Copy Stand

Found space to set up my Reflecta copy stand at last.

I last tried it when using digital for the first time and found the camera did not like the link up with the Aico tubes because they only had 5 contact points.
Since then I purchased a Kenko tube that has the required 8 contacts. So happy with that and the ease of working that I managed to buy a set of 3 to add to it.
Foolishly I had forgotten about the Aico tubes and sweated a bit trying to use them with my Sony A55. When the penny dropped I hiked out the Kenko's from my bag and got full control back.

Took the pics of the "Buffalo nickel" using only two of them.

Looks complicated but works easily; as the JPG shows I am using energy saving bulbs for longer life and less heat. Using a BPM sliding mount for simple control of focussing.

I only wish that BPM were still active in the camera  world.

I am sure that by now they would have bellows that would work with full control for Sony cameras and lenses; after all Praktica managed to do that with their B200. That was well over 25 years ago too. What has happened to innovation? 

Praktica did it by running wires through the bellows to the contacts points at each end. True they had but 3 contacts but it only requires an adjustment to a standard bellows set with a Sony bayonet fitting, Could be done for all fittings too if it came to that. Cost in China? Paltry; but it would be a sure thing for the firm that manufacted the bellows.

I have just purchased a fitting that is Chinese manufactured for around half of the price of the original Minolta bellows attachment. It gave perfect control of focussing that assisted in the photo of the Leopold 1861 coin. I could creep the camera up or down until there was a flicker of the green "in-focus" light and then use the auto-focus built into the camera. At f36 and 1/4 second exposure I had perfect control over the manoeuvre all the way.

This post is dedicated to Rudyard Kipling

Who wrote the poem - - - Oh why are my Gods afflicting Me?

I am sorely tempted to pray to the Gods that he wrote of, who are afflicting me at present..

When sorting out old files and getting rid of outdated but hoarded ‘rubbish’ that was kept back “In case it came in handy” with the help of one of my neighbours;. what should turn up?

Hiding itself away was a box containing at least 200 colour slides (and maybe even more) that had been carefully put by and covered over during the years.

Some (after a very quick glimpse) are of archaeological digs that were done at least 45 years ago and maybe even earlier.

These treasures will have to be scanned and saved electronically.

It seems that each time I say to myself, “Thank the Lord that is the last” within a week or so another batch appears. 

Now can I respecfully ask:---

My Gods PLEASE stop afflicting me 

Discovered today that one of my Photo and Poem pages in Flickr has had over 2,700 views.
Makes me feel it is worth writing and matching with pix.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/60892750@N00/10455886993/in/photolist-gVVJtC-pxJLwd-phdfX8-5KHH2o-phcmaf-gVX9VF-oecXf-h1Mzm5-gZp9eG-dhss4r-dhssir-dhsrNs-3yNqSz-45zSCo-rrkmY-78nKrA-3jBiJJ-3jwSKn-qQXyW-9LMFZa/

Now it is cover number 10

Who would have thought it. Cover picture number 10 has been used for a Russian edition on Kindle. 
Nunney Castle and moat set as a square picture.

Checking idly on Morguefile and wondered what some of the downloads had been used for.

I wonder what nexr?

Found another batch of Negatives.

It seems that every time I say "Thank the Lord that's the last" I turn up another few negatives from my film days.

This time from around the 1989's just after I retired.

It was from a visit to Exmoor in the days of my Volkswagen Golf. 

A trip when we walked down Hoaroak Water to the junction with Farley Water at Watersmeet.

Must have been pre 1994 I think.

Also found some Ilford XP1 negatives shots that I had taken from a visit to the South Molton area. 

I managed to get some pix of the rough track road from High Bray down to the main road to Brayford that we had tackled back in the days when i was on the Milk Round..

I can still remember the look on the face of Len Hurley when we got to the end of the track and on to a relatively safer lane at the end. I was on the trusty B31 with Nigel Langson on the back and Len was on his precious Triumph Boni. I must admit I was a little worried. But I reckon Len was horrified. 

I couldn't walk up to the really bad section at the time of my return because it was a mile or so up the track.

But just imagine a surface like this but with a few deep rain gullies in it and you will get the idea of what it was like.

Even the B31 with the extra weight of Nigel on the back bumped a couple of times.
I think when we got to the bottom 

Len checked his silencers for bumps but they seemed to pass OK.

There was no way we could have called it off because the B31 would not have pulled back up the 3 in 1 to 4 in 1 gradient with a pillion passenger. I had discovered that previously on Porlock Hill when i got stuck behind a foolish car driver who had not changed down to negotiate the hairpin. 

Can I NOW say "Thank God that is the lot?"