For details on construction, read on.

Basically, a snoot is a tube or channel you fit onto the end of your speedlight (flash) to create a very directed beam. They’re handy for creating a tight, focused beam of light for flash photography, getting you effects similar to this one (borrowed from PositivePaul’s CC-licensed photostream):

Mine is really the simplest of snoots - a cardboard sleeve that friction-fits onto the end of my flash. The only improvement I made to mine is the inclusion of a “grid” of corrugated cardboard you can slip in or out to change the charecteristics of the snoot:

The results are that you get a tight, extremely focused beam with the grid in place:

And a larger beam with it removed:

Simple and really easy to build out of some cardboard and gaffer’s tape.

Read below for more instructions.

They’re really simple. Basically I just started with some foam rubber pre-slit pipe insulation from Home Depot:

And then I stitched up some ballistic Cordura covers with velcro from some leftover material I had:

Super simple, and I think the results are better than the ones for sale.

The Shins need almost no introduction.

Click through the image for more pictures from the show.

Awesome show. I’ve seen The Shins before, at a free concert at Carnegie Mellon a couple of years ago, but this show may actually have been better.

But I’m still around, and today I spent some time sorting out photos. I’ve posted two new photo sets on Flickr, one for Whidbey Island Race Week and one from a recent cruise I took to Gig Harbor with some friends.

Recent photos from my trip to Boston.

4th of July weekend I headed down to San Francisco to meet up with my friends and fellow cavemates for a pretend “reunion” of sorts. Most of my graduating class from my masters program showed up and it was an absolute blast. Plenty of alcohol was consumed, stories were retold, and new memories were made.

I also took a whole ton of pictures for those who are interested in that sort of thing.

I was worried that I’d miss the fireworks since I was flying back to Seattle from San Francisco around sunset today. Oh boy was I wrong.

As we circled Tacoma in preparation for landing at SeaTac we were greeted by thousands of backyard fireworks celebrations as far as the eye could see.

Happy 4th of July everybody. Especially Tacoma, for making mine special.

Nothing new to report, just a pretty sunset…

I’ve decided to depricate my photo gallery on chrismetcalf.net. From now on if you want to see my newest photos, Flickr is the place to be.

I’ll be leaving the chrismetcalf.net gallery up at least for a while though, since it seems to drive a ton of traffic to my site. I figure its good for the Google mojo.