Toy for a Grown-up / Rhythm Indicator

This electronic device is —– I may say, Rhythm-Indicator !

When I was a Disco-King (you believe or not 😀 ) often people (other keen dancer) asked

me a question about the way I dance, which is completely free movement hence virtually

no pattern still exactly follow and synchronizing with the Rhythm —– I needed to explain

what the Rhythm is.

Since I’ve been almost a fixture of the club, I also made enormous observation of the

people’s dance movement.    Among the many funny discovery, the most interesting

phenomenon was, that some of the people dance with the song, not with rhythm beat,

therefore it looks odd and off the rhythm still,  the person was not aware of it but

pretty much enjoying the dance  (in fact nothing wrong with it ! )

And another discovery was that the Spanish moves a moment later than the beat.  (It is

common with the Flamenco Dance, the movement occur not at the tense moment of the

beat, but the moment when its highest tension collapsed ! ! ! )

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Anyhow, to talk about the Rhythm in the noisiest environment, it’s easier to show it visual.

So, I made this Rhythm-Indicator  (but only for a Rock beat)   which shows the emphasis of

the 8 beat in red, amber, green, small green LEDs.   And I explained, the movement what

the Rhythm demands, not what I want to move. = So, the movement was the exact reflection

of the music in each moment, not a pattern in fashion  (such as in a film) or choreographed

planed movement. —–  Funny things even among the keen dancer was, that they dance

what they want = regardless the different music, still repeat the same movement !

(= What is the point to have different music.   😀 )

My indicator shows 8 beat, strong, weak so on, and having BPM (speed) controller, and a

Selector for x2 and ½ speed.   The Reset button was to synchronize with rhythm cycle. —– so,

in operation, reset to the first base drum, and adjust the speed to match the music =

Red LED to come coincided with every base drum of following cycle.

Voila’ the rhythm of the music was visually indicated.

—– To put the circuit and the batteries in a thin cosmetic case, I needed to curve the inside

to make a bit more space.    (It was long before SMD components or Lithium battery.)

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Though, even in the same music, same song, the speed is not constant and the pattern and the

use of percussion is changing. (that’s the way to make a music more dynamic and exciting).

—– So, inevitably, I had to design more elaborated system such as automatically pick-up the

base drum and synchronize the LED to the Rhythm cycle.

But instead to develop Rhythm-Indicator Mk-II, I changed the direction to design the

Sound-reactive Disco Pendant. = It was a by-product of the Base Drum synchronizing circuit.

—– I’ll show you those Sound-reactive LED Pendant in the coming posts.

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Cat’s Toy

While living with cats, I designed many Cat’s Toy. 

or cat’s Teaser.

After all, cats are still the hunter = they chase 

anything moves, though, the birds are a bit too

fast ( still, they brought me 2 sparrows and one

wood pigeon ! —— this pigeon was as big as the

cat, Pino II herself. —– But they are the headache on the “Diplomatic Protocol”

= Gift has to be accepted with full gratitude and has to be eaten.  M m m ?   😀

When they saw a bird they make very peculiar sound like clacking noise “Ka ka ka — ka ka ka”

And flying Butterfly makes them excite most.

= So, I designed a Cat Teaser using the Bird’s Feather which fly like a flapping Butterfly.  

= On the Photo above,  3 Feathers were arranged to make a propeller (to make it rotate)  then

short elastic string was used between Ball-chain and Feathers.   Elastic string gives flexibility

when the feather was caught by a cat (to prevent cat’s nail to break).   And the Ball-chain

allow the feather propeller to rotate.  (—– In short, it is a fly-fishing rod for a cat.  😀 ) 

The game is, moving the feather propeller on front of a cat, but keep it never be caught.

Whole string was tied on top of a collapsible Radio-Antenna, hence it became very small.

In fact, it would give a good exercise to the cats, and to the cat’s owner alike.

= Cat catches it  first, or you pull it a moment before ?    🙂

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Flower of Fig-titiosa

  With a request of HM Bente, a servant,

Plant Hunter, Yoshizen took an expedition

to find an elusive legendary flower of Fig.

After a great journey and the hard work,

he discovered it and brought back a flower

for the world to see it, first ever the time

in the history of mankind.

(though, this photograph was too

over-saturated, hence the color is not

very faithful representation of  its nature.

—— you are better advised to refer to the next photo.  🙂 )

The formal name of this plant is  [Ficus. Figtitiosa var Brag]    !

Yes, honest, this is nothing other than the Flower of the Fig.

You got open your mind and the eyes. —– Convinced ?  

(A wise advice is, eat this with a pinch of salt.)  😉

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Costume design / Flat Panel to 3D Sculpture

I went to a dress rehearsal of performance held at a private club, and took pictures

of this costume though, the club was members only private club,

I can’t give any detail but only show those photos.

Obviously the costume was pains takingly made by many designers, working together, still

I can’t give the detail of who were they, at moment.

—– It was a character in a story, an Eque.

What took my attention of this costume was,

its approach to design the hose head.

The curved structure was divided into each parts,

and formed, shaped, then put together.

—– When I designed something similar, 

a head of Flying Dragon, I figured out the

shape to make it only from the 2 panels, 

= upper part (face) and lower part (jaw), and the

back part of the head was made, cut and bent metal panel. (on top of those, some

additional joint panels, enforcing metal bar etc , still, despite its size and appearance, 

it took only 2 days to make = very simple structure hence easy to make.

—– when designer makes a shape of a horse head, most of the case it would be done by

either Papie-mash or Casted Glass-fiber Epoxy. —– to make it in this way was rather

unusual and looks fun.  🙂

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Focus-shifting Muliti-exposure Photo

Don’t worry, You don’t need to clean your specs.

 It’s not your eyes. —– Photo IS fuzzy and it’s meant to be.  😉

——————- (Hey, this is a very very pretty girly picture ! = Click it and see enlarged. 😉 )

These photos were taken by a technique,  Multi-Exposure with Focus-Shift.

—– In order to have an effect = a core image with out-of-focus halo around, I did

it before while camera was set on a tripod.     But this time I did it by hand-held.

I guess, it could be done by Hacking into camera’s operational program and

over-drive the AF motor while the camera is giving the multiple exposure. 

(Single exposure is too short to manually shift the focus. —– In the old days of

wooden camera, the old masters used the same technique to shift a focus while

giving a long exposure.  And the Minolta Alpha 7000 had this effect in their

Portrait Mode to create softer image. ) —– But, I found it was not

difficult to move the focus ring during the few multiple exposure. = Just Do it,

and if not successful try it again —– success rate is somewhat one in four.  😀

(not only how far focus to be shifted, but a trouble of camera-shake is also

a spoiling factor.  = If you are a bad shooter, shoot a lot — one might hit a target !)

————- (This must be a puzzling photo = where it was focused ?  😉 )

Keen reader of this blog might be realized that the post in these days were all connected

behind the scene = how camera can be steadily hand-held etc.  (without having enough

practice and gained a confidence, this kind of photography would be only a waste of time.  

Creativity does not occur out of blue,  it needs to have a base, or incubating ground.  

A practical adjustment  or improvisation may suddenly conceived on the spot but

it is a minute part of the operation.

 

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Home-made flower :-D

It’s a middle of September, not many flower left.  

—– Don’t tell me to go to a florist.  I don’t buy flower or plant.  

They should be where they grow.  Unless I found a pot abandoned on the street.

—– (provided it’s not a meter-tall tree.)  —— Then Kinetorori murmured me  

“If no flower, why not make one yourself” —– It’s a his bad habit.

It’s the most un-Zen like practice though, —– I did.  😀 

 (Out of used envelope.)

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So, a flower is blooming in my room. (keep blooming for foreseeable future.  😀 )

Buddhists telling us “Live on the moment”

—– though, I took a way against it.  

A photograph is imprisoned to the moment.  

So, to have a Jailbreak of this “Moment”

I made a photo to have rather prolonged span

of time (unlike ordinary photographic norm).  

The photo above consists multiple exposure

while having its focus shifted.  = Yet another

attempt to create fuzzy image —– went

beyond a soft-focus lens,  yet keeping a sharp core of

image, unlike a pinhole photo.  

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Body Parts

Those photos are just a casual snap of the people playing with computer.  

But using 500 mm lens hand-held. = naturally, there was not much room to use

such long telephoto lens in a small room, picture became a kind of close-up.  

Yet still, it was 2 m away, people didn’t mind to be photographed much. —– and

I found a quite unusual usefulness of this lens, despite it is rather dark F 8.

(ISO was set to 1600,  shutter speed was  1/15 ~ 1/30, AV mode — just to mention) 

I hope you enjoy the photos.  😉 

Next time I hope to upload more appetising body-parts.  😀  😀

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End of Summer — Snap-shot by 500 mm Lens

If I didn’t tell you, you may not noticed that they were taken by 500 mm lens.

All the photos here except the obvious one were taken by a Tamron 500 mm

Mirror lens.  Photo looks pretty ordinary, and nothing special are they ?

Even with its 500 mm focal length, thanks to its fundamental design (incoming light

was internally reflected back and forward twice)  mirror lens can be less than 1/3rd of

its  focal length = in deed,  this lens got

only  11o mm long and 87 mm diameter

= say, mere one-size larger than my mug-cup.

So, the people on front of the camera may not

noticed that they’ve  been photographed.

= anyway they don’t mind others 10 , 20 m away. 

And of cause, I could easily take picture of a Mulberry, few left high on a branch. 

I found scattered confetti on a ground = it must be left by a wedding photo-do.

So, the summer 2013 has gone. (more or less)  😉

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Reflection on a pond

Those are the simple straight shot of the reflection on a water.  

If only it was not simple, was they were shot by 500 mm lens.

Please see the photos in large size by clicking the photo (and again.  😉 )

Long telephoto lens mean, it was in fact just in a small corner of the water.   😉

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500 mm Macro lens ?

The other day I tested an 800mm Mirror lens of which my friend just obtained.

In fact it was a gift from his Daughter.  Lens was for Canon DSLR though, funnily enough

he got no Canon SLR.  —— that’s why I was asked to test, whether for a sake of that lens,

is it worthwhile to buy a camera body.  🙂     These days, people seeing even a small compact

camera started to have extremely high zoom ratio, such as Panasonic’s  x60 zoom

(equiv’ 20 ~ 1200 mm)  they no longer “fear” long telephoto lens.

—– That lens was (amazingly !) good.     So, he is going to become a bird photographer.  🙂

I hope him to become an expert of  “800 mm” lens and capture a lots of bird photos.

As a matter of fact, I got a Mirror lens too, but not  800 mm, my one is  500 mm.

“Naturally”, not very often used though, it was a Tamron F8 Mirror lens = once dabbed

as the second best mirror lens among the 500 mm mirror lens after the Zeiss.  (mind you,

Zeiss Mirrotar 500 mm carries a price of  5 million yen —– but Tamron was 50,000 yen

—– I got it in second hand for 20,000 yen.  😉 )

Not just sharp, Tamron 500 mm was designed to produce good close-up image as well, 

hence its closest distance comes down to  1.7 m and able to take  x 1/3 close-up !

This is a clopped part of the photo. Depth of the field is so shallow still, not too bad isn’t it,  

considering it was nearly  2 m away.    (Can you imagine to look into the reflecting pattern

of batterfly’s eye from  2 m distance ! ) —– (Only when if we could manage extremely

critical focus under F8  darkness of view-finder ! ) 

( Fish-eye photo was an extra —– just for fun.  😉 )

Another trouble is, because of the angle of view is less than  5 degree = quite difficult

to know  “Where AM I watching ?”  especially, when the image was out of focus.  😀

As out of focus Bokhe become funny ring pattern —– you may hate, or some time

they looks more decorative. —– it’s a character.    It could be a good fun to play with !

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