One Plus One Creatives

I had put some reflective tape on my tripod in the past, something desperately needed in my case, since I'm oft shooting long exposures in the dark, and almost just as oft... kicking my tripod and ruining a shot! Or simply scaring myself. So, the tape was very helpful, yet it had begun peeling off. I had been thinking about how to go about my next fix, with a rough plan to epoxy the reflective tape onto the legs... I knew it would work, but it was a bit much.

Well, it just so happened that while buying some paint for another project (the aquarium!) I saw all these specialty spray paints, luminescent, arrayed and awaiting. I decided to see how one of them could contend with my calamities.

Plus spray paint is just fun.

It was a good refresher on masking, something I haven't done much recently, peeling it off just as nerve-wracking and enjoyable as I remembered.

The paint job came out great! But the effectiveness of the reflectivity leaves plenty to be desired. Which was not a surprise! It was advertised as luminescent against black light. But also just as a high-visibility coat, and so I was a bit curious.

Closing thoughts: If I was min-maxing my effectivity against time and money, this project was a bust. But I do not, so it was not!

These little projects serve me as a reminder of the many ways there are to skin cats. I had the sense that it wouldn't take that long, and thought this could be a proof of concept. Also, it came with a benefit I didn't expect!

It provided me the occasion to measure how close my expectations were to the reality. This is something I want to think about more, because there are times, when I pay attention, that I notice a chain of thoughts running through my head. These thoughts seem to seek out forgone conclusions. For example, in another reality, I could have seen the paint, believed my imagination as to the outcome as if it was set in stone. I could have decided I didn't like how it "was going to come out", and skipped the entire endeavor, completely assured in my arrogance.

It's so easy to take things for granted, and as one will stretch to stay flexible, we can also try things, to stay present and honest.

I did this once before, with a similar Wooden Training Katana (Bokken is their proper name I guess) that existed at my parents for years. There was some calligraphy ink in my house, and I got the idea that it could be used as a wood stain, (lo and behold, it really was used on bokkens back in the day!) and with it I could swap the colors on the Bokken by staining the recessed wood before sanding off the paint. It worked great! I sold it on eBay and didn't record the process. So I bought a similar one and started again!

So let me get lost in the sauce, this video wasn't only made to document the restoration process but as a project in and of itself! "Woahhhhhhh" I'm learning how to film these kind of videos, framing and editing it down to the important bits. Instagram's reel editor is a great starting point for me as I get more confident and learn a tiny bit about editing videos. I'd like to make longer format content some day.

I was thinking about the negative guillotine I saw at my local lab when this fool-proof and totally safe idea came to me! Boy, tabletop vises are great.

A quick little project to make a vintage Canon strap work with a less-vintage camera.