So you've bought yourself a shiny new digital SLR, its covered in buttons, gizmos & a screen full of menus which all have their uses....but what about the basic settings & what effect do they actually have in the real world?

After a bit of a wait, I finally found the time to install the Monacor spikes onto the Visaton Clou loudspeakers...so was it worth while, did it make a difference? You bet yer sweet daddio it did!

If you've done any reading on the net about strobe photography, you will have seen mention of the use of gels to change the colour of the light that your strobe or flash emits. Most websites say to use tape or velcro to hold the gel onto your strobe (see more on strobist or diy photography) - this seems a tad unnecessary to me, and if you're like me & want to use the free gel sample packs that you can get from most photography shops, this isn't really an option.....another method is required, bring on the Simple gel holder.

If you do any googling around the interweb reading about photography, you're likely to see talk or mention of lighting modifiers. The next logical step from seeing a mention on a piece of must have equipment is to trawl a couple of online photography shops to look at prices, or to scan through ebay - your next reaction is normally one of shock horror as the prices are more than you would perhaps expect....but does it really need to be this expensive?...I don't think so - enter the DIY photography lighting modifiers.

Finally after many sheets of sandpaper, several coats of paint & 7 coats of varnish - the Visaton Clou speakers are able to do their thing!

Last week I made time to make progress with the speaker project, and the final push on Friday saw them finished.

I had been picking off butterfly eggs from my cabbage leaves in the garden, started walking back towards the house - glanced towards the pond on my way past & did a double take.....there was a snake hanging over the edge into the water!

I've desired a good looking, great sounding pair of loudspeakers for a long time now. Finally after having moved house earlier this year, I'm now the proud occupier of a workshop - its not grand, its a tatty old shed at the end of the garden...but it already feels like home!

After getting the workshop up to speed & in a state that could be used, my first serious project is a set of speakers. After much trawling around the net, I originally planned on building a set from plans - buying in all the components needed & most likely also building the crossovers myself. After a little more research I realised that this wasn't as easy as I'd hoped, mainly due to the lack of decent suppliers in the UK - postage was going to be very heft y & seriously raised the budget required....so plan B.