herself is beautiful and her eyes glow, not an empty stare but filled with thought. You did many technical things right too: lighting, composition (I like the lamp), all excellent. This picture is so personal.

This would be a good photo of just the city, but the WTC memorial really sets it apart.

I too am new at this, but here are my observations. Flash is difficult to use so I usually leave it off. Natural light from a window can work very well though. That's what happened here. Also, a front pose (the passport look) doesn't seem to work as well as turning the subject slightly to one side or the other. Just some thoughts.

I like the perspective. I also looked at your other cat photos at your web site. You do a great job finding interesting viewpoints. In most of the pictures, your camera must have been only one or two inches off the ground. As a result, none of your cat pictures look stale.

I like that so much is hidden. It really draws attention to the pilot, as well as setting it apart from other fighter pictures. Of course, the red sunset really helps out a lot too. You consistently do interesting aircraft at sunset pictures.

I haven't seen a skyline from that perspective before. Its an interesting idea and quite well executed.

I like Barry's crop. The dead brown folaige is better cropped out. Although I still like symmetry in the original.