Development of Foetus
Well, I meant not a baby but wire-Figure in Foetus Posture.
Unlike a body posture spreading limbs, Foetus posture might be more awkward to
make sense, because it might become just like a pill of wire. —– So, I tested how it
could be made simple and still convincingly looks like a human-figure. — The first
study above was made its back and the legs separately, so each did look “likely” shape.
(I found, in Foetus posture, it doesn’t need to have a head —- We think head was
buried between the shoulder. 🙂 )
Then, the second attempt was how to reconcile the joint of upper-body and the legs.
—– This one was not successful or smart enough though.
The head was accommodated in the third model.
Looks not yet streamlined enough —– though,
so far this is the final piece called Foetus.
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Drawing with Invisible Force
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This is a wonderful watercolour drawing by Elene Caravela, which I found in her blog:
elenacaravela.wordpress.com (Quality sake, please see her Original Drawing there)
Elena has been one of the most prolific artist and the blogger who showed Watercolors, Oil paintings,
Photographs = very wide coverage of genre in very high quality work.
In the past year or so, I always impressed, even amazed by her drawings,
how her almost whimsical free blush strokes able to capture such vivid and also
realistic human figure. —– What is the secret of her creation ?
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To my comment and a notice that I want to re-blog —– she gave me her reply ;
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I’d be flattered Yoshi. I guess, I plan in my head a bit to make sure the figure will fit on the page
(mentally count out head size both vertically and horizontally, but really loosely).
Then see the movement on the spine and extremities. The force takes over.
Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t 🙂
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—– As she said, she might have given some consideration to the size of the
head etc. = here the thinking stops, then “the Force takes over”
To see her blush work, there is no hesitation, its quick movement some times creates even
the paint splash or drip. (in another piece) = blush and the hand moves perfectly spontaneous.
So, —— in such spontaneous blush stroke, look again the drawing above, = one blush stroke
perfectly depicted the body-line to the round bottom. — I guess, here not only the
direction of the blush movement, also it involved certain control of the pressure to the blush
and its twists, which determine the width of the line. (though, only a guess — I know the way how
to use curving chisels but not necessary the drawing blush 🙂 ) — all in the moment of one stroke!
This phenomenal control was done by the invisible Force, not possible by a human thinking.
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Spontaneity mean, there is no intentional control or thinking. —– This is nothing other than what
Lord Buddha taught = the state of Selfless / Mushin, therefore “The Force takes over”
= this Force is what Buddhists call the Dharma ! (or the Rules of the Universe)
The moment when the blush and the subject meet, the tension and the heat created
on that moment, drives the blush wild. = and creates dynamic impressive piece.
(consideration or useless thinking such as what others or market may think etc. spoil the tension
and the heat, hence makes the piece dull)
But Elena got perfect freedom not bothered by useless thinking, and I guess, when her blush was
driven by the Force, even she, herself may not able to control = blush got its own mind and move
almost automatically. That is how she creates such impressive work = It’s wild, as it was driven
by the Force of artistic nature. 🙂 That is what the art of Elena stands out.
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By the way, don’t get me wrong, I’m not implying Elena’s work is anything to do with Buddhism.
Far from it, the state of Selflessness is one of the inherent human psychological nature.
Buddhism applied it to more general aspects of the life. Not only the superb blush work, we can
achieve the superb life with it. = Quite similar to that Love is not because of the Christianity, but
they applied it to much deeper spiritual level.
Zen Buddhism pushed the potential of Selflessness to its extremities.
—– That is what the Zen Buddhism is.
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Elena has acquired this state of mind while drawing / practicing again and again,
probably tens of the thousands of times. Hence, the Buddhism using the same way of
the approach = practice it again and again until the hand started to move automatically.
= Hand moves automatic = without thinking = without self conscious = Selflessness.
In the Selflessness, invisible force takes over. This force is the Dharma. = Under
the control of the Dharma, phenomenal freedom and the result can be achieved.
This is how the Selflessness in the Zen Buddhism works.
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Handmade Flash System (3) — Macro Flash
In the close-up photography, the exposure was a headache before the TTL metering was invented. Still, the use of flash-light remained yet another headache —– until TTL auto flash-light was developed. (When the lens was close-focused, effective F-aperture changes logarithmically (= life-size shot darken 2 F-stop, unless the lens was designed using internal flow focusing system) and the flash-light intensity changes in distance also logarithmically ( = brightness on 0.5m is x4 brighter than it was in 1m distance) Yet still, in practice, even those TTL flash-light was not necessary convenient to use for the close-ups, as they were not designed to be used in such close distance.
In the other hand, lens has been well advanced to have even extreme close-up, almost to the lens front though, in such close-up position, the big lens front block the light to the very subject.
= flash head has to be positioned, close to the subject.
[]As a matter of fact, close-up photography and its equipments are the cash-cow of the camera manufacturer. = The most of the people who “need” to do the close-up photography is the public institutes, doing scientific research or even police forensic photography etc.
Therefore, they pay the equipments what they were asked —– anyhow it’s not their money. (hence, they are so expensive, and creating so much profit.)
And in those scientific photographic front, the use of flash-light was much more preffered over other light-source such as tungsten light, because of the flash-light has no heat problem, and the xenon flash-light contain much more UV or near UV light which is often used for fluorescent effect of certain chemical, hence extremely important for forensic and medical photography.
[]But for a poor man on the street, those Macro Light from camera manufacturer is too expensive, even though, structurally they are not so special. =
So here, yet again, comes the same motto, WHY NOT make it ourselves.
(Though, here is a very strong WARNING ! Electronic flash is a Hi-Voltage lethal device, even if it was powered by batteries, some of the parts, inside are having more than 300V. And in operation, when it was triggered, some of the lines carries 3~4000V ! = Unless, you are very experienced in Hi-voltage circuit, I wouldn’t recommend you even open the housing of flash.
—– before handle, the capacitors has to be completely discharged through 1K, 5W register) ( I got many experiences of repairing studio-type flash, up to 5000WS, which discharges 1200V and handmade 600WS studio flash for my use. —– I’ll show it to you in another post.)
[]This macro flash was made with an easiest straight approach.
Just take the flash-head out and devised it to mount on the lens front that all.
Still, it rotates (and fixed) any position on front of the lens, and the head also rotates in two axis hence it enable the flash-head aiming to the subject, or rotate it upward and a paper stack to its head would make more natural diffused light as well.
The base of this modification was Nikon SB18 hence it works perfect as a TTL Macro Flash with old F3, FEII, F801 etc. etc. though, as Nikon changed the design of their flash control system in their digital camera, this one doesn’t work with such as latest D810.(so, the photo above may be misleading. 😉 ) May be I should make the same using their latest and cheapest flash. (in fact, structure of the flash head is all same, only 3 cables connected to the tube, I can connect this head even to a Canon flash.) ( So that, the photo above is just an illustration of mechanically “how it was constructed” and no sample photo of how this Macro Light works 😉 )
[]Funny story of this was, when I showed this to the Nikon (UK), their boss Mr. Obara was annoying so much and said “How come, you buy such cheap flash!” but their engineer was burst into a laughing “Yes, this is what all about the Macro Flash in deed” and said “You got far better skill than our prototyping engineer” —– though, it was 1986, just before my trouble started. Then I gave-up my photography, and most of my possessions were gone to storage if not sold, hence, there was even a single photo done by this flash ever existed. So that, when I found this in the bottom of cartoon box, I felt a bit of amazement and the sadness. —– One’s life has all sorts of twist and turns in deed.
(Yet still, I’m glad, my fun loving creativity and the skill on my hand didn’t die with it.)
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Handmade Flash System (2) — Light Bender
As a matter of fact, this is my first Digital Camera. It was a broken Kodak DC215 Digital Zoom camera
which was given by my friend as its battery chamber has been smashed.
So, he gave it for me to play with. Lens was x2 zoom (29~58mm equiv) and Image sensor was 1.5 MP.
( In today’s standard, it is a toy camera level though, 10 years ago, it was rather expensive good
camera 😉 ) Since the camera has been dropped and a corner of it has been smashed, I was not
sure whether it was repairable even if I get spare parts from Kodak. Still, with internal check, the
suspension mechanism of Zoom and Focus was not broken, I tested it with external power supply
—– it was functioning ! So that, not just repair the battery chamber, instead, I made an
additional battery housing attached to the bottom of the camera to use it with
5 rechargeable batteries. (Originally, 1.5V x 4 = 6V —-> 1.2V x 5).
Camera has its built-in Flash and it was working though, as I wrote before, I don’t like this kind of
direct flash lighting. So that, I made a Light reflecting adapter to bend the light upward.
Then with a hand held white paper this light was reflected again toward the subject
therefore able to create more natural lighting with soft shadow. (photos below)
(Left: By camera’s built-in Flash. Center: with the reflecting adapter and a paper.
Right: (the same)—- the difference is obvious. (This is what the Photography is)
To have a modification of existing flash system, there could be tens of different approaches,
each having pros and cons. Without a heavy internal modification, put a cover on the existing
flash with light sensor to trigger another flash-light is a viable alternative. —– In fact, you can
test a small reflector like this, Just use a small piece of baking-foil, stacked 45 degree on front of
your camera’s flash. —– If you got a camera, which is no longer in use, why not to try.
There isn’t much mystery in the camera design, if it was designed by a human-being,
why not possible to modified by others. Just do it. It’s a fun. :-)
And it would be a start of ACTIVE creative photography to play with light !
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Don’t Think -vs- Think yourself
Almost crèche like joke among the Zennist is this contradiction.
Think yourself yet still Don’t think. Well, here is a typical sample.
This is an Electronic multi-meter, and the matter here is its cables. Some of you might think
“What the matter to fuss about such trivial things” and you may say “Anyhow, when we use next time,
we need to loose the cables anyway. Why bother to tidying up each time ?” —– still in the same time,
you may remember the past trouble of entangled cables with other wire. And when the cable was left
loose on the work bench, you may needed to un-entangle them while wasting the time which was
always in the busiest moment. And in the worst situation, try to pull the cable out, then it was broken,
and in such moment you don’t have a spare. In any account, it is better to keep the cable tidy.
No one can argue or think otherwise.
Not told by others, what you thought and convinced by yourself,
its understanding stays for ever.
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This is the end of argument and the THINKING process. Once you were convinced,
just DO IT in practice. (—– only an obstacle is your laziness. 🙂
But, if you a person, aiming better, you will DO IT. Why not. This is THE ZEN.)
—– in practice, once you made it as a habit = after use, always just put the cable back to round
the meter and tie it up with the tape. (to make it like in the photo ! )
It is a simple practice hence, no-one need to think or use the brain to do it.
—– the hand will do it automatically as a habit. = When everything are tidy, there
wouldn’t be any havoc on the work. —– This is how “Peace of mind” comes from. 🙂
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Lord Buddha’s teachings are all for gaining the NO SELF, and MUSHIN state of mind.
To be in this state, everything has to be left to the subconscious hence NO conscious thinking there.
Because of this, he showed how he does it and made the followers to copy, or gave an instruction
what to DO. But never explained why, or what was the intention. Simply because, if it was
explained, the person remember the word, then an action become “an action according to the word”
= stuck to its notion / Thinking.
This is the reason why, if you think, Sitting is for a practice of Mushin, you are wrong.
If you sit, just sit. = If you settle your bottom on the floor, that is what sitting is. You don’t need any
thinking. —– In fact, it doesn’t matter, whether you are standing or walking.
= Just let the body to DO, stand or walk.
Without your thinking, your body knows everything how to keep balance while sitting or walking
whatsoever. This automatic, inherent perfect control was seen as the Dharma.
(Hence, the Dharma is in you !)
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Then, what you can see or find in the state of absolute Selfless, Mushin —– So far,
NO clear description was ever elucidated by anyone.
Just say, the state of Panya Paramita. —– there might be NOTING.
Or, this Nothing may be the ultimate wisdom what human being can ever get.
So to say, the Dharma is everything, in the same time it is nothing = VOID.
(If you think, it is a matter for you.—– But, if you don’t think, there is no issue here. 😀 😀 )
How great, Zen is. — don’t you agree ? Ha ha ha. 😀
___/\___
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Handmade Flash System (1) — Flash with Umbrella
Among my flash system, this is the one I’ve been using the most.
Most (not exactly all) of the photos of table-top shot kind in this blog such as
cooking samples has been photographed using this flash system.
And some party shot such as Capricorn Party was shot by this as well.
The base of this system is an Agfa 383CS flash-light (but actually it was made by Japanese Nisshin)
which takes SCA300 camera interface adapter (so, I used to use the adapter for Nikon, Canon, Contax
etc etc. for TTL compatible type, AF compatible type etc etc.) though, as the camera evolved so rapidly
and their control system became too complicated, hence, those system became obsolete in mid 80s.
—– still, this flash itself has External Auto as well, and of cause the full out-put manual and minimal
(somewhat 1/20th) for rapid fire. And on top of this, it got additional front flash to give
“Catch-light in Eyes” when used with bounce-light !
The rotating head has rotating diffuser as well which spread the light coverage from 35mm lens to
24mm lens. —– Almost everything what most of the user needs.
(As far as I know, this is the most well thought-out flash, ever made.
And after nearly 30 years use, it is still in full working order = its reliability is remarkable ! )
But, unless the subjects are more than 5m away, to take picture with a straight
flash-light mounted on camera —– is what I don’t do. If a light was placed next to
the eyes, similar to Head-lamp, there will be no shadow on the subject.
It is the most unnatural lighting. —– For the most of the subject I needed to work with,
(think, a portrait kind in an interview situation, or to capture a dining scene in a restaurant) is
about 1~2m distance. Other shot such as whole room, restaurant, shop etc will be covered by
another more powerful flash(s) or even studio type flash-light placed somewhere in the side.
Therefore, to photograph the subject in talking-distance, I modified my flash-light
to take an umbrella reflector.
Thence, I could create a photo, looks more natural 45 degree lighting, top lighting etc
with just a swing of my hand —– it’s mean, to operate the camera by right hand only = (before
camera was fully automatised with Auto-focus, it was a bit of special skill. —- think about, such as
Pentax 6×7 or Hasselbrad in one-hand operation with almost studio quality lighting, without the
cost of assistant. 😀 —– and that was how I nearly monopolized Japanese business here. 😉 )
The modification of the flash-light was just done by a simple cut and put-together
aluminium piece kind of work which you can see from the photos.
—– May be the most peculiar part must be the Umbrella.
This is the umbrella only one in the world = specially hand made by a craftsman who has been
making studio flash umbrella for such as Kishin Shinoyama etc. The craftsman had happened to
have his family business, selling and repairing the umbrella in Roppongi of Tokyo, where many
photo-studio situated. Since the photographer who brought back an umbrella from the west asked
him to repair or even to make the same, he became the only Craftsman catering those needs in Tokyo.
For him, my requirement to make such small (diameter 50cm) umbrella was, of cause first ever
funny request. Nevertheless, I got the one what I wanted = literally pocket size Umbrella. 😀
(You may find 70cm size which is using child umbrella frame) —– (In fact, I’ve experimented to
make small one, such as using only half of collapsible umbrella or toy umbrella etc.)
—– the reason is obvious, if you got to move around with umbrella, it catch or hit anything =
the smaller the better though, if it is too small, it wouldn’t work as a diffuser.
The size has to be the same size of the spread of light from flash in its distance. )
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Most of the Umbrella adopter for a small Flash, fix the umbrella facing straight to the flash.
My design aiming the flash from the bottom, hence some light escape from the umbrella still,
the light intensity is only 2 F-stop drop. Considering the diffused ligh covering
almost Fish-eye lens, the efficiency is not too bad at all !
(In fact the escaped light is bounced back from the ceiling, also contribute some good effect 🙂 )
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With the age of very advanced DSLR, which got ISO speed even 25,000, it is easy to produce
the photo only with available light and it looks natural of cause. But in the other hand the skill
to manipulate the image, intentionally hide something in the dark, kind is all left to
the after process of PS. Though the trouble is, PS often looks too unnatural.
Resorting natural light still end-up unnatural image is not very funny. 😀
Because of the shadow, we know the significance and the meaning of the Light.
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Photos in Tone
Nature has its own tone, under rather subdued light, it’s shows subtle shade.
Shape and its 3D structure may not as clear like the image under the direct light though,
we are not necessary need to see such detail.
Subtle shade seemed to show more of what they are as it is.
Just see and appreciate as they are, without imposing my view is in fact less tiring and
able to relax. After all, the photos here are not for any scientific or reference purpose.
They are just what they are today as I’m here on this moment.
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Robot astronaut Kirobo
This is an article from Gizmag —– it looks cute and interesting story.
—– Even a grown-up astronaut, not a Hary-Potters kids, feel comfort talking with robot
might be a reflection of Japanese Shinto religion, which sees the spirit in any beings.
Robot astronaut Kirobo headed for ISS in August
By David Szondy
June 26, 2013
The video below (in Japanese) shows Kirobo going through its paces.
Source: Toyota
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Cuckoo’s Spit
I think the plant is Lavender, and every year, it seems a lots of Cuckoo came here
and have a spit fight. (Some says it was not Cuckoo but a snake 🙂 )
Still, inside, the nymphs of Frog-hopper ( Cercopoidea) called Spittlebugs are growing
while sucking the sup from the plant, and making a bubble foam to hide.
May be strong taste of Lavender repel another insects. The photo, center shows a
Frog-hopper just left a froth home, then the body color darken. (right photo)
This insect is, despite its minute size, ( you believe or not) a cousin of Cicada, hence
they are a miniature version of their cousin, and having the same habit to suck a sup.
(Though, I don’t know how this insect coming back next year —- egg stays somewhere
(inside of plant ?) or the female pass over a winter ? —– Does anybody know ? )
Nature’s system and it’s life cycle always fascinates me. — Even such minute fragile life
has their own system to weather the element and manage the continuation of species
—– for millions of years ! Has they got wisdom let alone a brain ? Or all in their GENE ?
How those GENE has been programmed ?
—– So, the Buddhist calls it the Dharma. System and the governing rules.
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Eucalyptus and Bumble Bee
Eucalyptus are very common in this country still not well known with it’s flowers.
This one bloom every year on their hedge of one of neighbours. And when it bloom,
the Bumble Bees are frantic, literally as busy as bee. Never pose to a camera. 😀
Eucalyptus only came from Australia. In the same extent, Protea only came from
South Africa. —– Still, such as Tree fern or Cycad can come from both countries.
Because those living fossil plants spread all over one big continents called Pangaea
which was separated to Africa, Australia, America etc. together with their plants.
(then their own peculiar plants evolved separately).
( Plants on Pangaea didn’t have flower —– where is the origin of flowering Gene ? ? ? )
—– So, it’s interesting, why the honeys from those plants are still the same ? ? ? 🙂
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