Dec 2014
Burleigh Heads beach at dawn
30 December 2014 Filed in: Photography
Just a few photos I took of Burleigh Heads beach as the sun came up this morning. A fresh, beautiful and surprisingly active part of the day. A lot of walkers, joggers, surfers, and a couple of photographers.
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Eastern water dragon
27 December 2014 Filed in: Photography | Beasts out the back
Wife Mariko gave me an enrolment into a 7-week online photography course with Mike Browne as an early Christmas present. I’d dabbled a bit in photography many many years ago with black and white film back in the olden times before digital cameras, and used to develop my own negatives and print my own photos. Unfortunately over the years work, time and probably a bit of laziness got the better of me and my interest gradually waned.
I bought myself an entry level digital SLR about 18 months ago (Canon EOS Kiss X5 — the Japanese term for the 600D or Rebel T3i) and since then my interest in photography has been rekindled. I’ve never been happy with my photos, though, which are fairly ordinary at best, so after fiddling around with the camera and finally getting to know what all the buttons and knobs for digital photos are (I used to have a Canon AE1, then an EOS 650 and EOS 620 — I’m a Canon person), I decided to bite the bullet and try and add some structure to my learning. Mike Browne has great videos on YouTube, so I enrolled into his 7 Building Blocks of Photography course. Still early days, but so far I’m pleased with the way the course is going and I’m learning a lot.
Anyhow, the first week’s exercises were focused mainly on observing light and how it affects the image and shades and colours within the image. I got up bright and early a week ago (last Saturday) just after dawn, and wandered around near home taking some photos for practice with various types of lighting. In one place I hopped down next to a drain area leading into one of the canals to see if there was anything interesting with the lighting. There wasn’t, but just as I was about to turn back, I heard this shuffling sound. I looked closely in the direction of the sound, and found this staring straight back at me.
I bought myself an entry level digital SLR about 18 months ago (Canon EOS Kiss X5 — the Japanese term for the 600D or Rebel T3i) and since then my interest in photography has been rekindled. I’ve never been happy with my photos, though, which are fairly ordinary at best, so after fiddling around with the camera and finally getting to know what all the buttons and knobs for digital photos are (I used to have a Canon AE1, then an EOS 650 and EOS 620 — I’m a Canon person), I decided to bite the bullet and try and add some structure to my learning. Mike Browne has great videos on YouTube, so I enrolled into his 7 Building Blocks of Photography course. Still early days, but so far I’m pleased with the way the course is going and I’m learning a lot.
Anyhow, the first week’s exercises were focused mainly on observing light and how it affects the image and shades and colours within the image. I got up bright and early a week ago (last Saturday) just after dawn, and wandered around near home taking some photos for practice with various types of lighting. In one place I hopped down next to a drain area leading into one of the canals to see if there was anything interesting with the lighting. There wasn’t, but just as I was about to turn back, I heard this shuffling sound. I looked closely in the direction of the sound, and found this staring straight back at me.
It’s an eastern water dragon (Intellagama lesueurii lesueurii).
I know it wasn’t part of the exercises, but the opportunity to take photos so close was too good to miss out on.
So I kept taking photos, and eventually it sauntered over. Water dragons can be territorial, but this one didn’t show any aggression. It was probably just interested in finding out what this idiot with the black box thingy in his hand was doing.
It came over so close that I could have reached out and touched it, but it’s a wild animal, and the last thing I was interested in was having this thing become startled and climb up and tap dance on top of my head.
After a while of strolling around and checking me out, it decided that it had had enough, and wandered off into the drain.
For some reason, this pose and the look it gave reminds me of Robert Di Nero in Taxi Driver — “You talkin’ to me?”
It wasn’t a large beast, but a reasonable size of about 40-50cm. A fascinating morning, and I did manage to get some half-decent photos later on.
Webhosting move
22 December 2014 Filed in: General
My web hosting provider shifted to a new hosting infrastructure, so if you notice anything strange about any of the pages on my website, I’d be grateful if you could let me know.
Thank you.
Thank you.
New pattern - Chōchin masu-tsugi
I managed to squeeze in another pattern before I finish off the YouTube shoji. This one is called chōchin masu-tsugi. It’s very similar to the chōchin izutsu-tsugi I made last year and included in the blog here and the patterns section here. All the difficulties with this kind of pattern I mentioned in the chōchin izutsu-tsugi blog and pattern sections are further compounded by the jaguchi at the ends of the locking pieces for this pattern. These jaguchi on the ends are a “one-go” cut, and even the slightest inaccuracy means the piece ends up in the bin. It’s a good test of patience.
New pattern - Shokkō
This is the shokkō pattern, and the latest one I’ve made for Book 2. Like all of the shokkō family of patterns, this also lends itself to tremendous variety in shape and character. Apart from the large number of cuts, the most difficult aspect of this pattern is that there are two different angles in the jaguchi on both ends of the diagonal locking pieces. In this particular design, one side of the jaguchi is 67° and the other is 23°.
It took nearly an hour through trial and error to set up the two jaguchi jigs needed to cut the two angles. Even after the end stops had been set on the jigs, minor variations in the pattern dimensions (a natural result of hand cutting everything) required very slight adjustments in the relative position of the locking piece being cut and the end stop. This is what is known in Japanese as “kan” (勘), which is a sense or feel based on experience. Believe me, there’s a lot of kan involved in shoji, and especially kumiko work.
It took nearly an hour through trial and error to set up the two jaguchi jigs needed to cut the two angles. Even after the end stops had been set on the jigs, minor variations in the pattern dimensions (a natural result of hand cutting everything) required very slight adjustments in the relative position of the locking piece being cut and the end stop. This is what is known in Japanese as “kan” (勘), which is a sense or feel based on experience. Believe me, there’s a lot of kan involved in shoji, and especially kumiko work.
Now it’s back to the shoji video for YouTube.
New pattern - Shokkō kaku-tsunagi
This is the latest pattern I completed for Book 2. It’s the shokkō kaku-tsunagi, and is closely linked to the kaku-tsunagi pattern.
This is a beautiful pattern that has its most impact when looked at from a distance. Initially the eyes tend to focus on the small diagonals forming stars, but the slightest shift in focus sends the stars into the background and the squares to the front.
This is a beautiful pattern that has its most impact when looked at from a distance. Initially the eyes tend to focus on the small diagonals forming stars, but the slightest shift in focus sends the stars into the background and the squares to the front.
Making a shoji - Part 1
I’ve uploaded part 1 of the making a shoji video. This part covers marking the stiles and vertical tsukeko and kumiko. I hope you find it interesting.
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