I really don’t have collections, I don’t hunt ebay or the thrift/antique stores for collectibles…until now.  The other day I decided to collect vintage cameras.  I found two on ebay at great prices and bought them.  One arrived yesterday and one is arriving Tuesday.

My first one, to start off the collection is the Kodak Duaflex III… isn’t it great?

I’ve been fascinated by TTV (through the lens) photography, which is one of the reasons this was my first purchase.  There’s so much information online about this technique and basically, it’s easy to do!

Today, all I had around me was a sheet of flexible black craft foam, so I just rolled it into a tube and set it on the camera.  Then I used the 50D and the 100mm 2.8 macro lens and shot through the lens on the Duaflex.  Of course, to make this more of a ‘portable’ device, I need to create a better tube, instead of setting the camera on the ground and loosely setting the tube on that.  But…all in good time!  I was excited to at least have one image to share that was taken ‘through the viewfinder’…

Of course, if you don’t want to go through all of that, you can always head on over to Pink Ink Studios and pick up my NEW set of Lightroom 2 presets, Make It TTV.  Easily create your own TTV images with these presets in Lightroom 2!  You can find them in the shop HERE.

Plus, you can then open your image in Photoshop and add your own texture, to give it more of a ‘dirty lens’ appearance, typical with these types of photos.

Here’s an example using the Make It TTV presets and  textures in photoshop.

Don’t forget I have two different sets of textures available at Pink Ink Studios HERE and HERE.

Some tips….

If you decide to collect vintage cameras, Ebay is a great place to find some gems.  Make sure you check the shipping costs before you bid!  Some sellers will hike their shipping fees ridiculously high to turn a profit.  Just remember to read ALL of the auction before bidding/buying.

You can learn about TTV online.  Check out the Through The Viewfinder group on Flickr.

Check out some of these great shots from the group!

1. Untitled, 2. Get Your Kicks!, 3. Wonder Bar, 4. impossible to quantify, 5. A Love Letter From the Old to the Young, 6. petals, 7. IMG_1418, 8. Parts/Service, 9. Aged Flower, 10. Flowers Through the Cracks, 11. City Streets, 12. Georgetown 2008, 13. Loving, 14. Untitled, 15. Shoe rack, 16. Railroad Wires

I’ve got more new goodies in the shop at Pink Ink Studios.  I’ve added three sets of iphone wallpapers.

These are great to add into your clients’ orders, to give as gifts or bonuses, include in ’social networking’ type photo sessions, or just use them yourself for your own photos!  These are all in .png format, just slide your image onto a layer underneath the frame and resize.  Save as a jpg.

iphone Wallpaper Set #1 is available for purchase HERE

iphone Wallpaper Set #2 is available for purchase HERE

iphone Wallpaper Set #3 is available for purchase HERE

And…you can buy all three together and save $$!  You can find all three sets together to purchase right HERE

Don’t forget, if you want to totally make your own iphone wallpapers from scratch (and get a few bonus wallpapers that aren’t available in the sets above…) you can purchase my iphone Wallpaper Kit!  This comes with a layered .psd template so you know where to put your photo/design so that it doesn’t show up underneath the date/time and ’slide to unlock’ on the iphone.

Purchase the kit HERE

I’ve got a new product at Pink Ink Studios today, it’s an iphone wallpaper kit.  Quickly and easily create custom iphone wallpapers for your clients!  The kit contains one layered .psd template…so that you can make sure your design is in between the iphone clock/date and ’slide to unlock’ bars.  Also included are pre-made .png and .psd iphone wallpapers!

Find the iphone Wallpaper Kit in the shop HERE

All of the designers at Pink Ink Studios are having a sale!

Come on by and save big!