Kan-zakura = Winter-cherry

Cherry blossom in this time of year ? —– you might say.  

But this is not fake or old photo.  This is real though —— 

In reality, actual looks of the cherry is far from Photogenic isn’t it.

= Whitish cherry flower has to stand out under the deep blue sky.

When the flower was under the bright sun-light, the pupil of

our eyes close, hence the sky behind became looks darker.

(It is the same situation of the bright snow-scape, sun and the sky is 

the same though, if the foreground is bright, the sky looks darker)

But when bright sun-light is not available —– why not make one.  😀

So, this is a photography,  completely opposite of the previous post

[What’s there ?] and the recent post such as [Fort’Mason’s —] where

I talked about “What is real or looked as it is” —– instead, here I tried

to create or falsify “Ideal image” with intentional manipulation.   🙂

So, I used a flash-light to brighten-up the flowers = F-aperture was

set for correct exposure for the flowers,  but the shutter speed was

set to make under-exposure for the sky. (make it looks darker)

Took advantage of flash-light,  I took the same flower’s photo

with Double-Density Pinhole.

Pinhole photography sound natural though, in reality, as it needs to give

rather long exposure, it is not necessary good for flower photography.  

( with wind, they move too much.  😀 )  

Use flush-light would be one of the answer. = So, this is an artificial 

creation of an artificial silk flower by Double-Density Pinhole photography

which satisfy my stereotypical idea of “What fluffy flowers should be” 🙂

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Year of Horse — Card Design Material

This is an addition to the previous

New-Year’s Card post.  🙂

So, it is for the link to  Japan Post  

and in their site, Material section.

I think, those material must be

easy to download and use.

And if you like to compose it with

Japanese style Blush Calligraphy,

either see the old post or see the next post and try it by yourself  ! ! ! 

(4~6th  page of Material section has many calligraphy samples ! )

Japanese New Year’s Card 2014 / Year of Horse

Gosh !   It’s the season again

to see the search-term looking

for the New year’s card design,

which ended-up here.  

— On the beginning, I just used

a card design for myself, then next

year people asked me where did I get ?  

—– and to give the informations became an annual custom here.

Those samples were provided by the Japan Post and they are free to use

for your personal greeting card though, the image I could copy here were

not in full size, and you are advised to go to their site and

properly download. 

( They are enticing you to send out the card by Yahoo Mail, otherwise,

they made it harder for just copying it as they are [png] format, 

not simple [jpg] = I guess, Yahoo use the data for their AD

—– free mean there is always a catch.  😀 )

Japan Post —– http://yubin-nenga.jp/search/ —- click here will open this 

Then, clicking left of Hose-man will open right screen-shot which is

showing thumbnails of ready-made New year’s card templates (1000

of them),  or if you click right of horse-man, the page will show you the

 material for you to design a card.

  (I’ll show you in the next post)

 

Fancy Vinegar Flask ! ——- ? ? ?

Week ago I’ve bought rather fancy item from Lidl shop.  

I don’t know the name which the receipt said Geschenkset.  = Anyhow

this is a Glass Flask to serve Vinegar and Olive-oil on the dining table. 

They were sold as a gift set (for a Xmas ?) —– Olive-oil and a Vinegar

together with a glass flask for £7.99 !

In fact, I was not interested in to

buy Olive-oil nor Vinegar, but

fascinated by the design of

glass which I can use it to

design strange sculpture kind.

Though, watching this many

days, I still couldn’t figure out

“How to make this” —– how a

Glass Craftsman made this !

Simplified description is, “Small glass flask inside of larger flask”

though, it is an utter puzzle to me = How it was made ? —— through a

hole of large flask, inserts a glass pipe with melted glass on the tip-end

and blow it up to make a small flask inside, and weld two together on

the edge of the hole —– though,  as the photo above showed, the neck of

the small flask is not an one-piece straight pipe = inside small flask was

made separately and the outside pipe was welded later.  But how ? ? ?

= If anybody who is reading this knows about the way to make,

please put a comment “How it was done” !

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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.)

[]

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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Battery Story

Battery is an animal among the electric devices because of it is an electro-chemical device

which is using “on-going chemical reaction”inside, therefore it comes with all sorts of

unpleasant temperament.   Despite their name dry-battery, they are hardly dry solid thing

but contain half wet compound.   Such as a common Zinc-Carbon battery, its inside of

Zinc-can  was filled with black Manganese-oxide which was wetted by the electrolytic

chemical, Ammonium-chloride, and while producing electric energy, they produce hydrogen

gas as well.  (Its pressure causes leak, and it could even explode = when they explode,

popped-up cap break the battery case. ! ) 

[]

Even though the battery was evolved into Hi-tech age and instead of humble Zinc, Lithium

is in fashion, still it is the same “electro-chemical device” so that, very fancy activity of the

chemical, such as crystallization cover the electrode etc. could be happening inside etc.

Not only the product (battery) is animal, to produce it is really a messy business.  This is the

reason why, most of them were produced in the country where environmental, health-safety

regulation is not strict.   (Such as to refine Zinc, its process need to use Cadmium which was

washed out to the river, hence in China, Cadmium contaminated rice, food in general is the 

serious but hidden problem)  —– Imagine, when the battery was mas-produced, somewhere

rather low-standard factory, how about the purity of the chemical, or how minute but crucial

additive such as a rare-earth material was evenly mixed = some got more and others got non.

= It is easy to see that why each individual battery is never the same.

[]

The trouble of the inconsistency of the battery become really a big problem in case of

rechargeable battery, especially when it was used in numbers such as 4xAA batteries

in a camera or a flash-light.

The situation is exactly the same in case of rechargeable lithium battery-pack, of which

in most of the case, battery-pack contains 2 lithium cells.  —– After ten of the charge cycles

the difference of each battery started to show-up. 

In case with the  4xAA, and if you are

using a charger which is charging each

individual cell (Individual type has

4 separate LED indicators), you must be

noticed that not all of them become Full in

the same time = some of them takes longer

to be fully charged.  

This is the inevitable fate of the battery =

some loose the original capacity much sooner

than others. ( So, I can say, the reliability is exactly what we have paid.

=  What you can get from a set is, what the worst one gives, not their nominal capacity. :-D)

[]

When the battery has this character, and if you charge them all together, while roughly checking 

the time such as 5 hours, 7 hours kind, or worse  until they become very hot, you are destroying

them. —– When one battery lost the capacity (such as 2500mAH drop to 2000mAH) that battery

become FULL much earlier than others and became hot.   Still if you didn’t noticed and keep

charging, it will be over-charged and makes that battery further deteriorate. — (So, which is the

safest way to charge them.  = Use the charge current  1/10th of the Capacity x 15 hours =

If it was 2500mAH Battery —- 2500 x 1/10 = 250mA current for 15 hours.  = Standard Charge !  )

[]

Even worse situation is, such as 4xAA were

used in an equipment, when the one which

lost the capacity became empty, its polarity

reverse (Yes, + became to – , same as you put it

wrong-way) then other batteries’ energy was

sucked by this empty battery ! —– Of cause,

it devastates that empty battery further =

in fact, kill-off. ( With the same reason, a

battery-pack of rechargeable tool never last

more than a year or two.  

And when we need replacement pack, the same type may no longer in the market.  

That is why the professionals only use such as Makita or DeWalt who keep selling the old type

many years. We never seen the same type again among the cheap Chinese tools.)

This worst situation may not occur in a case of latest DSLR because the camera monitor the

condition of the battery, yet still in its battery-pack, one of lithium cell has deteriorated earlier

than the other = So, when I disassembled old battery-pack which lost capacity and no longer

usable for the camera, I found the one of the cell was still usable = I reconstructed an usable

battery-pack out of 2 old packs. (Think about, it worth £50 ! —– though, I wouldn’t recommend

you to try the same. Unlike a simple battery-pack of rechargeable tool, lithium camera battery

has an additional safety device connected between two cells, hence a bit trickier to work-out,

and any mistake could cause expensive damage to the camera.)

[]

So that, when I buy Ni-MH battery, I buy 2 or 3 sets in the same time, and use them in rotation.

And time to time check their capacity to select best 4, which got same capacity to make a set.

To check the capacity, discharge each individual

battery through 1 ohm register and measure

the time how long it takes the voltage to drop

to o.8 V. —– But for most of the people, this

method is too awkward = So, my advice is,

Buy an “individual charge type rapid-charger”

and check the charging time, when one reached

Full, write the time on the battery, —– if the one

become Full, much faster than others, reject

that one. (It’s mean you need to keep a spare,

ready to replace with it. —– In long run, this tactics is cheaper and even if it is the second class,

there always a spare-set is in hand.)  —– More easier method is = check the voltage of each

battery with Battery-checker before charge them, (Unlike an ordinary test meter,  Battery

Checker measure the voltage while drawing the current, hence it shows the condition At-work)

and mark bad apple (s) and make a selection of  “Good 4s” and “Bad 4s”   😀

—– Yes, battery is really a necessary evil.   Unfortunately I still need them —- a lots.

——————————————-

Photo above is a battery pack which was dead.    Five  AAA type batteries inside,

3 were completely dead. —– Anyhow, I replaced all 5 batteries with new set.  

It is possible to do like this though, I wouldn’t recommend you to do this.

—– Without a use of Spot-welder, it need to use the soldering = the heat of

soldering would melt the insulating washer and would cause chemical leak and

cause much more expensive damage to the camera than the cost of battery.  😦  

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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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