My Studio Block

Oh, how I love my new studio stand-block-thingy. I have been cooking up this contraption in my head for a good long while..and finally in a burst of sub-concious and concious colliding, I was able to jot down what I had in mind. This innocuous looking block looks innocent enough, sculptural even…but its simple form allows me to turn it to  4 different  positions and a myriad uses.

The ever-delightful and increasingly carpenter-ish Angus, turned my scribbled ideas into a real-world thing – my studio block…actually that has a nice solid ring to it  that deserves to be capitalised: Studio Block. maybe even all caps and exclamations : STUDIO BLOCK!!!

Ok, so, my Studio Block is designed so I can

1. Low and wide for tableaux that I want to shoot from above. I can stand on my Studio Block to shoot from above, or
2. In the same position I can place my light Cube from Japan on it – and voila, the perfect space for photographing flying insects! It is wide enough at the bottom, so that my bugjects can’t escape.
   If I need more light, the flash heads can be placed right up against it. In this position I sit on the floor and can give my bugjects space, so they are not stressed and I get the images I love.
3. Next I can place my infinity board stand on it, and it is at a perfect height for creating still life compositions (which I am really doing alot of at the moment). My Infinity board stand is a great piece of equipment, but rarely utilised because it is a weird height.  Too low on the ground, too high on a table…but just right on my Studio Block.
4. I roll my Studio Block (loving its name!) to its medium height for creating compositions that I want to shoot from the front.  It is the perfect height for shooting from a chair. This is life-changing stuff! As I can now sit comfortably, and rearrange compositions to my finnicky hearts content. I can roll a block of shelf things I got at Ikea (and have hated and tried to throw out for three years, but it just kept on being useful…and now, well I love it) right next to me. The load the ikea thing up with the props I might like to use, and then just tinker. Bliss. If I want to shoot the composition from above, I just stand on a chair.
5. The high side of my Studio Block comes up to my waist and it is a great height for small things. I have been photographing all the new jewellery for the Institute of Cute and it really is a great height.

Do you want to see it?