#phonecamers

[svenituse]

found a starcale-energy pose on x

[fuyumiran]

They're just 2 silly little guys

[icecleats]

[s2z]

Carlton, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. 2024-08-08 17:16:10

Brutalist architecture illuminated by a car's brake lights.

[monching-photos-blog]

Mami noodles, sashimi & hot sake, perfect for a cold rainy Saturday night.

[petermorwood]

More on pre-electricity lighting.

Interesting to see this one pop up again after nearly two years - courtesy of @dduane, too! :->

*****

After experiencing a couple more storm-related power cuts since my original post, as well as a couple of after-dark garden BBQs, I've come to the conclusion that C.J. Cherryh puts far too much emphasis on "how dark things were pre-electric light".

For one thing eyes adjust, dilating in dim light to gather whatever illumination is available. Okay, if there's none, there's none - but if there's some, human eyes can make use of it, some better or just faster than others. They're the ones with "good night vision".

Think, for instance, of how little you can see of your unlit bedroom just after you've turned off the lights, and how much more of it you can see if you wake up a couple of hours later.

There's also that business of feeling your way around, risking breaking your neck etc. People get used to their surroundings and, after a while, can feel their way around a familiar location even in total darkness with a fair amount of confidence.

Problems arise when Things Aren't Where They Should Be (or when New Things Arrive) and is when most trips, stumbles, hacked shins and stubbed toes happen, but usually - Lego bricks and upturned UK plugs aside - non-light domestic navigation is incident-free.

*****

Here are a couple of pics from one of those BBQs: one candle and a firepit early on, then the candle, firepit and an oil lamp much later, all much more obvious than DD's iPad screen.

Though I remain surprised at how well my phonecam was handling this low light, my own unassisted eyes were doing far better. For instance, that area between the table and the firepit wasn't such an impenetrable pool of darkness as it appears in the photo.

I see (hah!) no reason why those same Accustomed Eyes would have any more difficulty with candles or oil lamps as interior lighting, even without the mirrors or reflectors in my previous post.

With those, and with white interior walls, things would be even brighter. There's a reason why so many reconstructed period buildings in Folk Museums etc. are (authentically) whitewashed not just outside but inside as well. It was cheap, had disinfectant qualities, and was a reflective surface. Win, win and win.

*****

All right, there were no switches to turn on a light. But there was no need for what C.J. describes as stumbling about to reach the fire, because there were tinderboxes and, for many centuries before them, flint and steel. Since "firesteels" have been heraldic charges since the 1100s, the actual tool must have been in use for even longer.

Tinderboxes were fire-starter sets with flint, steel and "tinder" all packed into (surprise!) a box. The tinder was easily lit ignition material, often "charcloth", fabric baked in an airtight jar or tin which would now start to glow just from a spark.

They're mentioned in both "The Hobbit" and "The Lord of the Rings". Oddly enough, "Hobbit" mentions matches in a couple of places, but I suspect that's a carry-over from when it was just a children's story, not part of the main Legendarium.

Tinderboxes could be simple, just a basic flint-and-steel kit with some tinder for the sparks to fall on...

...or elaborate like this one, with a fancy striker, charcloth, kindling material and even wooden "spills" (long splinters) to transfer flame to a candle or the kindling...

This tinderbox even doubles as a candlestick, complete with a snuffer which would have been inside along with everything else.

Here's a close-up of the striker box with its inner and outer lids open:

What looks like a short pencil with an eraser is actually the striker. A bit of tinder or charcloth would have been pulled through that small hole in the outer lid, which was then closed.

There was a rough steel surface on the lid, and the striker was scraped along it, like so:

This was done for a TV show or film, so the tinder was probably made more flammable with, possibly, lighter fuel. That would be thoroughly appropriate, since a Zippo or similar lighter works on exactly the same principle.

A real-life version of any tinderbox would usually just produce glowing embers needing blown on to make a flame, which is shown sometimes in movies - especially as a will-it-light-or-won't-it? tension build - but is usually a bit slow and non-visual for screen work.

*****

There were even flintlock tinderboxes which worked with the same mechanism as those on firearms. Here's a pocket version:

Here are a couple of bedside versions, once again complete with a candlestick:

And here are three (for home defence?) with a spotlight candle lantern on one side and a double-trigger pistol on the other.

Pull one trigger to light the candle, pull the other trigger to fire the gun.

What could possibly go wrong? :-P

*****

Those pistol lanterns, magnified by lenses, weren't just to let their owner see what they were shooting at: they would also have dazzled whatever miscreant was sneaking around in the dark, irises dilated to make best use of available glimmer.

Swordsmen both good and bad knew this trick too, and various fight manuals taught how to manage a thumb-shuttered lamp encountered suddenly in a dark alley.

There's a sword-and-lantern combat in the 1973 "Three Musketeers" between Michael York (D'Artagnan) and Christopher Lee (Rochefort), which was a great idea.

Unfortunately it failed in execution because the "Hollywood Darkness" which let viewers see the action, wasn't dark enough to emphasise the hazards / advantages of snapping the lamps open and shut.

This TV screencap (can't get a better one, the DVD won't run in a computer drive) shows what I mean.

In fact, like the photos of the BBQ, this image - and entire fight - looks even brighter through "real eyes" than with the phonecam. Just as there can be too much dark in a night scene, there can also be too much light.

*****

One last thing I found when assembling pics for the post were Folding Candle-lanterns.

They were used from about the mid-1700s to the later 20th century (Swiss Army ca. 1978) as travel accessories and emergency equipment, and IMO - I've Made A Note - they'd fit right into a fantasy world whose tech level was able to make them.

The first and last are reproductions: this one is real, from about 1830.

The clear part was mica - a transparent mineral which can be split into thin flexible sheets - while others use horn / parchment, though both of these are translucent rather than transparent. Regardless, all were far less likely to break than glass.

One or two inner surfaces were usually tin, giving the lantern its own built-in reflector, and tech-level-wise, tin as a shiny or decorative finish has been used since Roman times.

I'm pretty sure that top-of-the-line models could also have been finished with their own matching, maybe even built-in, tinderboxes.

And if real ones didn't, fictional ones certainly could. :->

*****

Yet more period lighting stuff here, including flintlock alarm clocks (!)

[dduane]

Today's version of a frequently-repeated theme around here:

@petermorwood sees documentary on YouTube and gets curious about contents of menu: in this case, in a 1930s film about one of the classic European Mitropa dining cars

Comes downstairs to get a better look at the rather fuzzy menu on the big TV

After intense joint scrutiny, phonecam image of the screen (because unfortunately the screen darkens when paused, so the image has to be caught on the fly)...

...reveals "Schottische gerstensuppe",: "Scottish Barley Soup".

Immediate recipe search ensues. Discovery while searching: "Graupen" is apparently a regional word for gersten, "barley". Who knew. :) Ingredients: onions, garlic, boneless lamb from the leg or shoulder, leeks, carrots, celeriac, bouillon, bay leaf, salt, pepper, grated nutmeg...

(omnomnom)

Add leeks and stewing lamb to end-of-week shopping list.

And then back to work...

cc: @flowerbarrel: Here's the film Peter was looking at. Here, also, is a longer one featuring some of the same footage, additionally including a look at how Mitropa services worked toward the end of their run in the late 90s. And a third one featuring one of these handsome old restaurant coaches refurbished and turned into a stationary restaurant.

Disclosure: we got to ride a few of the trains featuring Mitropa dining cars before the service closed down, when food service generally moved to a model featuring more precooked food instead of actual cooks cooking things to order. The attentiveness and expertise of staff working these dining cars was always fabulous, and the food was routinely terrific even when it was just something extremely simple like gulaschsuppe (@petermorwood's favorite).

Meanwhile, it's still possible to get reproductions of Mitropa's famous "coffee core" service pieces. They're not cheap, but the genuine articles, if they're in anything like good shape, are way more expensive. (sigh) Nostalgia...

[ikiyou]

Farewell to Dazai's bridge in Mitaka

It was shut down this week, because it is due to be torn down, presumably starting next week. The city can no longer pay for its upkeep. The bridge was built in the 1920s, and Dazai used it frequently when he was living in Mitaka.

There was a final crossing event held last weekend, and this Saturday, it is already roped off. One stairway has barricades, the other just orange barriers. The only people on the bridge had shirts labeled "Staff," probably doing last inspections.

I didn't know about the final crossing in time, so I rushed out on Saturday to take some final pictures. Arrived around sundown. I did a small Chuuya cosplay with the bridge to remember it, wearing BSD Dazai's bolo tie.

This is the stairway on the south side. Difficult to see the full span from here:

A few shots on the north side as Chuuya. Not a pro shoot, just phonecam, sun already below the horizon by the time we reached the north side. The focus is the bridge, anyway:

Some final shots as the sun sinks away:

Video with a last train crossing. Some comments in Google maps report trains honking as they passed. Other folks taking last photos and videos too:

This last is a screencap of a ghost video of some sort - I swear I remember taking this video and that it was normal, but upon checking when I got home, the entire thing was purple. Weird.

[yumedoca]

Can anyone please tell me any sites that have the Magic Kaito manga from chapter 14 onwards that is in high quality and uses the ebook pages?? I used mangadex the last time I read it, but it doesn't work on my phone now and everywhere I look I can only find the crappy phonecam translations. Pretty please?? 😭

[puripudding]

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by 🍮Puri🍧Leslie🐙 (@puripuddingchan)

"Excuse me Miss, I know it's not funny, but your perfume smells like your Daddys got Money''

Slide for the full picture!! 👻

Buggy with his hands on my hips, what else could I ask for? (ฅº👅ºฅ) I wonder what he's up to and what kind of stuff he tells Perona...she seems to enjoy it tho.

I'm a bit sad, that the phonecam erased my cute Bottomlashes?! But let's just pretend theyre there!

Buggy x Perona is here! 👻🤡 I love them so much together! They fit so well together aaah ;///;

🤡 @florian_doom

Thank you @famechen95 for taking your time and sewing this together with me! It looks boootieful! 👻

Thank you @cozy_cosplay_ for taking photos!

[michael-svetbird]

: • AMAZONOMACHY Relief, Fragment: Roman, Mid-2nd AD Marble Found in Padova in the 19th c. [Tito Livio Classical School] "This fragment was probably part of a sarcophagus frieze [later reused as an architectural detail in connection with other elements]". . Musei Civici Eremitani MCE Padova [Padua] @padovamusei https://padovacultura.padovanet.it/it/musei 'Sale Romane'. . MCE | Phs©MSP 12|22 5800X4100 600 [I.] The photographed object is the property of MCE and subject to the Museum copyright. [Pic 4 - phonecam snap] No commercial use | sorry for the watermarks. . • Part of the "Reliefs-Friezes-Slabs-Sculpture" MSP Online Gallery: . 👉 D-ART: https://www.deviantart.com/svetbird1234/gallery/72510770/reliefs-friezes-slabs-sculpture . . #padova #padua #museicivicieremitani #museicivicipadova #eremitani #archaeologicalmuseum #museoarcheologico #historymuseum #ancientsculpture #ancientart #frieze #relief #roman #romansculpture #sculpture #ancient #antiquity #archaeology #archeologia #museology #mythology #amazons #amazon #amazonomachy #αμαζονομαχία #amazzonomachia #oiorpata #museumphotography #archaeologyphotography #michaelsvetbird @michael_sverbird ©msp padua 12|2022 @padovamusei (at Museo Eremitani) https://www.instagram.com/p/CoE6PCzICjw/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[dididi11]

Don't mind this, also my phonecam sucks. I need a new one asap

[s2z]

Melbourne Central, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. 2007-07-06 14:48:29 by stuart murdoch

[monching-photos-blog]

Black and White

[petermorwood]

Open Camera App

A follow-up to this post from last night.

In my reblog I said I'd installed the app, so I went out today with both cameras and did a test shot.

The subject is firethorn blossom in our hedge, time 18:34 / 6.34PM, sky almost-cloudless blue, lighting optimal.

First, a Nokia G21 (released February 2022): here's a shot with its native camera app, and a crop for close-up detail.

Here's a shot with the Open Camera app with installation-default settings, and a crop.

IMO, Open Camera makes a serious improvement.

Now an HTC U11+ (November 2017). I bought this older phone last year, old stock NIB, just for the sake of its camera, after seeing the quality pix @dduane was getting from hers.

First, the native app and a crop.

Next, Open Camera at installation default settings, and a crop.

It looks to me as if Open Camera works best when installed in a phonecam whose native app runs excessive image processing as a matter of course.

The Nokia pics are a case in point, while the HTC, a far better native camera app (and I suspect a far better camera full stop) shows much less improvement.

Now I get to find out what happens with Open Camera in the HTC once I start tweaking settings. That, however, is for later.

Meanwhile, two thumbs up and a big thank-you to @shelandsorcery for putting me onto this app!