Well, I’ve been busy doing other stuff, innit.

You may remember me writing about these rather cool bags. They’ve been around a long long time and they’re good, but they are rather expensive. I’d like one , but what could be better than making your own? DIY is punk as fuck. And it costs less!

Maxmized Minutae’s tutorial shows you how to DIY a courier bag for under five dollars (!) with salvaged tarp, buckles and a bit of shop-bought velcro. He got the instructons from eeio (see below).

Eeio shows you how to do it here http://eeio.blogspot.com/2004/12/recycled-banner-golden-mean-messenger.html. These are much more impressive, he uses an old innertube as a lining for the edges of the bag flap. He’s also added  clear plastic with tarot cards in

These are pictures from the first bag he made. Click the link above to see an even better one.

The Detrimentals just cut their first 5 track EP yesterday. If I get my arse in gear I should be taking some pictures for the cover. Meanwhile here’s a picture of Mark the drummer and Chris the lead slacker (not sure who took this but they should definitely use it on the inside CD cover)

© whoever took it <p

Here’s one I took of Emily the other day

© 2006 Lee Buckley

Emily recently recorded a CD to raise money for the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions, which resists & campaigns against the demolition of Palestinian homes…

Buy it here

http://www.myspace.com/emilyfchurchill

This cheered me up a lot this afternoon. Read how a potential eBay scam victim turned the situation around and scammed the scammer, here.

Lee says:
arghh m shittin myself about these pics man, she aitn comin til half 5, wont it be dark by then? i bet it will start rainin. and i dunno how best to balance my lights (2 strobes + natural light)…. its times like this that i wish i had a digital cam

Lee says:
photography must be a piece of piss with digital… no guessing… jsut check the screen n the histogram n u know straight away that u got the right exposure

Lee says:
but film,… FILM! fukin pain in the arse, gotta wait til the next day to see if u got it right or not, and even then u probably only got 6 good pics out of 36

*actual MSN conversation

WTF is the point in all these dodgy DIY photography devices? First the flash umbrella hat, and now the cornflake packet on-camera softbox???? FFS man!

I mean WTF man?

I thought my DIY macro studio was crazy, but at least it was practical (and it didn’t make me look like an escaped mental patient).

Nikon is sponsoring the Opodo travel photography competition, whose terms and conditions clearly state that every entrant loses their rights to the images that they submit. Which means that Opodo is free to profit from every single image submitted to the competition (e.g. by selling them to other companies, or using them in advertisements), without paying any of the photographers any money whatsoever.

The terms and conditions for the competition are actually pretty difficult to find. In fact I can’t actually find them myself. The average person isn’t going to be able to find them easily even if they bothered to look – most people would be uploading images without realising that they’re giving up their rights to them. Luckily, the T & C’s can be found here.

The terms of the competition provide Opodo with an instant royalty-free photographic library, allowing it to use every photograph submitted to the competition forever without paying the entrant. The term ‘transferable’ would also allow it to sell its licenses to other companies. The value to Opodo of having such an asset could be estimated in the millions of pounds, making the eleven-month competition immensely profitable. – EPUK

Read the full article, plus comments from plenty of Nikon users, here.

Lostinbabylon says: Always read the terms and conditions before you enter a photo comp. Be sure that it’s a genuine photo comp and not just a scam that enables a company to get their hands on shitloads of free photos for their own profiteering purposes…

I’m selling the following stuff on eBay. Tell all your friends. (click the links to go to the relevant eBay auction page). I’m so skint, all the money I have left in the whole wide world is about 50p in 1p and 2p coins. Times are hard.

Sennheiser PMX 200 neckband headphones

Photographic Lighting – Essential Skills.

Sackman A.K.A. Mark “Let’s Kill Jill” Hill told me all about Andolf Smiffler. It was a while ago though, and I can’t remember. But he’s a good MC… check him out here http://www.myspace.com/andolfsmiffler