I had a rudimentary studio setup whilst I was living and photographing in Bowden in the 1980s. There was a a table, a dark cloth as  a background,  available window light,  a 5×7 Cambo monorail,  the odd prop,  and a solid Linhof tripod.

However,  I didn’t do much with the setup. I made a  few portraits  and some still lives,  such as this one of a  banksia, which  I’d  purchased at the Adelaide Central Market and then a lowed to dry:

The results were okay,  and  I realised that I could do the studio stuff, even though the studio situation wasn’t ideal.  The available window light was minimal,  the exposures for the 5×7 Cambo monorail where very  long (several hours), and  the house shook if a truck went past on Gibson Street.  So  I’d have to start the photo shoot again.  It was all too difficult really. 

I did eventually invest in some studio lights, a Cambo studio stand,  a proper pull down backdrop, a reflector  and a Cambo P 8×10 studio camera to make things easier. It would be called gear acquisition syndrome (GAS) today.   But I  found that I had no ideas about what to photograph in the studio.  So it all came to naught. I just wasn’t a studio photographer. I was more interested in  the world outside the studio.

I still have the  above gear and a space down stairs at Encounter Studio that is set up for studio work. But I haven’t  done anything much with it. I keep on thinking that I should bring the bits and pieces  that I see whilst on my coastal poodle walks  back to the studio to photograph. But I don’t.I keep telling myself that I should.