Not meaning to threadjack but talk about stories swords can tell - here's a picture of
a kirikomi (sword strike) on the mune of the sword - and you can see that there's still
a chunk of the other guy's sword embedded in it...
Excellent idea. Good to know that thing is good for something
That's exactly what it is...and as far as I can tell, that's all it's good for . It's too big for any monopod I've ever seen...it's more like a baseball bat cover. Fits Canon speedlights perfectly though. It's a little large for my older Nikon flashes. I've used it for a snoot quite a bit, and it works great. You can even mush the end of it a little to change the shape if you want.
Wish I could take credit for the idea, but I heard someone, somewhere mention it a long time ago. The potatoes used as mini-sandbags though...that one's all mine .
Thanks for the link... They very well could be from a WWII sword, I'm afraid most of the history of this particular blade is lost. I bought it from a friend of my dad who collected them back in...1986 I think. I was just a kid (about 6th grade) and he told me he'd sell it to me for $200 (probably thinking there was no way I'd ever come up with the money). I saved for the better part of two years to come up with the cash, but when I did he kept his word...and it's been mine ever since. He'd done some research on it and gave me the papers he had...I have them around here somewhere but I think they're still boxed up after my last move. He had the name of the maker and the approximate date it was made (1680). He got it from another collector...I would guess it's most likely one of the blades brought back from Japan after the war.
On topic, I dig your studio . That shot on my stove was lit with two speedlights...around 1/16 power IIRC.
Thanks on the spelling - I fixed it in the posting - my keyboard has seen better days,
and I hadn't had my caffeine quota when replying, and...
On the seppa, it could well be that somebody swapped out the tsuba and/or tsuka, or
maybe just the seppa 'cause they thought it looked cool or the original rolled
under something and an owner at one point couldn't retrieve it or something - who knows...
I've seen a LOT of mix-n-match swords here in the states, though you're right - usually
people don't put gunto pieces on a "traditional" koshirae.
That actually isn't my best work (it was a test pic), but...
The lighting on swords is a pain (that's why I haven't done any in a while) - I end
up building a tent out of black cloth,using a big sheet of plexi to put the sword on,
and go from there. They all seem to need something a little different to
look their best... (the fittings are actually worse for this, but...).
The one really bad thing to look out for is how much resolution you
need - they are extremely contrasty, and you actually need a LOT of pixels to get
a decent print - as an example, here's a couple of overalls I shot a long time ago
with my 10D
: yasumitsu_front yasumitsu back
As you can see, you don't see much at that point - in hand the piece is actually
stunning - there's at least another level of detail you can't see at this resolution...
Best,
rkg
(Richard George)
BrianO wrote:
Yep, and the aoi daizeppa normally fit into recesses on the tsuba, and have kozeppa over them. It's unusual to see them used on pre-meji katana.
Kirikomi.
Your closeup of your blade looks geat; the hada is very clear. How did you light it in your makeshift studio? (See; no thread drift at all. )
BrianO wrote:
Not exactly. It is an expanded polystyrene foam, like Styrofoam, but it also adds a polyfilm barrier on one side and a metallic film on the other.
I know, I was just trying to simplify for the laymen. The point is, it's just a pretty cheap, light weight solution that can be bought at your local hardware store.
Thanks, I'm able to keep the garage clean because I have two huge closets (the one not shown on the other side of my vehicle in the first picture has double doors, 10x6')in there and a 12x16 storage building at the rear of my back yard. So the grill, chemicals, paint, kids' riding toys, etc. are all in the garage closets and the riding mowers, weedeater, etc. are all in the building out back
The polyshield is just 4x8 sheets of the styrofoam house sheathing like mentioned. I cut through one layer of the outside of it and about halfway through the foam core and then bent and snapped it leaving the shiny side intact (kinda like you cut sheet rock) and that acts as the hinge. So nothing is taped together, it's just folded the long way. I got this stuff because it was only $9 a sheet and I wanted to make bi-folds like Zack Arias has here:
Although from my experimentation they don't prevent background light wrap as much as I had hoped and I've been using them more to block the sunlight from the garage windows when I shoot during the day than as background light bi-folds. I think this may have something to do with their reflectiveness vs. Zack's non reflective wooden ones.
That is just savage white paper and then three 4x8 sheets of the white panelboard/tileboard that is shown in the Zack Arias link above instead of two.
Oh, and for the cold days I have this propane torpedo heater that will heat up the garage from ~40 degrees or so to 80 degrees in just 15-20 minutes. It's kind of loud and scary for kids but I can run it for 20 minutes, and then bring them in and shoot for a good 20-30 minutes before the temp falls back to 70 or so and then we'll just take a break if needed. Usually running it for 5-10 minutes during outfit changes has been perfect to keep it toasty in there this winter.
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