DIY- My New level and house :)

[Sanctuary]

Last week I made a new level for my dwarf hamster Spyro.
It is made out of a rolled up wooden placemat, reinforced with
popsicle sticks and wooden kebab sticks, toilet roll tubes and hot glue.

Yesterday I made her an art deco house and trellis to put on top











I am going to be making more things to add to it and extend over to the other half of her cage

[Snowz]

OMG, could you please make a tutorial on it? love everything in that cage. Looks fantastic!

Also I just wanted to say, I have just seen your profile and YouTube channel. What lovely photos and videos you have! I just want to ask 3 questions!

-What camera do you use?

-How do you take such focused pictures?

-How do you take photos of your hamster, Like in your profile picture I would really love to have a picture of my hamster looking up like that and do you have any tricks or tips?

[Shannonmcn]

That's so impressive! I'd also love to see a tutorial on it, it's so pretty

[Sanctuary]

On the weekend I will buy some more hot glue and another mat to make the level and will do a tutorial for you guys
It is pretty simple

I use a nikon d3100 and my boyfriend uses a nikon d7100.

To get really clear focused pictures you need light. Daylight is your friend, daylight will help towards nicer cleaer pictures. The flash can help most of the time but sometimes you need a a stand with extra flash connected to add more light if inside with poor light

Some of the better pics are done by my boyfriend, it makes it easier for me to move the hamster into position etc.

I recently bought a little plastic box and added white paper to back, sides and bottom. It means I can put the hamster in and take pictures without the hamster running off.

For example:


I took that picture in something like this with white paper around it:

[Snowz]

Thank you so much! I have so many ideas now! Have you got a tip or trick on keeping your hamster still to take a photo? (My hamster is always moving!) Do you use daylight for your photos? they look so light.

Whenever I use daylight my pictures always end up being quite dark and blurry!

[Sanctuary]

I usually use a flash, sometimes it looks good sometimes not. Sometimes I just open the cameras aperture really wide to let in as much light as possible without the flash. It gives it a softer look but can also mean the shutter speed slows down so can be hard to take none blury pics.

The best way to get a hamster to stay still is to give it treats or talk to it and be ready to click as many pics as you can. Usually you get about 3 good pics in about 100 you take

[Snowz]

Thanks so much for these tips!
I appreciate it.

What type of flash do you use and whats the best?
On my camera this is all the flashes that you can get:

-Off
-Auto
-Red-Eye
-Fill in
-Slow Sync