Back in the saddle

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kennosborne

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Jan 2, 2004
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Lake Angelus, Michigan, USA.
Well after all the recent changes in my life (new baby, moving, and others) I finally got my shop back up and am able to turn again. It has been a few months and the ich has been getting bad. Here are two pens I just turned and one I made just before we moved but didn't have a camera. Please excuse the photos I am still playing with my camera settings.

Image Insert: Cocobolo Platinum Americana Rollerball
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Image Insert: Copper Wire and Silver Solder Platinum Gentleman Jr. Fountain
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27.05KB
Image Insert: Pink Ivory Chrome Wallstreet
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24.84KB
 
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Daniel

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Reno, NV, USA.
Ken,
nice to hear from you again. and even nicer to see some of your work.
one suggestion about your photos. If I had taken these as they appear on my monitor. My first thought was the background was to bright for the auto settings on the camera. It's compinsating the exposure to much to capture the detail in the pens. You can go with a darker background, I have found grey or blue to work well with my camera. or If you can set you camera to underexpose by a step or two experiment with that. many cameras also have an exposure weighting setting. it will read several spots in the view finder and expose for the average of these or you can have it expose for what is just in the center of the view finder. on my camera this is called spot metering for just the center, adn field metering for the average throughout the viewfinder. hope that makes since. the way I got used to how my camera acts wos to take one pen and take a pictures of it on white paper. that way I knew what the background color was supposed to be. then I took one picture for every setting ont he camera keeping a note bok of what the settings where.
in one of the series for artificial light compinsation. the paper showed up everything from a little off white to a peach color. with lots of yellow tones if the setting was not right. and that was just one setting. the others such as the metering for the exposure. wether you are set on landscape, portrate, or whatever will alter the photo almost as much. having the photo series' really helped me trouble shoot what wasn't set up right. was it the lighting setting, the exposure setting etc.
sorry this is so long and hope something helps.
 

Scott

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Dec 12, 2003
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Blackfoot Idaho
Hi Kenn,

You really did yourself proud with these three! Each one is fantastic! I keep comeing back to the copper one. That is a very cool pen! Do you have a close-up? Does the solder still show between the winding of the wire? How is the weight of this pen? I bet it's got a nice heft to it without being too heavy! Did you do anything to finish the copper so it won't loose that shine? Tell us more!

I can't help but keep looking at that cocobolo pen, too! I think you really captured the essence of that pen, combining the platinum with the cocobolo!

Daniel has some good suggestions on the photography. More detail would be nice. I'd like to get a better look at that Pink Ivory one. The baby must be doing good, and you're getting settled into the new place! It's nice to have you turning again!

Scott.
 

kennosborne

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Location
Lake Angelus, Michigan, USA.
Daniel, Thank you. I am glad I can finally get back to work. Here are some new shots ... I think they look better. This new camera (Canon S-50) I have has many many settings and finding the right one is difficult. It comes with software that allows you to view what the camera sees and edit the settings from your computer and even take the picture but I think the USB cable is malfunctioning becuase I kept looseing connection between the camera and the computer. So I had to play with all the settings. I gave it a custom white balance, set the auto exposure to focus on the pen and not the full shot, and bumped the exposure up +1. It worked great but I still had to adjust the brightness and color on the cocobolo and copper pens to make the photo more accurate. I'm sure I will get it soon. I was just getting used to my old camera (Sony MVC CD300) when it started to take a dive. I had it in 3 times before Best Buy said it was DOA and to get another.

Scott, Thanks for your comments. The solder does show through a bit, but not much. You mostly see copper with some silver stripes. As for the heft. It does feel like a nice pen to me but may be heavy for others. On another kit such as a Gentleman's or El Grande it would be way to much. The copper and silver are just bare. I was tossing around the idea of powder coating or lacquering it but I like the way it looks over time. I should have taken a picture of it before I polished it. It looked antiqued but it was very nice against the platinum finish. I hope you can see more detail it the newer photos.

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Daniel

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Mucho Better, glad I could help. It makes it difficult to get the hang of a new camera when there are so many variables at one time. I can even see the ingraving in the nib of the fountain pen now. very good exposure.
now quite playing with that camera and get back to the lathe:)
 

Scott

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Dec 12, 2003
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Location
Blackfoot Idaho
Hi Kenn,

Big difference in the pictures! I can see the silver in with the copper now. And being able to see the grain on the pink ivory makes it look even better! Thanks for re-posting them!

That Sony is the same camera I have. Did the disk drive malfunction? Mine is still going strong (knock on wood!). How did you end up deciding on the S-50? I've been looking at cameras lately, just because it would be nice to have a 5mpxl or better. I kind of think the Nikon 5700 looks interesting. My Wife has had good luck with Nikon cameras (35mm).

Thanks again!

Scott.
 

leenollie

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Apr 19, 2004
Messages
125
Location
San Antonio, Texas, USA.
Good afternoon Kenn,

A couple of questions concerning your Copper Pen: (1) How do you keep the solder from sticking to the bushings? (2) Do you scuff up the tubes with sandpaper before wrapping the wire?

Thanx,

Lee Biggers
The ever curious pen turner [:)]
 

kennosborne

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Jan 2, 2004
Messages
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Location
Lake Angelus, Michigan, USA.
Originally posted by leenollie
<br />A couple of questions concerning your Copper Pen: (1) How do you keep the solder from sticking to the bushings? (2) Do you scuff up the tubes with sandpaper before wrapping the wire?

Yes I do scuff the tubes with sandpaper before hand and as far as the solder sticking, I won't be much help there. It has never happened to me so I don't really know what I'm doing or not doing.

Wish I could be more help.
 

Kurt Aebi

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Mar 26, 2004
Messages
131
Location
North Springfield, Vermont, USA.
Nice!

Thanks for sharing, it really helps us "newbies" to see the work of those who have been doing this a while. It helps me, at least, to see and be able to judge where I am at in this craft. Thanks!
 
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