DIY Blog

What to do when the global stock of instant film has been depleted? Turn your old Polaroid camera into a web cam! Re-purposing this cultural icon (is it the theme of the week?) is a great idea, bringing this classic design into the 21st century. A great gift idea too.

Long live the Polaroid Webcam [link]

I altered the time stamp so this post shows up yesterday, because I was out having a nice dinner with friends instead of writing this entry. Hope you won’t mind.

Great hack for Canon D200 owners: make a relatively cheap GPS that will transmit coordinates to the camera. Take a picture, and it gets stamped with the GPS coordinates. Not too shabby. I guess this would be great for traveling bloggers, photojournalists, or even artistic projects.

Canon D200 hotshoe GPS [link][via]

This nice contraption is incredibly simple, yet surprisingly effective. It replaces a monopod or tripod where you don’t want to carry a cumbersome piece of equipment. Basically, you screw the spool onto the base of your camera, then you loop the other end of the rope onto your foot. With the correct cord length, your camera will be stabilized because it will be held down by the string as you push it up.

Minimalist travel camera monopod/tripod [link]

The Street Grip is a useful camcorder accessory for use in action shots - think skateboard videos. It serves two purposes: a handle to grab your camera and an armor to protect it.

DIY Camcorder Street Grip [link][via]

Turn that Valentine’s Day candy box into a heart-shaped frame.

Or better yet, make your own valentine’s day chocolates and don’t buy that heart-shaped box in the first place.

Recycled Valentine’s Candy Box Picture Frame [link][via]

Turn some old SLR bellows into a homemade macro lens for your digital single-lens reflex camera.

DIY dSLR Macro Lens [link]

Bullet time. You know what I’m talking about. When time stops in a movie and the camera swirls around the scene. It’s an (overused for quite some time) effect that’s been introduced in the first Matrix movie. Still interesting though. Here’s how you can do it.

DIY Bullet Time Photography [link]

The difference between good photography and bad photography is lighting. After all, a camera captures light, so it only makes sense that the quality of the light will affect the quality of the photography. Here are some nice instructions on how to build a light diffuser, which helps smooth out the light, yielding a soft light source. That sort of light is very useful for portrait work as it is flattering and isn’t harsh on the subject’s features.

Build a photo studio - Collapsible Light Diffuser Frames [link]