Spent the morning framing The Starcrossed Escape.
This took hours, particularly the careful treatment of the glazing. It looks a lot better than it did in 2010. Most of my thoughts have been about improving my art photography system. Here is the camera block I made, done this way so that the hole (through which the horizontal bar goes) is exactly vertical:
And it is. The camera points away to the right in this pic, but the back (this is the 'top', the thing points face down), as you can see is very uneven. I could make this flat by getting something flat, wood would be good because it would adhere well, then gluing it on the back, but it would need to be done very accurately, so will need a guide, but also the glue itself would need to be more like filler, like a jelly or putty so it could be minutely adjusted as it set. So I've experimented with making a putty-like glue from PVA and whiting/chalk/calcium carbonate. It worked well, I might use this for jobs in future.
This is one of three exact right angles needed to recalibrate the system. The second is a square fitting in the hole itself and this is a problem... the 20mm square tubing only just fits. I began to wonder if this is the best option, perhaps an expensive, off-the-shelf rig might be better. I wondered if two rails might be better than one rod. Video camera rigs use 2x15mm tubes. This tubing is even available in stainless steel (at an expensive £50 or so for one 1.5m length, amazing considering a 1m length is under £20 - can I cope with 1m of movement?). One advantage is that everything, apart from the tubes is fairly small and dismantleable.
There are times to ponder and times to act. If I want a good, ideal system then I must spend time and money on experiments to determine the best soloution. I have ordered some basic bits to fit to the camera and experiment with. I will also compare any results with scans to made sure I have the best quality of image possible. If in doubt, take action. If there are several options and you can't decide which is best, try them all.
Now, I must paint a colour study.
