I don’t know a lot about a lot, but I do know that Salt Creek Grille has some downright, slap yourself in the face kind of amazing, seared ahi tuna sliders. Get out of your chair and go try them. Well right after you check out some eye food below…..booya.
San Diego. This place is literally right on the water. We could hear the waves all night long. Bliss. Had a dj that actually mixed….non-stop dancing. Had a blast.
What’s that you say? You want to take epic pictures from a plunger. Love the tilt-shift lens look but can’t rationalize the amount for a seldom used effect? Well sir you have arrived at the correct destination location. Following a couple different tutorials online I created a plunger for myself. Materials:
Body cap (comes with new cameras)
Metal Clip (Ace Hardware)
Toilet Plunger (Ace hardware: http://www.acehardware.com/product/index.jsp?productId=1278185&kw=plunger&origkw=plunger&searchId=56583237733)
Medium Format Lens (I used a zenza bronica 75mm 2.8)
Tools (glue, xacto knife, and backup black duct tape)
Go pick out the cheapest possible medium format lens you can find, I got mine for about $45 bucks off of ebay, the focal length is your preference. Preferably something cheap just in case. The metal clip size I just guessed, but it’s re-sizable so when your in Ace Hardware, just bring the plunger over to the metal clip section (i believe it’s in plumbing?) and eyeball it as the clip will be fastened tight around your lens and plunger. The first thing you need to do is cut the plunger (note that it will be a lot shorter than you think, but cut extra as you can always go back and cut more). Cut slits on the tip, flange it out, like you see below, then insert your lens and fasten the clip like a belt over it (I fastened mine over the focus so now I just spin the lens instead of the focus, works best). Grab your body cap, drill out the center plastic so it’s just a mount (I just used a power screwdriver with a drill center, made tons of holes around the edge and just hammered it out). Here comes the hard part, attaching the back of your plunger to the camera. I took the top of a 50pack cd case, cut out the center so it was a donut, and attempted to glue it to the body cap, and then glue that to the plunger. The plunger plastic does not take glue well! I ended up using tons of small strips of black duct tape going form the outside of the plunger ending at the edge of the body cap. This has held for some time and works great, especially with video!
Thats about it. Some important things to note. Common crop cameras are designed with a lip over the lens (30d/7d etc.) which makes it a bit more difficult to attach, but you can remedy that by cutting out a hole for the lip so when it sets, it sets nicely. Obviously it does not stay where it is put (its a flippin plunger) so you cannot use it for time-lapse. You have to shoot manual, and your camera will read “00” for the aperture, although it will be the maximum aperture of the lens, so mine is 2.8 always (I shoot wide open mostly, so it’s fine) so it is good to get a focal length you prefer. It takes a lot of practice to be able to use this well however, I feel like I can control my focus quite well now and love this thing. If you can deal with only using one focal length, and a couple hours of craftiness, it’s definitely worth it. My first couple shots I ever took on the lens were quite discouraging, until just recently I realized that my lens just needed cleaning! It’s actually a pretty decent and contrast lens. If you have any questions leave a comment. Here’s a link to one of the better tutorials: http://blog.cow.mooh.org/2009/03/building-tilt-shift-plungercam-lens-for.html Here’s some recent shots, and some of my lens:
Vegas is crazy. Started a personal project, how I feel vegas. Blurry madness. This first one is going on canvas, fo’ realzies.
