So, as would seem natural, i arrive in BC and what's the first thing zeebo and i do? figure out how to build shit we can't afford. i would so happily spend the $2600 on a real nice piece of tilt/shifty goodness, but that doesn;t really fit into the starving artist budget (feel free to sponsor me and send one over!). ever since i got my hands on one (and shot these...) i have been in love whit the tilt/shift effect for portrait photography. after attempting freelensing to various levels of success (photos coming soon) , i looked into it and fond a really great resource for building you own tilt/shift lenses. i should say that these really focus on the tilt and not the shift, seeing as we aren't building in the plates to shift properly. whatever, the shift is the fun part anyway. and i saved $2580.... warning, this will be a long blog post, so get in it for the long haul! i should also say, these are all versions of the bendycam feature on this site. 

Materials. 

Bicycle inner tube, cheap old lenses, zip ties, body cap. tools needed are a small screwdriver set, scissors and an xacto knife. 

Step 1 - take apart your lens and drill a whole in the body cap.

i tried three different lenses (well 4 but the last one was crap so didnt use it ever). in the picture above, the two outer lenses have been completed stripped of all non glass related casing. the center one allowed me to just take off the back and keep everything else attached. it is important to get a smaller back end (heh.) so that the inner tube will fit around. each lens is different, so we just started taking outscrews and pulling apart as much as we could. as far as the body cap goes, we took out as much as we could to give ourselves a good amount of space to line the lens up. if you don't know how to take apart a lens (as i didn't) , you're just gonna have to dive in a try it out (or ask someone i suppose. each lens is different, so we just started taking out screws and pulling apart as much as we could. if you don't know what you are doing, you're just gonna have to dive in a try it out (or ask someone i suppose). if you go too far, you'll endup with this....

which is a pain. puttin a shutter back in place = frusterating 30 minutes. if you can avoid it, do. ideally, you will get one of these two:

easy! and depending on the lens, you may retain control of the aperture (the little fork thing...). 

Step 2 - Cut your tube and attach it to the body cap. 

stretch the tube aroudn the body cap and attach a zip tie. you wanna make sure you cutt of all excess tube from behind the tie so that the cap will still screw in place. 

Step 3 - attach the lens and screw that shit on! 

just pull the other end of the inner tube over the back of your lens. zip tie it in place if you want it to be secure (i didn't at first cause i was trying out a couple different options)

i know i know, insert phallic reference here... unfortunate looking, but fun none the less (i know, i know)... So this is as far in the turorial as i got, and is also where i learned some shit. lenses are configured to be a certain distance from the sensor, and the farther you pull them away, the more macro the focus gets. which is cool, and abnoxious. the set up in the pictures above as are actually completely useless for anything other than macro. the way t get around this is to pull the lens back in towards the sensor. one of the lenses i bought actually ended up being signifigantly larger (and sharper) than the others. it was a haiou 64, which means nothing to me except that it was $10 at a pawn shop. the good thing abotu it being larger? it fits almost perfect, with one layer of tubing, into the whole cut out the body cap, which gets it nice and close to the sensor. warning: do this at your own risk, the closer you get in there the more chance you have of hitting the mirror when it flip (which i did a couple time) and it in no way is a safe thing to do to you camera. i'm gonna assume that if your into this stuff you're gonna say fuck it, but you were warned.

i'm going to attempt to figure out a way to make it stay there, as it isnt the most secure thing in the world, but the proof is in the pudding right? so here's the pudding, taken with all three lenses: 

So there you have it! there are varying levels of grain and sharpness happening, from both the cheapness of the lenses and the low light conditions, but there it is. some more real wordly applications, including a video of the focal effects below. oh, and all told, i spent $40 on 4 lenses, $6 or $7 on each body cap and had the inner tube and zip ties already. $17 a lens! how can you go wrong. 

Sorry, fellow iphone users, blip.tv wont convert my file properly, so the iphone video isn't available yet.

 

 

www.maxwellander.ca is now iphone friendly! i say iphone friendly, but really it's almost at web app status. i had a bunch of fun learning little code snippets (because i do not code!) to add some fun little features in there - aka the address bar dissapearing and the icon for when you save to home screen, which i would encourage all of you iphone users out there to do! if for no other reason then i just think it's a cool icon. i would really appreciate feedback, and if you find any errors, please let me know. i'm actually a little shocked (just to get a little geeky here) that no one has figured out a workable way to make joomla sites iphone compatible, or rather a pretty option. i spent a good number of days working through and testing out a bunch of the options and at the end just decided to cave and build a completely different site (shameless plug: yes, that does mean i can make you an iphone/iphone friendly site). i modified a Rockettheme free template (called afterburner) and if anyone is really interested, i have no issue sharing, just email me.

For now, go play! navigate to www.maxwellander.ca on your iphone, or if you really want the direct url (although i can't imagine why) it's iphone.maxwellander.ca

Also, if anyone has access to other smartphones and can tell me how it looks, that would be awesome!

 

 

Exciting news! This month (as of yesterday) the blindfold shoot i did with Jiz Lee will be featured as a part of Jiz's Karma Pervs initiative. explanation - each month Jiz offers up a new photo set that is paired with a specific organization, you pay a fee (and yes, there is a range of options) to gain access to the shoot and the money goes to the paired organization. dirty dirty fundraising. so this month is my blindfold shoot of Jiz in support of Femina Potens. when we did the shoot we both knew we wanted it to be a part of karma pervs but had not been able to figure out what organization would fit with the project. i am so happy that Jiz thought of Femina Potens, it's a perfect pairing if you ask me. a little more about the whole deal below. 

from jiz:
"When I was nominated for 2010 AVN Awards “Best New Web Star”, I realized that there was an incredible opportunity to use this new visibility to support some amazing organizations — and at the same time, provide me with a project where I could work with my favorite photographers and have fun getting my creative juices flowing!

Each month, I’ll post a new exclusive photo set with images taken by exciting photographers and visual artists. Every month, the proceeds raised will be donated to a different non-profit organization in my community. Each set has approximately 50 photographs, a private blog post, surprise extras, and an archive of each organization and how much was raised."

About Femina Potens:
Femina Potens, which means “powerful woman” in Latin, conducts multidisciplinary programs that authentically explore the experiences of women, transgendered persons and others living outside the female-male gender binary. Our year-round visual arts exhibitions, media arts events, public arts projects, performances and educational programs explore a wide range of LGBT community issues relevant to the audiences we serve which include queers, women, feminists ,trans, genderqueer, genderfluid,intersex, kink community, sex worker community, sex positive community, partners and allies.

So, head on over to the Karma Pervs site, sign up, see some photos, support us, and feel good about yourself. serisouly, do it. 

Oh, also, this is the only place that you will get to see 50 of the shots. a maximum of 2 will be involved in my usage for the project, so it really is a special opportunity. and in case you needed even more incentive, you could win prizes (i might even throw something into the pot...) 

 

Remember when i did that sped up post processing video a while back? well i decided to do another one. i had an amazing shoot last wednesday and felt like it was a great excuse to do another one. thanks to the whole crew of folks who made this one a possibility. there were two other photographers and i (dirtysurface and kk) as well as our fabulous models Drew Deveaux, Jimmeh and Nomi. BIG BIG THANKS to kk for showing up to a shoot of a photographer who you barely knew and assisting the hell out of it!

but enough of that, get to the goods right? here: 

 

and the before and after pics:

 

 To see more from this shoot, head over to my flickr. they'll be up here someday, but there will be more there anyway.