DIY camera/flash mount

Ok, so I half cheated, I bought the ball mount. It was from ebay and cost less than £5 so there is no way I'm going to build one. I'll also confess to cheating with the other half as well, I didn't make the clamp. I already had it but I had to drill the hole a bit bigger to fit the bolt through. So yes all I really did was bolt one to the other.

It's not perfect, a DSLR is too heavy and moves about a bit, but it will work fine for a compact camera or for a flash. I was thinking about drilling a new hole further up the clamp but there is supporting plastic on the inside that I don't want to drill out, I think it will weaken the clamp too much. Instead I'll keep an eye out for a better clamp to use.

I gatecrashed an autotest today to fill a few hours, this was part of the HERO LEJOG rally 

what is HERO?

basically anything over 30 year old is allowed in

what is LEJOG

entry starts at £2500 so it should come as no surprise that something like this is was the first car through

add in a few of these 

and that many of these I haven't counted them all

how about some big old mercs

I liked this SAAB

there were about 3 or 4 golfs

a one headlight wonder

proper mini

a much more down to earth porsche

some old rovers

a few random others

So, are these cars rare enough for you? No, then get ready to say "epic fucking spot" a few times.....

enjoy

Clayton-Le-Woods Service Reservoir

Clayton-Le-Woods Service Reservoir was originally built in 1883-84, this reservoir was built to provide water for the Leyland area in Lancashire. The Reservoir was taken out of service back in the 1940's but remained as a backup until the 1980's. It's now about to be demolished to make way for some new homes. Before it gets pulled down they have opened it up to the public so I took a wander around with my camera. Here are some of the photographs.

The whole set of photos are available on my flickr page
http://www.flickr.com/photos/garyd155/sets/72157636729458594/with/10367378815/

Lego Camera

I'm a member of Leyland Photographic Society and we have 5 themed competitions, one of them for next year is 'shadows', this could be my entry unless I take something better.

Lego Camera, a photo by GaryDavidson on Flickr.

SALT 7 - Soviet Auto Luxury Tours - Cheshire

This weekend I hitched a ride along in a Trabant for the SALT tour around Cheshire, visiting both Hack Green secret nuclear bunker and Jodrel Bank telescope.

here are a few photos all taken with my Lomo lens

I've still got a load more photos to process that I'll get put up soon.

getting out and about and shooting.......at last

It's been quite a while since I last updated my blog, I've not been out much with my camera so that's my excuse. I've mainly been sat in my living room hunting cars down on the internet for my project instead. But this weekend I'm off for the first shoot, I'm going to a Porsche 924, can't wait.

My Next Photography Project - 50 'Crap' Car

I’m ready  to launch my latest photography project, this one I’m basing it on a book called ‘Crap Cars’ by Richard Porter (link - http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/0563522100) In the book he lists 50 cars that he believes to be the 50 worst cars ever made. Now this is this opinion, but I think there are many others who disagree with him and love these cars.

So my project is to meet 50 people who love these cars, one for each car and tell their story, I’m hoping they’ll be quite interesting. I’ll find out why they love them even though for others they aren’t exactly their dream car.

Some of the cars on the list are going to be quite difficult to track down – according to the website howmanyleft.co.uk, there are no Alfa Romeo Arnas left on the road in the UK. Also there are only four Subaru XTs left and I’m a bit worried about finding a Hyundai Pony – there must be somebody out there who loves this car enough to have looked after one? The scrappage scheme will have taken quite a few of these off the roads making the whole job that bit harder.

This is the list of cars

50. Lancia Monte Carlo

49. Porsche 924

48. Ford Scorpio

47. Cadillac STS

46. Renault Safrane

45. Jaguar XJ40

44. Ford Escort MK1V

43. Yugo Sana

42. Mitsubishi 3000GT

41. Rover 800

40. Volvo 340

39. Delorean DMC-12

38. Vauxhall Belmont

37. Triumph TR7

36. Rolls-Royce Carmargue

35. Talbot Tagora

34. Suzuki Wagon R

33. Volvo 262C

32. Subaru XT

31. Nissan Sunny Coupe

30. Skoda Estelle

29. Renault 9

28. Maserati Biturbo

27. Daihatsu Move

26. Alfa Romeo Arna

25. Hyundai Pony

24. Fiat Strada

23. Subaru Justy

22. Austin Maestro

21. Toyota Space Cruiser

20. Fiat 126

19. Daihatsu Applause

18. Ferrari 400

17. Austin Ambassador

16. Yugo 45

15. Datsun Sunny 120Y

14. Aston Martin Lagonda

13. Susuki SJ

12. FSO Polonez

11. Seat Marbella

10. MGB

9. Trabant

8. Reliant Robin

7. Bond Bug

6. Nissan Serena

5. Lada Riva

4. Morris Marina

3. Suzuki X90

2. Austin Allegro

1. Volkswagen Beetle

I’ve setup a Facebook page for this project - http://www.facebook.com/garydavidsonphoto. Since everybody is on Facebook, it will give me quite a decent platform for explaining the project to people.  Also it might help me track down some of the rarer cars.

I’m also setting up a Kickstarter project to raise funds for a self published book – here is a link to the Kickstarter project - http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1228736198/1918719728?token=133b23dc- it’s not gone live yet so this is just a preview