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We live on a 640-acre ranch in the high desert, in Big Valley, California.
We decided to lay down a new gravel floor in our crude 1930s garage. The gravel is often called "Cinders", and is actually pumice from a long-past volcanic eruption.
All of the "stuff" on the floor/ground needed to be moved out or over to make way. Now that this side is done, back over we'll go with some of the stuff, and out with the rest to prepare for the second half to be graveled.
This image was made with my Rokinon 8mm f/3.5 fisheye lens at f/5.6, mounted on my Nikon D600 DSLR. ISO100.
The yellow light in the rafters came from my Nikon SB-600 Speedlite with a knock-off Sto-Fen CTO in place (Not sure if 1/2 or full).
I had the rig on a tripod, and shot 4 or 5 frames at 3-stop intervals, then combined in Photomatix, and tweaked with Nikon Capture NX-D beta.
This large and ancient metal lathe is located in Lookout, California, in Lassen County, Big Valley. This is in the boonies of Northern CA.
The label reads:
The Muller Lathe
Built by
The Bradford Mill Co.
Cincinatti, Ohio
USA
The size is as follows, roughly measured:
Swing over bed: 20"
Swing over carriage: unknown
Four-jaw chuck diameter: 18"
Bed length: 12 feet
Bed width, center to center across the outer two ways: 16”
Maximum workpiece length, center to center: 8 feet
It may have been built in the 1886-1901 era, from what I've learned so far.
It is owned by a fine older gentleman named Willie. He owns a LARGE property full of old tractors, cars, trucks, bulldozers and vehicles of varied and sundry description. My girlfriend Zoe bought a 1955 Carpenter (1954 GMC based) school bus from him, and he towed it the 17 miles to our Ranch with his old tractor on public roads:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=vihuX5mIFSA
Photos of the bus can be seen in another set of mine:
www.flickr.com/photos/darronb/sets/72157635098965316/
Willie also renovates and runs old steam engines. His tools are basic and in, umm, often less than pretty condition.
I believe he told me that despite its condition, having been outside for many years, this lathe was still in occasional use, wonder of wonders. I expect that it could be restored to its former glory by a man willing and able to put a LOT of time and/or money into it. I plan to list it for sale soon, online. If nothing else, it makes a magnificent lawn ornament.
Almost all of the images in this set were 3-exp HDRs, processed with Photomatix. The camera was a Nikon D50.
More info on Bradford lathes:
The current owner Willie Shepherd, who is well into his eighties, originally traded two sacks of potatoes for this sweet (at the time) ride.
Noisy!
$25 eBay lens, diaphragm stuck wide open.
Many of the fainter "stars" in this image are just hot pixels and quantum noise.
Check out the previous image in my photostream for a stacked, low noise version of this starfield.
Nikon D600 DSLR on tripod
Vivitar 135mm f/2.8 manual focus F-mount lens, set to infinity stop and shot wide open.
ISO 12,800 and 2 second exposure to minimize star trailing while capturing some fainter stars.
Shot in Big Valley, California, on a concrete slab next to our largest hot tub. Big Valley has dark skies, and plays host to the Golden State Star Party (GSSP) each year, about three miles from our Ranch.
Golden State Star Party:
My old M101 military trailer, currently being used as a scrap metal container.
This photo was made with my old Nikkor-S 50mm f/1.4 lens. It was made in 1972 or 1973. It is quite scratched, dusty and maybe even has a little fungus growing, along with damaged coatings.
Nonetheless, it is fun to play with. I performed a crude AI-modification to the aperture ring (I used a file). The lens now works perfectly with my Nikon D600 (full metering and focus confirmation).
This image was NOT created with a dark ND filter, rather by stacking multiple exposures together using the "Average" function of Markus Enzweiler's excellent program StarStaX, which can be downloaded for free here:
www.markus-enzweiler.de/software/software.html
The preceding image was a single frame from the stack, so you can see the difference.
Take out a U.S. $20 bill, and have a look at the "gold" 20 lettering at the lower right corner. This image was framed right in the middle of the 2 and the 0, so you can see the gap in the 2 at the left, and some of the wavy lines in the 0 at the right.
I used a 10X microscope lens mounted to my old Nikon D50 DSLR via a series of adapters. As you'll notice, depth of field at 10X is VERY shallow. This is an unavoidable law of physics, so better equipment can't do much. I calculated the DOF with my setup to be around 16.8 micrometers. A micrometer is 1/1,000 of a millimeter, so that's only .0168 millimeters, or 0.00066 inches! (less than a thousandth of an inch).
There is a process called "focus stacking" that can combine images taken at several subject distances into one seamless image with much greater depth of field. That will have to come later for me, as stacking at 10X requires a VERY demanding studio setup and close attention to detail. For example, I would need a way to accurately and consistently move my subject less than a thousandth of an inch for each exposure, and do this perhaps dozens or even HUNDREDS of times for ONE final photograph.
The fine green lines seen here in the background may not be visible on a bill held in front of you, unless you have exceptional vision, strong reading glasses or a good loupe.
This is a full-frame (uncropped) image.
This is a shop-made "Beauty Dish" light modifier. To build it, I bought a $6.00 20" woven-bamboo salad bowl at Resco, a restaurant supply house in Reno, Nevada.
I cut a rectangular hole for the Speedlight's nose to poke through. I drilled two holes to attach an L-bracket to the back of the dish, below the rectangular hole. A plastic rail from a cheap light stand umbrella adapter is screwed down to the L-bracket, allowing the Nikon SB600 Speedlight to sit at just the right height to poke through the center hole.
The baffle in the center of the dish is a plastic ceiling box cover, obtained for free from the Reno Habitat For Humanity store. The baffle stands off of the dish about 4 inches, held there by two #6 machine screws. The stand-off distance is adjustable, and I found that all the way out from the dish worked best.
I painted the baffle and the inside of the dish with flat white spray paint, purchased from Walmart for $.96US per can (cheap!). I will probably paint the outside flat black at some point, but that is strictly a cosmetic measure. You can see the woven bamboo pattern under the paint, but it doesn't significantly affect the reflected light pattern.
I made a handle from an aluminum bicycle seatpost, which is attached to the L-bracket with the same screw that retains the plastic hotshoe mounting rail. This allows the rig to be easily hand-held for macro and other no-assistant-needed shots. I use Nikon's CLS system to allow full TTL exposure with no wires required. Works very well!
I'll post additional photos of the details in a day or two.
I found that the most even coverage of the dish was obtained when the flip-down "14mm" diffuser over the flash reflector was deployed.
The SB600 was set to 1/64 power here, and f/16 at ISO100 on the camera.
This large and ancient metal lathe is located in Lookout, California, in Lassen County, Big Valley.
This is in the boonies of Northern CA.
The label reads:
The Hendey Machine Co. Torrington Conn. U.S.A.
The size is as follows:
Swing over bed: 18"
Swing over carriage: unknown
Chuck diameter: unknown
Bed length: 10 feet
It may have been built in the 1905-1920 era, from what I've learned so far.
It has a full feed/threading gearbox.
It is equipped with at least parts of a taper attachment.
The original drive, which may have been a lineshaft or an electric motor is long gone. In its place, a modern 1HP motor with an unknown number of poles drives the conehead through a three-speed automotive transmission and a flat belt to the spindle cone. The owner says the motor will start the spindle in anything but highest gear.
It is owned by a fine older gentleman named Willie. He owns a LARGE property full of old tractors, cars, trucks, bulldozers and vehicles of varied and sundry description.
This lathe was still in occasional use. I expect that it could be restored to its former glory by a man willing and able to put a LOT of time and/or money into it. I plan to buy it some day, assuming Willie gets tired of it at some point.
More info on Hendey lathes:
The current owner Willie Shepherd, who is well into his eighties, originally traded two sacks of potatoes for this sweet (at the time) ride.
The items on the driver's seat appears to be a powder horn.
Three-exposure tone-mapped HDR (EV0, EV-2, EV+2).
Image was made in my photo tent, with front flap installed.
I have a 5000k (daylight) 55-watt compact fluorescent bulb in a metal reflector on each side, positioned quite close to the photo tent. That's 55 actual watts, not watts equiv. They're comparable to something like a 240 watt incandescent bulb.
I use a white card in the tent to take a white balance reading, and use that preset value for all shots made in the tent. Colors are always right on this way.
As long as you don't mind using a tripod, you don't really need flashes to do a good job with product photography.
This large and ancient metal lathe is located in Lookout, California, in Lassen County, Big Valley.
This is in the boonies of Northern CA.
The label reads:
The Hendey Machine Co. Torrington Conn. U.S.A.
The size is as follows:
Swing over bed: 18"
Swing over carriage: unknown
Chuck diameter: unknown
Bed length: 10 feet
It may have been built in the 1905-1920 era, from what I've learned so far.
It has a full feed/threading gearbox.
It is equipped with at least parts of a taper attachment.
The original drive, which may have been a lineshaft or an electric motor is long gone. In its place, a modern 1HP motor with an unknown number of poles drives the conehead through a three-speed automotive transmission and a flat belt to the spindle cone. The owner says the motor will start the spindle in anything but highest gear.
It is owned by a fine older gentleman named Willie. He owns a LARGE property full of old tractors, cars, trucks, bulldozers and vehicles of varied and sundry description.
This lathe was still in occasional use. I expect that it could be restored to its former glory by a man willing and able to put a LOT of time and/or money into it. I plan to buy it some day, assuming Willie gets tired of it at some point.
More info on Hendey lathes:
The Mean Green Machine spends its last day with me.
Seven-exposure HDR. Natural light from windows- no artificial light on subject.
March, 2006, and the still-defunct Clausing was reduced to life as a junk accumulator. It now "rests in pieces", hopefully due for a resurrection by Easter, 2012...
Highly processed single-exposure pseudo-HDR image.
Taken with my new cheapo Rokinon 8mm fisheye lens, mounted on my Nikon D600. This is the earlier non-CPU version of the lens (model FE8M-N), but my D600 handles this well, giving full metering when the camera is set to know the parameters of the mounted lens.
As you can see, the lens is intended to cover the much smaller DX "crop sensor". The lens hood obstructs much of the image circle when projected onto the FX (36x24mm) sensor.
The hood is permanently attached, so it will require some brutal measures to free it. Once removed, the circle cast on my sensor will reside within the rainbow ring here. MUCH more usable area. You can see the inside of the lens hood (circular grooves around the image).
Grotesquely post-processed by Photomatix, this weirdness is not a product of this particular lens.
The current owner Willie Shepherd, who is well into his eighties, originally traded two sacks of potatoes for this sweet (at the time) ride.
This photo was made with a Phoenix MZ-5000 650mm-1300mm f/8-f/16 T-mount lens on a Nikon D600.
The lens was made by Samyang in Korea, and is sold under many brand names, such as:
Bower, Falcon, Opteka, Phoenix, Polar, Pro-Optic, Vivitar, Walimex and Rokinon
Rokinon 8mm fisheye lens, intended for use on crop sensor DSLR cameras.
I shaved off the original built-in lens hood to allow this wider field of view.
The camera was a Nikon D600, placed on top of a 4' tall tree stump, facing straight up at zenith.
Exposure time was 30 seconds at f/5.6 and ISO400
This photo was made with my old Nikkor-S 50mm f/1.4 lens. It was made in 1972 or 1973. It is quite scratched, dusty and maybe even has a little fungus growing, along with damaged coatings.
Nonetheless, it is fun to play with. I performed a crude AI-modification to the aperture ring (I used a file). The lens now works perfectly with my Nikon D600 (full metering and focus confirmation).
This is my Kearney & Trecker horizontal milling machine. It was made during World War II, and was presumably used to produce parts for the war effort.
It has been sitting in my yard for quite a few years, and is missing some parts, some of which were sold to bring new life to other old K&T mills.
It will soon be scrapped, but hopefully not until I have a chance to remove and save some of the smaller parts from this aging derelict.
It weighs about 4,000 pounds, and is considered a baby of its type.
Five-exposure HDR.