Home made Holga-esque fixed lens for my Canon EoS XTi

One fine day while browsing through Flickr, I saw a few photos taken by holga toy cameras. Thank god for tagging. The results were impressive. I loved the pictures that come out of those. So I started reading about it and about lomography… So I decided I wanted one! But I don’t have the $$ to spend for one, although for many, 30$ is not too much, for me it is…

The next best thing: Search the internet for DIY’s of the same! I did, and found that many many people have tried this out, only, with a ready holga lens.

Now I was stuck… I have everything else, but a holga lens.

Do the next most logical thing was to search what a holga lens comprised of. So, I found that a holga lens was actually a cheap plastic meniscus lens with a focal length of approx 60 mm.

Meniscus lens: BANG! There was the answer. Wiki displayed what a meniscus lens looked like, and I realised I had one at home! A few months ago on a boring December afternoon, I had taken apart my fish eye lens to see what goes into making it, and so, remembered that that had something resembling a meniscus lens.

So, The first trials with distance et all… But it just wouldn’t work! I had almost given up on it, and decided to work after a few weeks on it again. I realised I was using the wrong lens out of the three in the door viewer fisheye. And I switched over to the other lens… massive leap of faith!

There I was… back to square one! But, now…with a realistically realisable idea… I started believing I could do this without any previously done experiments by others, that I could create an indigenous lens, which, although, might not work like a holga, but could function as an alternate lens which could help me get some wacky and kickass pictures like never taken through my camera before!

Step I:

How I made the BASIC HOLD for the piece of glass that would become the lens:

There is this plastic spacer in the door viewer that had a broad head that takes the bigger lenses of the door viewer. I just chopped it off. Took the glass, and glued many layers of black paper to it to make it snugly fit that head. Viola! I have a meniscus lens setup just waiting to be attached to a piece of mount board.

The initial experiments were tricky ones, just holding the makeshift, half-baked mount in front of the body… an open invitation to a camera sensor’s enemy… DUST! I had to make a mount… otherwise, my camera would give away very soon, and that would spell disaster. So… Step II

STEP II:

MAKING THE MOUNT! :

I took the body cap of my canon which never gets used, and started drilling it in order to get a big hole in it. I would not advice anyone to make a very big hole, the way I did, But I did it consciously to see what really happens if I did. And I always have lots of paper and stuff to cover it with. Having an engineer at home helps… I borrowed my grandfather’s manual driller and other tools and got drilling!

Hence, the big hole in the lens cap. Using power tools would be easier and less taxing physically, because drilling the body cap is hard work. It’s really a tough nut to crack.

So, the next step would be to fix the lens to the Mount… which is best explained with the cross section of the lens.

The only precaution: The lens must be black from inside. You don’t want light bouncing off from within the lens…

The result is not exactly a holga, but a similar fixed lens. The bellow also gives me flexibility to focus on closer objects, and also acts like a lensbaby.

I am a firm believer in ‘FORM FOLLOWS FUNCTION’ and hence, the lens might not look good, but works like magic!

The distance between the lens and sensor was arrived at with a few experiments with a bellow, and hence I got the correct distance, and therefore the mount board spacers... You could make the lens a fixed one, without the bellow, but make sure the lens is sealed on the spacer, which ideally should be circular.

At nearest to the sensor, the images appear like

If I zoom in, then it looks like:

FEW FACTS:

This lens cost me practically nothing… all the materials I used were bits and pieces of waste stuff you’d expect an architecture student to have.

That’s the whole point of this lens. Making it as cheap as possible...

In this case, I lost my fisheye lens, but that was not something I made myself, so no worry!

This is not a holga lens. I don’t know what to call it though…

Due to the bellow, it can focus on objects nearer to the cam, but in that case, the blurring of the edges is much more apparent.

So GO ahead and try it out if you want to, and do post in your feedback. Maybe, you’ll come up with something better than my lens! Maybe, a real holga like lens!

And I’d be happy to help if anything is needed.

Colour, texture and bokeh

Originally uploaded by DraconianRain

This is shot through my Macro lens attachment. Thats the bokeh of the sun in the background. This has been an interesting experiment to do, since I get an amazing texture to the image. Almost as if it has been painted. The varying strength of appearance of the little dried flowers, the imperfect sun bokeh, the colour... It's just magic.
Since the lens whole macro attachment has 3 lenses, there is this reflective quality, which exposes the picture in layers. It's much more apparent in another pic I took. But I still don't understand the reason for the texture in the background. It just appears magically on my photos shot through my macro attachment against the sun.
The orange background was just pumped up a bit (thanks to photoshop)
I'm learning to use my home made lens attachment a little more liberally ...
Imagine how something so cheap and useless can give an effect like that...

The idea that was...

The idea that was...
Originally uploaded by DraconianRain

Once upon a time in a magical land full of smog and pollution, I bought a little door viewer to use as a cheap fish eye lens attachment.
That experiment was highly successful. Then One day, I bought a bigger, better door viewer, and the old little one was relegated to the confines of one of the countless drawers at my house. One fine day, I had nothing to do, and I found that old little door viewer in some drawer, and I dissected it just to kill time. The parts were assembled again and put back in the drawer.
Then Another fine day, I read about Holga plastic cameras. I read about the camera, the cheap plastic lens, and found that that camera uses a meniscus lens.
Now there is a distinct connection between all the above mentioned days...
I just remembered that the old door viewer had a meniscus lens as you can see above...
So I set about to make a Holga lens. I did a few experiments with the optimum distance and all... then I realised I would need to make a little hole in the Canon's body cap. Now ... I only have a single body cap. I'll need to get some more to be able to make it fully...
I've been thinking too much. My mind is overheating (whatever little there is) so, I'm just going to take a break, have a kit kat, download more music... And resume making the lens in a few weeks time.

So if you could suggest a few places in Pune where I might get body caps for my canon 400 D... I would be very grateful.
And if anyone want to experiment and carry forward this idea... Please do so... And make your own Holga lens...

PS: I don't even know if that thing will work... So make it at your own risk.

The SKY is like the OCEAN... only, DEEPER...

The SKY is like the OCEAN... only, DEEPER...
Originally uploaded by DraconianRain

Was chatting with a friend today, when he told me that as a kid, he looked at the sky and felt it was like an ocean... So, I took a picture and rotated it. And it hit home. That was what the picture was waiting for!
I wish the sky was really a big ocean and I could swim in that, the way I swim in the sea... that would be called flying... Many a times I dream that I'm actually swimming in air! Not floating or gliding ...just swimming... I dream of dinosaurs with fiery dark eyes... Of cold dim places with slopes to roll down upon. I dream of a touch which seems so real, even while my conscience knows me to be dreaming. I dream of the eyes gaze that I always wait for.
As a little girl, I dreamt of trying to be able to run, but my legs felt heavy... made it impossible for me to move. Now, my legs don't feel heavy anymore. I might not run like lightning, but I can run... keeping pace with the others. I dream colours, very distinct sometimes, but only few... Selectively desaturated Dreams, maybe.
I dream of long journeys with long lost friends, those who are still the way I last saw them many years ago, even though, I've grown. I dream of little streets with houses on both sides and hardly any activity. I dream of the earth, the rain, a hut, the love I lost, a seething fire. 3 people by the fire... A happy family. I dream of the desert, Alpines, the moon behind the Deodars... I dream of four friends at the beach at night ... the sand still warm from the day, the sound of the waves crashing at the shore, the sand in my hair ...
I dream of swimming in the deep ocean, and coming face to face with death there... and then there is just darkness...
Are my dreams profound?
Profound... and much more than the ocean...

stop motion doesn't stop here...

Once fine autumn afternoon near about twelve years ago, for the first time, I heard about stop motion animation. Finally, I knew the secret of all the clay figures and the MTv wacky commercials... And I learned how to do it on my own... But I lacked a camera. And 12 years back, owning a camera was not easy... I would have had to make my dad sell off his second hand car for one... But I had ideas that remained.
And being the great Daydreamer that I am, I kept accumulating my dreams, to spend later, when I own a camera of my own.
But I seems to have, somewhere in between... forgotten about that.
Now, 12 years later, when Harshad put up the technique of time lapse photography, it opened the locked memories in my mind, whose keys, I had long since buried in my mind's department of un-feasible ideas. So I had a good cam, tripod and time.... and typical Indian improvisational qualities (that exist by default) .
And viola! I have a little STOP MOTION video of my OWN!
Shot through my canon 400D, and edited in windows Movie maker... I am not a pro, hence...
Also used a very nice piece of music from a fav band of mine: Pearl Jam - An Untitled song denoted by a red dot on my fav album: Yield.
So, I have decided to take out, one by one, keys from my mind's department of un-feasible ideas and open all locks to all doors to all ideas I ever had.
All this includes some failed experiments too .. :P

Experiments in photography...

Invention and Inventor
Originally uploaded by Frozen Photon

I got my camera this July, and I have, since then, Used it, misused it, and abused it. But it holds... inspite of regular abuse. And it's not just this camera... the older ones have suffered an equal amount of physical torture. But they hold... And then again, It's not just my cameras... It's everything thats mine... My camera, computer, my guitar, my telescope, my cell, my watch, my helmet, my clothes, shoes, old stuff, mp3 walkman... well, practically everything.

Hmmm... So on Sunday, Harsh, a flickr friend, who also clicked this picture, suggested I write a blog on my experiments in photography.
I should, and I will... This way, maybe, after I'm gone, someone else can pick up from where I left and continue with all the mad hacks and fun... or maybe, others doing such stuff can connect and form a bigger ghetto of self sustained daydreamers, intellectually challenged and experimenting freaks who dreams of competing with the professionals, and get their asses kicked every time they try it.
In memory of all those who lived and died off experimenting... And to the spirit of experimentation and the want to live cheaply without overhead costs... I start writing more about my experiments in life, love, architecture and photography.

The tekdi is turning Pink!

The tekdi is turning Pink!
Originally uploaded by DraconianRain

I wanted to do something today. It's after the first day of 2008, and at least something should go right! The whole day was spent lazing around the house, and thats when I decided to go to the tekdi. Last week, was mostly going there in the mornings. This was a perfect day for an evening sunset hike up the little law college hill! So all I had to do was check the sunset timing for the day!
A little knot in my back has been nagging me the last few days. I don't know what caused it. But it's really troublesome. I can actually feel the little knot while rubbing on medicine. So I tried some yog-asans. I was feeling overly light and shaky, so just drank some water, but started off towards Kanchan galli! My mom looked at me and thought I looked sick and shouldn't go, but I am inherently a sick little bitch, and so, I persisted.
Kanchan Galli by rik!
And the ascend started... It was a beautiful feeling climbing up the ever familiar path for the nth time. Saw trees flowering Pink and Yellow! That was a pretty sight. Up the hill I went, always keeping time. Needed to see the first sunrise from the Quarry, which is the best spot in Pune city as of now! Met two friends pretty unexpectedly, which was a pleasant surprise! So here I was at the quarry, with a few other people, but all on my own. I was expecting two friends to share the sunset with, but in the end there was no one around.
So I went and sat on a rock, and was experiencing the lovely sunset, and clicking pictures while I was at it. then a while later, I was just mesmerised... staring at the beautiful vista around me. Even after having seen it in all seasons, and all times, the tekdi never ceases to surprise me. The breeze, now cool and steady was blowing gently. That sound and feel was many a times better than the sound and feel of my mp3 walkman.
the sun slowly disappeared behind the other hill, and I kept staring...
the sky turned yellow, to orange, to red to dark blue, and I kept staring...
the lights at the other end of the city began to compete with the light of the sky... and I kept staring...
I kept staring... nothing in my head. Absolute bliss! I was meditating... I don't even remember all that... And then I woke up from my trance to the loud chatter of two guys trying to find their way towards ARAI.
I looked at my watch, and it was 6.30... the time I had to reach Pooja's place. But that was the last thing on my mind that time.
I just hoped and wished I would reach the exit point before dark, so I don't have to climb down all alone in total darkness without torch, or company ... But thats exactly what I had to do...
I rushed towards the Maruti Mandir, reached there by which time it was already dark. There was one little light there, and one at the base of the hill at Kanchan Galli. there were a few people sitting there, who seemed in no hurry to get down... or maybe, they had their vehicles at ARAI... So I started descending... all the time hoping no to fall and twist my ankle, as I have done on numerous occasions before, because it was already dark... and I was alone, and who would actually be able to help if I fell and hurt myself!
Well, I'm just trying to gain sympathy for myself here... I wasn't so scared or anything. And it wasn't as herculean a task as I described it to be. Agreed that it was difficult, but i know the way, and my eyes had gotten used to the dark. So about ten minutes later, I find myself at the end of Kanchan Galli, trying unsuccessful, to catch a rik to reach Pooja's place on time!
But that wasn't to be... Pune's Rikshaw wallas have a problem with everyone who wishes to go to Karve nagar, Kothrud or a distance less than 10 mins away- after 6 PM. So I had no option but to walk. but I was by that time really feeling less like a sick bitch and more like 'really sick'... probably dehydrated too... I wasn't well. And I should listen to my mother more often.
So I took a pit stop to refuel myself with water, and here I was... to Pooja's. Reached there, but the Discussion going on was a little disappointing. Everyone, it seems wants to get themselves heard... at the expense of the other person's opinion and patience. But what could I have done about it, sometimes, even I'm guilty as charged above! I couldn't concentrate, didn't say much, and left earlier than usual. Walked back home, had dinner, and uploaded photos. and that was that...
The tekdi evening was 'something' and a good start to the year...