Saade teen saal baad!

I cannot imagine why it took me three and a half years to put this post up. I hadn't even thought about it since I made and gave this presentation during the Bangalore photography club exhibition called  'Frames of mind' in September 2010

Here's this poster: I designed it and they added the rest of the logo and information (blah blah)

They even had a very interesting description about me on their event listing which must still be somewhere on the world wide web, hopefully. 

Here's the presentation I made 

   camera DIY by Meghana Kulkarni

It seems like a long time ago now, but I think I entertained the crowd sufficiently that day. It was a presentation which had to to be split in two session because I was talking too much about each and everything and also because the good folk of the Bangalore photography club had the patience to listen to me and even come back after the lunch break in larger number to listen to me talk even more. That was something.

And it didn't end there! People came up to talk to me after the presentation and that went on for a couple of hours... I felt important.

Bokeh blah blah....

One fine December day, when I saw that my Flickr contact Satya!!! posted a pic taken through his lensbaby... I wanted a similar pic too!
As always, I lacked funds and all, so a few months later, decided to make this little attachment in the homemade holga-esq lens that I had made a few weeks earlier.

So how does it work?
The shape of the bokeh is the shape of the aperture. So, if the aperture is hexagonal, the bokeh is hexagonal... and if the shape of the aperture is heart shaped, or star shaped... then, the bokeh is a heart or a star respectively... Thanks to Ashwin for the simple explanation, which got me thinking and eventually come up with this...

How did I do it?
I took my holga/Lens baby (homemade) and on the inside of the lens, placed a circular cutout of black tinted paper with a cutout in the desired shape in the centre of the disc...
so, the aperture (opening for light) is between the glass and the sensor, nearer the glass rather than the sensor, and not floating about...

A little observation:
for objects close by, the bokeh formed is inverted... eg: if you place the heart straight on the lens, on the image, the bokeh of the shape of the heart appears inverted.
... so, place the aperture shape upside down if the shape is not symmetrical and the object is very near...
So, there... I have custom bokeh... for almost no cost... except for the 8 bucks I spent on the fresh sheet of black tinted paper, of which I hardly used about 1/50th...
I'm now going to experiment with more shapes, types of bokeh shots with this lens. Wow! Just when I was despairing that i have finally run out of ideas... It couldn't have come at a better time...
try this, have fun, experiment and do post in your feedback if any...

PS: Music facilitated the making of this ... so don't forget... put of your fav music full blast!