The web-site says:
“the Balloon’s Day Parade will invade the streets of Brussels to the sound of its accompanying brass bands. Escorted by the Police parade and folklore groups, the route of the Balloon’s Parade will once again set off from the Comics Festival and end up at the Place De Brouckère. Come and discover the new parade balloon while it’s being inflated at the Place des Palais!”
Today, i’ve received the first unit of the new series of tracking devices which will be used for material and vehicle tracking. With its autonomous operation of roughly 60 days and various sensing capabilities, like movement and shock it’s ideally suited for this purpose.
However it’s an nice example, how long actually technology trigger need until systems finally reach the broad marked.
Below is a picture of main tracking unit of the system which I developed and prototyped almost 20 years ago. It was called TaPos – the German acronym for “Teilautonomes Positionserfassungssystem” (if you are interested in details, you may find the project description in the www – in German).
Ok, the form factor of the main tracking unit is different but it had exactly the same – to be precise, even more – features.
It was the innovative prototype of an vehicle, container tracking and logistics management system which also would have helped to optimise traffic flow and reduce the carbon (co2) emission. However, at this time (before the Internet hype) it was nearly impossible to find risk investors in Germany for innovative solutions.
An request for support through an innovation funding programme was technically analysed as future oriented system but no financial commitment was made at the end of the day (after many good words and long delay of almost three years).
For those who don’t remember the technology landscape in 1996:
Linux is already 4 years old, in 1996 kernel version 2.0 was published, Php was one year, Version 2 was about to be published.
Eight years before google maps started 2004, TaPos used a public available sub-set of the US DoD digital chart of the World, transformed from file-structure-data onto an DBase like database for fast access.
SIEMENS just released (expensive) GSM engines, we used modified Sagem Phones
The ISM frequency band had just been opened in Germany, there were almost no OEM modules for data transfer – all the the protocol handler had to be developed from scratch.
The java programming language was in beta 1995, JDK 1.0 was released 1996. The web-mapping was using Java, the rest like position calculation or position-to-speech (for telephone access to the current location database) was written in C.
Now, almost 20 years later, inexpensive tracking systems are produced in china, fits the purpose but still does not have all the features the TaPos prototype had.
Key is still to manage the tracking data intelligent and efficiently.
Some thoughts about the innovation landscape in Germany and the EU
There was (and I am afraid to say – there still is) no culture in believe in innovation capability in Germany and most of the EU outside industry and academia. They receive the most of innovation funding and produce acceptable results and ease administration.
Some years ago, my only advice to someone who has a bright idea would have been: go directly to the US or find at least US investors – there are a lot of good examples from the past.
Now, there are far more options. Thanks to the www there are many crowd funding platforms which may help to bring a good idea to marked – but be careful who will own your idea at the end of the day and who will benefit.
(Pictures to follow)
If you are starting with macro photography, you may start looking for the right equipment. Maybe you have a point-and-shoot camera or any other camera with an build in fixed lens, then you probably have an macro mode of the camera.
For cameras with interchangeable lenses, like Nikon, Canon or Sony you can buy very nice macro lenses for $$$ or just an set of extensions tubes for $ (starting at 5-10 $ / EUR in some China shops).
Of course, you will need other things too. An good tripod is important. Maybe some remote shutter release is also nice to have. This article leaves all this out and concentrates on the extension rings.
The floral pictures below were taken form a distance of approx one meter with extension rings and an 200mm telephoto-lens.
But – one after the other.
I have purchased a set of extension tubes for Nikon bayonet in China. Delivery took about 10 days. The price was around 8 US $, it passed through customs without problems.
I have ordered the simplest rings / tubes. They are mechanical, they do not transmit focus or aperture information to the camera. You have to set this manually. This is not a problem, you don’t really need auto-focus in macro mode.
the tubes have no glass elements.
they have different length – by combining them you get different macro / magnification levels.
for this demonstration, I have used the Nikon Nikkor 50mm f/1.8d
this is the set-up without extension tubes
and this the resulting picture
now using different tube combinations
don’t forget – aperture and focus can only be set manually now (check your lens)
you will get much closer to the object
getting more details
even closer
getting even more details.
Try different non-macro lenses and ring combinations. Below are some examples of what is possible
Instead of extension tubes, you may also use bellows which give a bit more flexibility but you may need to modify them to adopt to your camera
Hallerwald, ein Album auf Flickr.
Every spring, roughly end of April there is a sea of hyacinth in the forest less than 20km south of Brussels. Fresh air flavoured with the perfume of millions of flowers….
Lysefjord, ein Album auf Flickr.
Prime-Lens for the mirrorless
The new mirrorless system cameras can deliver outstanding quality. However, sometimes it lacks of interesting lenses. If you don’t need autofocus and you can live perfectly with aperture priority – just adopt your good old stuff (or find something used).
Adapter are available on a variety of lens / camera combinations like M42 to Sony E-mount, to Fujifilm X1 Pro, or Micro Four Thirds. The same for Pentax K or Nikon lenses.
Those are simple mechanical adapter, no lens needed and you will be able to focus to infinite (the same does not work to some other cameras like adopting M42 lenses to Nikon requires a lens or you lose the focus to infinite)
These adapters are cheap, price range is roughly from 5 to 50 €/$)
NEX-7 with 70’th ASAHI Super Takumar 1:1.8/55
Since a while I am doing aerial photography.
On the flying platform, I use mostly an modified Canon S90 to take picture up to altitudes of around 100 Meter. The Camera is stabilized and shutter release, tilt and pan can remotely controlled. The ‘camera view’ is downstreamed via an 5 GHz video link and displayed on a battery powered control monitor.
Video / HDMI control monitor.
However, sometimes it is not necessary to get as high as 100 Meter. A few meter are sometimes sufficient to overlook a crowd or a wedding audience.
But for those occasions, I prefer to use the DSLR. With an monopod to hold the camera up and to release the shutter with the remote-control wireless or per wire works quite well in many situations. Except, that it is ‘guess-work’ if you don’t want to mess around with the control monitor and the cables. And you can’t control more tan the shutter release.
There are also nice options for tethered shooting with the NIKON DSLRs. Sofortbild is a very nice – and free – application if you have an MAC. It controls the camera via the USB port. However, you need an laptop to use the software, there is no iPad or iPhone version available. Another thing to carry and to handle. Not suitable at all occasions.
Since a while, Nikon has wireless adapters for the DSLRs but they are very expensive.
Recently Nikon released the WU-1b which can provide a cheap (50€) solution for remote shooting. It connects to the USB port of the camera.
It is a small dongle.
It provides wireless-hotspot like functionality. After installing the App to you Apple or Android smart device, connect to the wifi hotspot.
You will be able to see the live view picture, set the focus point and release the shutter and – optionally download the pictures directly to your smart device (I don’t recommend this – time consuming).
You also may use a pan – tilt head to control the direction in which you camera points. Cool for concerts or sports events. You can place the camera before the event and control it remotely.
DON’T FORGET TO SECURE THE NETWORK 😉
History and Carnival: Photoresk – the Brussels Photography going Tournay
Tournay, the 2nd oldest Town of Belgium (after Tongeren). The picturesque medieval city center. The beautiful market place, the the river Escaut (“Schelde” in Dutch), some UNESCO world heritage sites and –
Carnival? Yes, Carnival!
When nearly everywhere in the rest of the world the carnival season is over, the inner part of Tournai is closed for traffic to celebrate carnival. Probably a good idea to wait ’till spring and definitely something not to miss while in Belgium. Details about the carnival in Tournai can be found here (in french) http://www.carnavaldetournai.be/
There was an parade starting at 14:30 at four different places heading towards the centre. This was be a fantastic opportunity to take great picture of Belgium habits 😉 and the city.
We took the train from Brussels central at noon and returned to Brussels at around 20:00. Trains Brussels – Tournai are ever hour.
Easy by train – Brussels, Turnay every hour, one hour ride
Gare Tournai
guarding the monument
green meets techno
Die Schlümpfe
girls dancing everywhere
this Pharaoh in the confetti rain
carnival doggie
what’s standard in Brussels can be considered as costume in Tournai
every car has powerful confetti cannons
three super nanni’s
South wallonian shoe design
colours, colours
better more
is this “serious picture taking”?
oh, sorry, my French is not perfect… 😉
a Viking
another one
and the female too
overload?
overload!
to keep warm…
the the river Escaut (“Schelde” in Dutch)
seen before?
peace!
remember those Bunnies?
thank you!
lovely music everywhere
again – thank you for the pose!
and you too!
mysterious ballony
getting colder
drink and drive!
yes, it’s a whoopy
up, up in the sky
later – they will burn
he is doing it now already
the parade continues
reaching the centre
the beer for 1,50 EUR
carnival can be a serious business
now – burn, burn, burn
wet…
artistis
now it’s burning
uuuuhhhhhh
slowly
you could feel the heat even from the distance
ok, back home to Brussels…. and plan the next Photoresk meet-up
If you want to learn more about Photoresk – Brussels Photography, check out this site: http://www.meetup.com/Photoresk/
Brussels museum’s open from 19:00 to 01:00.
Photoresk met at 19:00 at the MIM (Music Instruments Museum) and ended at 00:00 at Autoworld (after 5 hours museum too tired for the after party starting at 02:00)
workplace
wonderful instruments
at 22:00 people still cueing (we got our ticket at the internet)
we ran unexpectedly into a fashion design show
and the models where happy to pose at this public event
nice designs
nice venue
later – Autoworld!
not only beautiful vintage vehicles but also flying artists
happy landing
If you want to learn more about Photoresk – Brussels Photography, check out this site: http://www.meetup.com/Photoresk/
Exhibition of the warriors, horses and chariots of the famous terracotta army of the first Emperor of China in Brussels.
very nicely made expo in Brussels
also some mystical lamps
ordinary worriers
worked in the details
all weapons were stolen
hierarchical fight order
even life-size horses
changing light
small sculptures
decent colours
worked to the detail
the mystical frog
