The Smell of Molten Projects in the Morning

Ed Nisley's Blog: Shop notes, electronics, firmware, machinery, 3D printing, laser cuttery, and curiosities. Contents: 100% human thinking, 0% AI slop.

Daisies Dancing

Morning KP provides considerable time to watch the goings-on in the back yard, including the wide variety of pollinators (formerly known as “bees”) in the stand of daisies just off the deck:

Daisy thumbnail - 348
Daisy thumbnail – 348

I wondered if the flower heads tracked the sun or just sort of stood there, so I deployed the trail camera to take one picture every five minutes for a bit over 24 hours. Converting just under 500 images into a movie required this incantation:

ffmpeg -framerate 4 -start_number 75 -i IM_%05d.jpg -s 1920x1080 Daisies.mp4

The result of which now appears on Youtube:

Daisies dancing

The short answer: daisies don’t really track the sun, but they move more than I expected. The stalks carrying unopened flowers writhe all around, occasionally getting stuck on other stems and suddenly snapping free. I was particularly surprised at the number of bees going about their business just around midnight.

For whatever it’s worth, I had to put the open camera in full sunlight on a table out on the deck to dry out the water left from a recent rainstorm. Whether the water comes from diurnal pumping or a leak through the rim gasket, I cannot say, but it can’t possibly be doing the PCB any good.

I do not expect the video to go viral …

Comments

2 responses to “Daisies Dancing”

  1. tantris Avatar
    tantris

    I was particularly surprised at the number of bees going about their business just around midnight.

    You mean: Nocturnal pollinators? Makes sense. Flowers stay open and appear bright in IR.

    I do not expect the video to go viral

    Yes, needs lots of improvement:

    1. Soundtrack could really be better.
    2. Instead of setting up a camera to a timed interval, set up an arduino to move a servo to press the trigger, then drop a hint at a couple of websites that have “hack”in the name.
    3. Set up an instructable on how to duct-tape a camera to a tree and link to the video.
    4. Youtubeify the name. Not “Daisies Dancing” but “you won’t believe the crazy sh*t this daisies are doing”.
    5. Most importantly, the first shot of the video has to have the daisies on the right and your head on the left leaning in with a stupid grin. All successful Tubers are doing that.

    But somehow, I’m glad that there are still people not doing any of that.

    1. Ed Avatar
      Ed

      Are you sure you’re not an AI? :grin: