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.
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