Making ring flash adapter

Yesterday I got my passport, now just need to wait for Ben and Mac P to get theirs. Wierd how Ben hasn't had his yet. Also yesterday, Fixation UK phoned me to say the problem with my SB800 was dirty contacts and it would cost £20 or £25 for them to fix it. I said okay since I'd rather them clean it for that cost than say no, have to pay the quotation fee and then risk not being able to fix it myself.

This morning I sorted some photos I took recently. Some were of pound coins, and I found the lighting was a bit uneven, one edge of the coin was quite dark (due to the flash placement off to one side). So I thought a ringflash would be best for taking this sort of photo, so I did some pinternet research on ringflash. It seems the cheap macro ringflashes aren't very good quality and don't last very long. Some of them also don't have variable output, so you have to vary the camera aperture to adjust exposure. The Sigma or nikon ringflashes are expensive and also only work on one system (so if I moved to canon in the future I'd have to buy a new model).

So I did some more research on diy macro ring flashes and found this blog. The way they make a ringflash is quite simple and I could use materials already available to me. Their results also look quite good. Reading their follow up post, they said that they reckon they loose 4-5 stops of light, and they think it is from the bend where the light is directed downwards towards the ring. So I decided to make mine so the flash is just pushed in at the top and there's no bend (so the flash isn't placed in the camera hotshoe and is off camera).

It took me most of the afternoon and evening making it, and I made a few mistakes - I started glueing bits together before covering them in foil, which made adding the foil a bit difficult. Also I used UHU all purpose glue instead of a glue gun (couldn't find it), I guess a glue gun would have been better although the glue has stuck reasonably okay so far. I am going to leave it to dry overnight and then test it tomorrow.

Also today, an image I submitted to photoshelter a few days ago was accepted, but I couldn't figure out what category to put it in. I also noticed they seem to be accepting more traditional stock now - they had a picture of red wine pouring into a glass with a white bg and a boxer with a black bg and another person shot that looked like it was done in a studio.

Food
Breakfast: Strawberry jam toast sandwich; cup o' tea.
Lunch: Cheddar cheese with beetroot salad sandwich; grapes; cup o' tea.
Dinner: Mushrooms; chips; peas; bacon. Pudding was coconut tart. Coffee. Chocolate easter egg.