camtarn
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camtarn.bsky.social
camtarn
@camtarn.bsky.social
140 followers 160 following 270 posts
Edinburgh, UK 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿‬ Dabbler in many things: group drumming, music (guitar, keys, drumkit, singing, bit of fiddle), motorbiking, coding, photography, DIY. Bi/queer and polyam.

He/him although 'they' is perfectly appropriate too.
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camtarn.bsky.social
Pride! Playing with the Beatroots 💖
A pink haired man in a pink shirt, trans flags painted on his face. He has a snare drum and bass drum strapped around his waist, and a samba leader's whistle around his neck.
June 22, 2025 at 8:23 PM
camtarn.bsky.social
New guitar day! Decides to invest in a seven string since I've wanted one for ages.
A seven string guitar with a smoky semi-transparent finish that fades to glossy black at the edges. In the background is a pedalboard full of colourful (and cheap!) mini pedals.
June 11, 2025 at 3:19 PM
camtarn.bsky.social
Drink options in my work kitchen. Would you like tea, coffee, decaf coffee, or a nice hot cup of chicken Bisto?
A closeup of a hot drink station in an office kitchen, with a bag of M&S ground Italian style coffee, a jar of Lidl Gold decaffeinated instant coffee, a bag of unbleaches Clipper teabags, and a bright orange tub of Bisto brand chicken gravy granules.
June 10, 2025 at 3:44 PM
camtarn.bsky.social
Wandering around an industrial R&D building with a camera is very fun ❤️
A stark black and white picture of a very large gantry crane in a warehouse Colourful lifting straps A high contrast photo of reels and reels of various types of colourful wire A piece of shiny industrial machinery, dramatically lit in green and pink
June 10, 2025 at 1:15 AM
camtarn.bsky.social
Cat with threatening aura.
Jasmine, a fluffy and normally entirely harmless grey longhaired cat, is nesting behind an open door in such a way that only half her face can be seen, with a single eye staring directly at the camera.
June 9, 2025 at 10:35 PM
camtarn.bsky.social
Hamlet, with sword The Player being held at dagger-point by Guildenstern A fatal stabbing!! Followed by a gory death!! Followed by the revelation, in-story, that it was a stage dagger with collapsible blade. Everybody dies a gory death at the end. Applause.
June 9, 2025 at 3:28 AM
camtarn.bsky.social
The cast Rosencrantz and The Player betting on coin tosses Another set of actors for R+G (Sophie and Cinderella) aboard the boat. Hamlet, holding the umbrella, has given up on the play at this point and (in the script) is having a nice read under a big sun umbrella with a pint and a ciggie. Pirates!! Hamlet, from rear with tiny wooden sword raised, is charging into battle.
June 9, 2025 at 3:28 AM
camtarn.bsky.social
Pub Shakespeare does Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead ❤️ (photo thread 🧵)
Guildenstern, as played by me in a tricorn hat with a big blue G on the side Guildenstern, as played by Crow in the same hat, with Stew as Rosencrantz in the background
June 9, 2025 at 3:28 AM
camtarn.bsky.social
Had the most lovely birthday: pub lunch with the family, then BBQ dinner with the poly fam ❤️

It started pelting down with rain just as we were due to light the BBQ, but Nate was an absolute star and just grilled in the rain 😍
Nate standing beside the just-lit barbecue with a colourful umbrella, with an expression that captures the absurdity of attempting to BBQ in Scotland Nate, now wearing a giant high-vis waterproof jacket over his vest and shorts, putting corn on the cob on the grill with a pair of tongs A shot from inside a comfy living room, through the window to a rain-sodden outside. Nate is pressed up against the window doing his best "let me iiiin" cat impression. A shot through a rainy window of a BBQ well stocked with burgers and corn on the cob, with Nate (still in high vis) tending it.
May 31, 2025 at 9:40 PM
camtarn.bsky.social
My Fairphone 4 stopped charging and ran out of battery on Sun. The USB port has been a bit finicky for a while. I cleaned it out but no dice.

Welp, I think I figured out what happened... the left bit (the port) is *meant* to be attached to the right bit, lol. Wonder how long it's been like that?
Two tiny electronic parts, with an AA battery for scale which dwarfs them in comparison. The part on the left is a USB-C female port, which the cable plugs into. The part on the right is a flexible circuit board which attaches the USB-C port to the phone via a little push-in connector with many miniscule pins. The right part has some pads and cutouts that were obviously meant to be attached to the left part.
May 28, 2025 at 7:40 PM
camtarn.bsky.social
Mugenkyo Taiko Drummers' 30th anniversary show was *spectacular* ❤️‍🔥
Mugenkyo, a group of Scottish taiko drummers, in Queens Hall in Edinburgh. A giant ōdaiko drum sits sideways on a stand at the back of the stage at head height, with one drummer on each side. In front of that, Neil, one of the founders, plays a trio of medium sized okedo drums. Near the front of the stage are five floor standing nagado daiko drums, their players currently kneeling in a stylised pose, facing away from the audience. At the front, Miyuki, the other founder, plays a trio of small shime daiko drums. At the sides of the stage, two of the drummers are dancing with hand fans with large white silks attached to them, which float gracefully on the air.
May 19, 2025 at 8:30 AM
camtarn.bsky.social
The new headlight works! I think I need to add a little support to the top, as it keeps sagging forward a little, but I'm very happy with my 3D printed mounts.
A view behind a motorcycle headlight from the top down. There are many black-wrappes bundles of wires. At the side, some 3D-printed headlight mounts can be seen, connecting the headlight to the bike frame. A closeup of one of the 3D printed mounts. It connects one bolt to a second bolt which is a few inches down, a couple of inches forward, a little bit inwards, and at about a 32 degree angle. It was a right pain to get the measurements even close at all, and I'm still having to take advantage of the flexibility of the plastic. A photo of the headlight in operation. It's a round projector headlight with two small lenses stacked vertically, and two rectangular side-lights on either side of them. There's a white ring around the light that is a daytime running light (DRL) but I haven't hooked up the power to that yet.
May 18, 2025 at 9:30 AM
camtarn.bsky.social
Who is this weird looking stranger in the mirror?

It's been about twelve years since I last saw my chin underneath the beard. Figured I'd excavate it and remind myself what it looks like.

I'll be regrowing the beard!
The owner of this account (a middle aged white man with spiked pink hair and glasses) minus the usual beard. Three quarter view, slight smile. The owner of this account (a middle aged white man with spiked pink hair and glasses) minus the usual beard. Side on view. The owner of this account (a middle aged white man with spiked pink hair and glasses) minus the usual beard. He looks skeptical. The owner of this account (a middle aged white man with spiked pink hair and glasses) minus the usual beard. Face on, grinning.
May 16, 2025 at 11:32 AM
camtarn.bsky.social
Bought a new LED headlight assembly for my motorbike, but it expects to fit into an existing mounting box. My mounting box is cracked, and the LED light could use more ventilation anyway, so I'm working on 3D printing some lightweight struts to mount the light directly to the bike.
A desk, with a hand drawn diagram of some angled struts, and three black plastic 3D printed objects matching the diagram. A round LED headlight and a battered round plastic box of the same size sit beside the diagram.
May 15, 2025 at 7:58 PM
camtarn.bsky.social
Sometimes you just really need a protractor in a hurry.

The ironic thing is that we're an engineering office and our tool chest contains micrometers to measure lengths down to a silly number of decimal places ... but not a single angle measurement tool.
A printed paper protractor. It's made out of two sheets of paper for strength, with crudely applied parcel tape connecting the two layers (we didn't have any clear tape!)
May 15, 2025 at 7:35 PM
camtarn.bsky.social
This absolute beast of a VW Bug engined trike 🤩
A massive tricycle built out of thick chrome tubing and flame-painted fibreglass, with a thick front tyre and two super-wide automotive rear tyres. The rear seats are black leather with red leather flame designs. Three exhausts sprout from the back. On it are the rider, clad in blue jeans, a brown leather jacket, and no helmet; and his pillion, a slim woman in thin trousers, puffy jacket and helmet.
May 11, 2025 at 2:52 PM
camtarn.bsky.social
Yesterday: extremely chill house party, fell asleep on sofa in a cuddle pile. Today: Meadows, (alc free) beer, sunshine. It's been a seriously nice weekend 🥰
A man with glasses, a beard and pink hair, wearing a black vest with gold pattern, sits on a park bench in the Meadows, a large Edinburgh park. The sun is shining brightly and he is drinking an alcohol free beer from a bottle.
May 11, 2025 at 12:50 PM
camtarn.bsky.social
Final video DONE!

15m45s, 257 clips, surprisingly little colour grading needed (the Z6 II's built in curves are gorgeous), quite a bit of audio fiddling required to give a mostly-continuous drum soundtrack while still preserving as much crowd noise as possible.

Youtube release soon!

🧵
A screenshot of a video editor timeline crowded with video and audio clips spread over multiple tracks. A tiny preview window at the top shows the first video clip: a shot of the National Monument atop Calton Hill, Edinburgh, with 'Calton Hill, 30th April 2025' superimposed on it.
May 10, 2025 at 2:25 PM
camtarn.bsky.social
Me and the Big Stick in action at Beltane, thanks to Dan B ❤️

(Photo copyright Dan B for Beltane Fire Society)
A silohouette in front of a sunset: the dome of the Calton Hill observatory and the top half of a man (me!) holding a small camera (an Insta360) on a very long thin vertical pole.
May 7, 2025 at 10:26 PM
camtarn.bsky.social
Bye old moto boots, you've given me many miles of adventures 🖤
A very battered pair of motorcycle boots. The leather is scuffed, the stitching is starting to come undone, one of the soles has detached, and the other seems to be on its way.
May 7, 2025 at 12:17 PM
camtarn.bsky.social
Beltane rough draft video finished! 441 clips, 37 minutes. I've just watched the whole thing for the first time and I am VERY EXCITED! 😀🔥

I'm planning to cut this down and replace most of the sound, but I'm definitely releasing this as an Extended Edition some day with the original soundtrack.
A screenshot of a video editor with a very crammed timeline. Two separate media bins full of thumbnails are open on the left, showing videos from Camera and from 360. The central pane shows a large crowd around a bonfire at night.
May 5, 2025 at 7:40 PM
camtarn.bsky.social
Post festival video editing is going well... 😅

My rough draft is currently sitting at half an hour and I'm not even done. I want to trim this down to about 10-15 minutes or so 😰
A screenshot of the timeline portion of a video editor, showing a timeline crammed with video clips. A hand-drawn red circle with an exclamation mark next to it highlights a label saying '354 clips'. Only one of the clips is long enough in this zoomed-out view to show a frame preview - this one shows the bright orange flame of a fire sword, and a figure dressed in a white dress.
May 5, 2025 at 2:03 PM
camtarn.bsky.social
Today I tasted *purest pink*, in the form of a donut ice cream sandwich from Considerit on a raspberry+honeycomb donut with raspberry sauce.

My teeth are aching just thinking about it, but it was pretty tasty!

Next time I will definitely share one 😅
May 3, 2025 at 8:57 PM
camtarn.bsky.social
It's so damn good to feel like myself again. Haven't had spoons to dye or cut my hair for months, as Nd the beard was getting mighty scruffy.
A head shot of a middle aged white man with bright pink hair, a reddish beard, and large glasses with thin black metal frames. He looks happy and (fairly) neatly groomed.
April 29, 2025 at 11:28 PM
camtarn.bsky.social
I swear this bike is home to gremlins who eat fasteners. I was wondering why my bike was even more rattly than it normally is!
April 23, 2025 at 7:52 PM