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Pulled this out of a Kodak 8mm Cine Showtime Model A20, the lamp was missing..
Coronado
This was a lucky shot I got at sunset on Coronado Island, San Diego.
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ti1031922Calculator Guts
Some more back catalog photography making it into the gallery. This time it's the circuit board from a Texas Instruments calculator I shot three years ago. I back lit this with a bright white bulb very close to the subject.
Here it is lit from the front.
head
I took this shot back in 2012 after tearing down an old Pioneer dual tape deck I had found. It just caught my eye while I was looking through some of my older stuff today. I wonder if I still have this ferrite head in a box somewhere.
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I got to take some band photos last weekend
It was a good time
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12TRANSISTOR
Not quite as close up as I normally go but I just like the way this thing looks. One of the best estate sale finds I've had in a long time I took it home and started shooting it in indirect sunlight immediately. After a few attempts I went ahead and added some extra artificial light to make the gold pop out more. I listened to oldies on AM while I worked since it came complete with batteries.
Check out the companion I found for this thing on the same day at another estate sale.
Lucky day
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SP-13
This is the spinning whatsit that reads VHS tape. I pulled it out of a portable, battery operated RCA VCR I got from a thrift store for $2. There is a mix of sunlight and fluorescent in this capture. If you look close enough there is also a self portrait. Below you can see the device in its natural habitat.
ds4
The board from a Sony Playstation DualShock 4 that a friend was nice enough to donate to me. It met an early end during a particularly difficult Destiny raid, or so I've been told. That mechanism at the top is the right analog stick. I lit the subject from the side and back with a yellow filament light bulb and the front right was lit by a full spectrum fluorescent.
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3GSiPhone 3GS Mainboard
I discovered my old iPhone 3GS in a box while performing some necessary New Year house cleaning. It seemed in good enough shape to donate or maybe use as a media player at my work bench. I charged it up, reset it to factory default and set it aside on my desk so I wouldn't forget to do something with it. After a couple of days I noticed that the screen had separated from the plastic body completely. From previous experience with other mobile devices I knew this meant the battery had decided to expand like a dying sun. Of course this meant it had a new purpose, to be disassembled and photographed. With safety goggles on my face and gloves on my hands I pried it open without much difficulty or even the need for tools. As soon as the battery was isolated from the bits I wanted shots of I double bagged it in freezer bags (just in case) and stuck it with the rest of my bad batteries waiting for proper disposal. Note to self: make sure that thing hasn't popped and spilled toxins all over the place.
Anyway, this is what I came away with.
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Holy shit this thing was amazing.
You would plug it into the analog video port on your CRT TV (the yellow RCA cable) then into your Playstation (1) controller port and, all of the sudden, you were a fucking gunslinger. Of course Namco made the best games for their gun accessory. Point Blank (1, 2 and 3) and Time Crisis were my favorites. The feeling of the accuracy of your shots made these games very satisfying. Shooting apples off of the head of a weird looking bald dude while on a countdown timer or mowing down criminals who were intent on shooting you in the face felt legit somehow. It was a skill based shooting game in your home but for real this time. Shooting gallery games have been around since before TV but this was accurate to the pixel and, did I mention, in your fucking house. The NES Zapper started it and the Namco Guncon finished it.
These days I can't play because it requires an old tube TV but I still have the guns and the games. When I go into a thrift store or consignment shop I look for the right CRT. One of these days, maybe..
Anyway, I gutted one of the Guncons(tm?) and this is the "B" button. I didn't even need a special screwdriver.
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This Wii Fit pedometer got washed with my pants and now it doesn't work. Might as well make some lemonade since I already got a shot of this other pedometer a while back.
Fast41
I enjoy the technology gap. The old one is still functional but it doesn't sync with my Wii U.
I staged little color backdrops for both of these but I guess I only thought to shoot one behind the scenes pic.
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driveTEAC 5.25 inch stepper motor
Another piece of that TEAC floppy drive has turned out to be photogenic :)
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mainelphPart of the ELPH main board
This seemed like the most interesting section of the main controller board out of the Canon ELPH. I like the depth that the wires and components add to this shot. Here you can see the on-board speaker for movie playback. That curve is where the lens would poke through. I didn't intend to blow out the white background the same as I did with ELPH:Part Four but, out of several attempts this is my favorite.
Some behind the scenes for a better view of the subject.
elphpartfiveELPH main board with lens for some scale.
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srT101My first SLR
I thought it would be fun to add a gallery of my old film stuff and it brought back a lot of great memories from when I got serious about photography. The camera above is probably the best gift I have ever received from someone who gives me more encouragement than I deserve. You can't fuck around when you shoot with it, you only have 24 to 36 tries. :-p
Now I'm in the mood to find and shoot a roll of film for some reason.
Have a look at my early stuff here
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Fidelity SoundSONY
Sometimes the branding on electronic gadgets looks really interesting. There is something appealing about this dark brown speaker grill with a brushed aluminum Sony "Fidelity Sound" badge resting on it. This is from the face of an old AM/FM radio I bought at consignment. I wish my modern stereo looked like this.
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sankyoTEAC 5.25
The controller and drive motor from a TEAC 5.25 inch floppy drive.
Check out the full assembly. All that circuitry is just stuck directly onto a weird shaped sheet of metal.
startpauseDonkey Konga
I tend to hang on to video game accessories I've collected over the years, especially the weird ones. This is from a bongo drum controller that hooked up to the Nintendo Gamecube. The game was called Donkey Konga. You and a friend would play the bongos and clap your hands to music in rhythm to prompts on the TV. It was very fun with a bunch of people in the room.
Unfortunately the left bongo on mine stopped working and the microphone wasn't picking up claps anymore so it went in a box and stayed in the garage for a few years. A couple of months ago I decided to pull it out and see what was inside. Turns out it was mostly air and two big buttons along with this tiny circuit board. The red and black cables are for the microphone and the blue and white cables are for each drum. This board was located directly behind the face of the controller which featured a single START/PAUSE button.
A random gadget box I have stored in the garage comes in handy as a matte black backdrop.
elphpartfourELPH:Part Four
One of the many connectors from the Canon ELPH. I'm fairly certain this is the ribbon that connects the rear display to the brains of this camera (I lost track during the tear down). I liked the way the ribbon curled away from the circuit board at this angle and how the super white back light made it glow.
A blurry dime through the same lens for scale..
..and here it is hooked up to the main controller board.
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Here's the most important part of the digital compact, the CCD. Almost missed this cool detail in the pile of parts. I shot this outdoors and the sunlight did cool things to the blue and gold in the center.
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68MELPH:Part Two
The next piece of ELPH inner workings. This flexible circuit board bent the light in fun, weird ways.
Check out Part One
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ringportraitFound at the beach.
A friend of mine likes to metal detect and found this ring with an interesting portrait on it. I wonder who this person is.
I got as close to this small work of art as my lens would allow.
OPT_02ELPH:Part One
In the back of a drawer full of old camera accessories I found a Canon PowerShot S110 Digital ELPH. It was damaged beyond repair from a fall years ago and all of the accessories were missing. These factors and its age left me with no choice but to do a tear down and arrange it "artfully".
Compact cameras are one of the most complex things I've taken apart and there are so many interesting bits to focus on. I'll see how many shots I can get out of this nice piece of old tech starting with Part One, a circuit board that looked cool when back lit.
I haven't researched what function this bit has but it is very fun to photograph :)
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Fast41
The box this came in says "New Haven Pedometer" and the face has a counter a bit like a stop watch. Clip it on your belt or pocket and the counterweight ticks up the step count. I'm not sure where or when I got it but I finally got around to taking some shots. I found this cool, blue gadget box and it made a solid backdrop.
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commodore
I found this one at an antique mall complete with paper and ribbon.
It still works but the insides show years of use.
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L4TEAC 5.25
Usually I need to take a screwdriver to old tech to see if the guts are worth a photo or two. Not so with this TEAC 5.25 inch floppy drive I found at consignment between an old toolbox and an old fondue set. These drives usually didn't have external cases so the colorful controller board you see here was easy to spot. I've never seen resistors quite this cheerful before.
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El Jefe
I'm glad I didn't e-waste this Palm IIIc before having a look inside. Someone at Palm decided in a meeting one day that the main board should be named and labeled "El Jefe". Makes sense to me :)
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