Out of Macrophotography for the Time Being

This area is for the discussion of what's new, what's on your mind, and general photographic topics. A place to meet, make comments on this site, and get the latest community news.

Moderators: rjlittlefield, ChrisR, Chris S., Pau

Deanimator
Posts: 870
Joined: Tue Oct 23, 2012 7:01 pm
Location: North Olmsted, Ohio, U.S.A.

Post by Deanimator »

Completely moved now.

I can squeeze my way into the room to touch the macro table... just. At least I [think] know where all of my macro stuff is. That was all packed into a tub and a rolling cart. It'll be weeks or months before I can unpack enough stuff to start work again. I don't have enough book cases as it is, and one of them is on its last legs. If this were a house, I'd have a table saw and be building floor to ceiling, wall to wall book shelves. Instead, I have to make do with 6 foot particle board shelves from Walmart, Target and Big Lots.

In the meantime, whatever macro I'll be doing will have to be outdoors, although that's probably a long way off. Between the quarantine and the weather (It snowed last week), I don't expect there's much outside yet. I have ZERO idea where anything would be around here. Not even sure where the city park is.

Deanimator
Posts: 870
Joined: Tue Oct 23, 2012 7:01 pm
Location: North Olmsted, Ohio, U.S.A.

Post by Deanimator »

All of the full size and oversized books have been unpacked(50+ boxes).

Replacement bookcases from IKEA have taken more than a month and were delayed two weeks... assuming they actually get here next week.

Macro stuff is still packed. It'll get unpacked and put on shelves next week until I can get the rest of the boxes out of the middle bedroom. Trying to find bookcases has delayed everything else. Target only gets the 6'x2' ones in ones and twos and didn't have them at all for a while. Still have to find some place to put the paperbacks.

It'll probably be at least another month before I can even think about macrophotography.

Deanimator
Posts: 870
Joined: Tue Oct 23, 2012 7:01 pm
Location: North Olmsted, Ohio, U.S.A.

Re: Out of Macrophotography for the Time Being

Post by Deanimator »

I'm [mostly] unpacked now. I've still got shooting gear and some random computer stuff to unpack.

I've been trying to get everything organized by category, and safely put in plastic tubs (with foam, where necessary).

I've got my photography stuff unpacked and organized to the point where I could do some still life (a couple of firearms).

I may dismantle my photography table or repurpose it for reloading ammunition. This place has pretty stable floors and doesn't have the insane movement and vibration issues that the old place did. I can get by with the much smaller still life table I built and the light stands I bought just before the fire.

There's snow on the ground in places, so there aren't any living photomacrography subjects outdoors. I wouldn't know where to look anyway. There were always spiders, millipedes, centipedes and pill bugs out every night at the old place.

I'm not sure what I can photograph indoors. I've got a bunch of small photography, computer and shooting stuff. As usual, that stuff is insanely reflective and hard to photograph. I'll probably start thinking about it once the last of the boxes are empty and everything out of the living room.

Deanimator
Posts: 870
Joined: Tue Oct 23, 2012 7:01 pm
Location: North Olmsted, Ohio, U.S.A.

Re: Out of Macrophotography for the Time Being

Post by Deanimator »

As the saying goes, when it rains, it pours.

My main PC with Zerene, Elements, and all of my images died.

First the power supply died and was replaced, then the chip fan died.

I got (I think) the PC running, but never could get it to boot properly.

Ended up buying parts for an all new PC with 32gb of RAM (eventually 64).

It took a night and a day, but I finally got access to my data on the old hard drive. I'm copying my profile to an external 8tb drive, after copying the most important stuff (downloaded programs, license keys, etc.) to my laptop.

Getting access to the data took so long (still copying, probably all night and into tomorrow) that I haven't had time (or room) to build the new machine.

Aggravation aside, Elements and Zerene should be MUCH faster when the new PC is built.

Deanimator
Posts: 870
Joined: Tue Oct 23, 2012 7:01 pm
Location: North Olmsted, Ohio, U.S.A.

Re: Out of Macrophotography for the Time Being

Post by Deanimator »

Got the new PC built and my photos copied off of the old drive.

MSI Mag Mortar MB with AMD Ryzen 3200 processor and 64gb of RAM
4tb HDD

PC is up and running. Reinstalled Zerene today. Ran a stack of previously stacked images. I perceived it to be noticeably faster than the previous processor and 24gb of RAM. I still need to see how much faster batch preprocessing of the raw files into TIFs in Elements is going to be.

Still not able to set up the Wemacro, lighting, etc., although I did get the Wemacro, and the studio strobes properly packed into foam lined tubs for storage.

I won't be able to do anything macro-wise until I get the rest of the reloading stuff unpacked and properly stored, since it's blocking both tables in the room.

There'll be close to a foot of snow on the ground by morning, so once I do get things set up, it'll be nothing but inanimate objects as subjects for quite a while.

Deanimator
Posts: 870
Joined: Tue Oct 23, 2012 7:01 pm
Location: North Olmsted, Ohio, U.S.A.

Re: Out of Macrophotography for the Time Being

Post by Deanimator »

Still not able to do any macrophotography, but I've got my Wordpress site backup with a few pictures of arachnids and myriapods.

http://www.photoblog.weigledefenseforce.org

Deanimator
Posts: 870
Joined: Tue Oct 23, 2012 7:01 pm
Location: North Olmsted, Ohio, U.S.A.

Re: Out of Macrophotography for the Time Being

Post by Deanimator »

I'm finally mostly back in operation back in operation.

The movers left my rig on the still life table instead of the macro table, and I'm going to leave it there. There's much less space on it, but given that the rig fits almost perfectly on top of it, and I'll be using it just for macro, it works out. I bought some clamp on adjustable light stands that mount to the edges of the top. I've also ordered a monitor arm that clamps to the top. If I decide I need more separation from the subject, I'll just add a few shelves around the sides using additional structural pipe and fittings.

I'll either completely break down the old table or modify it so that it fits in a closet and use it as a reloading bench for ammunition.

I had some weird issues with Elements that I think I straightened out.

My first real image in over a year is just a small paperclip.

Post Reply Previous topicNext topic