Flamethrower: 1998 Anti-hijack for South Africa

In the late 90s, South Africa made great strides, as a nation just liberated from colonialism, emerging from the entrapment of their political situation, and searching for a new national identity. However, somewhere along the way, it rose to the top of the list as the most crime-ridden country in the world and carjacking in South Africa was at an all time high. This serious security risk on the roads led to the invention of the 1998 BMW Blaster, also known as the Flamethrower.

Photo Credit: REUTERS/Peter Andrews (1998)

The Flamethrower was invented within legal bounds, considering that in South Africa, it was and still is legal to use force in self-defense. Invented by Charl Fourie, it was fitted with an LPG (liquefied petroleum gas) flame-thrower on both sides, below the doors. By flipping a switch, the driver could blast a scorching flame into the face of any intruders forcing their entry into the car through the windows or the doors. The blast, while hindering the intruder, would cause no damage to the car itself.
With criminals brandishing knives, guns, and ready to use them, you could not really worry too much if the 1998 BMW Blaster scorched them blind. That would mean one or two carjackers less for the public to deal with. While the inventor claimed that the blast of fire would not kill but only blind the assailants; critics argued that criminals would opt to murder the driver first before taking the car.
For many would be buyers, the argument then was whether it was necessary or not. Where did the bigger risk lie? With or without the 1998 BMW Blaster there is a risk you may lose your life either way.  Well, maybe we had better leave that to human rights activists, but if you have ever been carjacked anywhere in Africa, you certainly know that the criminals are not the “Excuse me ma’am, I would like to use your car please” types. You are the only obstacle standing between them and the car.

First buyer of the 1998 BMW Blaster and why it was shelved

Only a person who has been in the thick of things could tell what an important invention the flamethrower was. Superintendent David Walkley of the Crime Intelligence Unit of Johannesburg opted to have it with all its risks, rather than not having it all and drive around unprotected in the crime ridden streets of Johannesburg. Between 1998–2001, only a few hundred of the BMW Blaster had been sold. Unfortunately, the high cost of the flamethrower did not encourage many buyers and eventually, the device had to be shelved, contrary to false reports that it was banned.
With the high rates of carjacking in South Africa, the ability to blast scorching flames for up to 5 meters, certified legal and very easy to use, one would think that the device would make millions in sales, but Fourie had to pull the device out of the market and instead started selling a smaller, handheld flame-thrower device.
Carjacking rates in South Africa have since dropped, but not enough not to warrant the use of anti-hijack antics like the 1998 BMW Blaster.

Light and the Photographer

Light is the primary working tool of the photographer. Light is the visible portion of the electro-magnetic spectrum. The spectrum starts from red, the weakest of rays, all the way to violet which is the strongest of rays.

Light rays from the sun are considered white and they contain all the colors of the spectrum. Black is the absence of any color.

When we place a prism in front of a white ray, the prism will diffract (separate) that light into
all the colors of the spectrum.

When we place a LENS in front of any ray, that lens will simply refract (bend) that ray.

In the illustration below, you will see a point where the rays meet.  That point is also called the film plane.   At that point, all light rays of the subject must meet to accomplish sharp, focused pictures.

So, being in focus simply means moving the lens elements forward and backward until all the rays coming toward the camera from the subject meet at one point; the focal point on the film.

The human eye

The human eye looks basically like the crude drawing below. The lens at the left side of the eye focuses light rays onto the retina at the right. The retina converts light rays into electrical impulses that are sent to the brain.  Our brain then tells us we are seeing a bit of light.

Both digital and film cameras have a lens in front to capture light rays. Light rays enter through the lens to the film, or digital sensor; both of which are sensitive to light

More on Light Rays

We have different labels for describing the rays we see. Here are a few basic ones:

• Transmitted Rays

When you look at a stop light the top light is red, the middle is yellow, and the bottom light is green. That light is transmitted by putting a light source behind a colored filter.

• Direct Rays

When you look directly into the sun, a camera’s flash unit, or a flashlight you are looking at direct light. The light you see is coming directly from the source.

• Reflected Rays

When you look at anything, you can see that object because direct light is shining on it and being reflected back into your eyes.

• Ambient Light:

Think of ambient light as stray light – light rays that are being bounced around from all sorts of sources. If direct or reflected light on the subject is stronger your subject will appear clearer and less hazy.

• Available Light

Available light simply means whatever light is present when not using flash or other sources of light.

Understanding Color

The COLOR of the subject is determined by the color of the light source and the color of the subject.

Photographic film records light as it actually is. Your eye/brain, however, will always correct light back to “normal”. Your brain is constantly compensating.

That is … if you are inside a place that is lit with light bulbs, those light bulbs actually transmit a reddish-brown light and white objects will be recorded on film as reddish-brown. However your brain will correct that light and a white object will appear white.

Same thing happens inside a place illuminated with fluorescent bulbs. Fluorescent bulbs actually transmit an ugly greenish-yellow light, but your brain corrects that light and it appears white to your eye. Film records that light as greenish-yellow.

  

Fluorescent light contains only enough green and yellow light to photos turn out a bit “off” in color.  However, by using a magenta filter in front of the lens, the overall lighting is more natural and “warm”.

We will discuss this at length later on. Right now just understand that it happens.

RED GREEN and BLUE are Primary Colors

Some people (see some of the comments below) just refuse to believe that green could be a primary color! Well if you’re still not a believer check out how red and green make yellow.

RED light rays only contain red because it is a primary color. 
So GREEN light rays only contain green,  
and BLUE rays only contain blue.  
Again, that is because these are the PRIMARY colors.

Secondary colors - 
magenta, 
cyan, and 
yellow (yellow)
are considered SECONDARY colors because each one is a mix of two PRIMARY colors. Mixing PRIMARY & SECONDARY colors will give you TERTIARY (third tier) colors …. making up all the visible colors in the spectrum.

You can see how PRIMARY colors and SECONDARY colors mix from the chart below:

 

Here’s another image to show you how using the primary colors, red, green and blue, you can produce the secondary colors.

Do Not Worry; there will be no test on this. Just read it and think about it for a while. This concept can be a little confusing as in school we learned that the primary colors are different. We must remember that color in the printing world is what we learned in school, but color combinations are different for light. For photography, we must learn the colors of light, not the colors for printing. In photography we are talking about RGB or colors of light that join together to make white, whereas in print all primary colors joined together would create a neutral color, or gray.
 

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Light in your Eyes

You have a good eye and you are seeing good pictures but they just aren’t coming out, on paper, the way you wanted or the way you saw it.

THE KEY

Because your eyes constantly make everything appear normal you now need to learn how the film and lenses record light, scenes, and color. Then, once you have that well ingrained and almost second nature, you need to learn how those different things render on film and print. Few of us realize how powerful the mind is in blocking out what we don’t want to see and how well we automatically can correct bad lighting without even realizing it.

Until we learn those important lessons, we will not have the knowledge or skills to make photographs the way we want them.

You can spend a small fortune on courses that will get to the fun part right
away. Courses that give you assignments to take photos you aren’t interested in and overwhelm you with a lot of hi-tech phrases. They’ll teach you how to talk the talk. However, until you learn the basics your castle will be built on sand.

We have created a course that is simple and quick. It is designed to be easy-to-understand yet full of solid information. It will provide the basics you must learn, and then allow you to go off to any specific subject you have any interest in. Each of these “special” subjects will add more to the basics, offer photographs and other visual aids to illustrate the point, and pass on tips and tricks to help you.

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Let’s Get Started With Taking Photos In Automatic Mode

Kudzidzira Kutora Mifananidzo 101

 Photography Lessons 101

Let’s Get Started With Taking Photos In Automatic Mode

Most digital cameras have multiple modes and we will start focusing on the Automatic Mode. Auto mode sets focus and exposure for you.

 All you have to do is frame the image and push the shutter button. You'll find that this auto mode of operation is great in the vast majority of situations because it lets you focus on the subject and not on the camera. Here's a brief guide to using auto mode on almost any camera.

•       Getting started. Turn the camera on and set it to automatic mode— indicated by a camera icon. To conserve your batteries, turn off the monitor (LCD) and compose your image through the optical viewfinder if your camera has one. (Digital SLR cameras don't let you compose the image on the monitor and some point and shoots don't have optical viewfinders). If the camera has a lens cap, be sure to remove it.

•        Framing the image. The viewfinder or monitor shows you the scene you are going to capture. To zoom the lens to frame your image, press the zoom-out button or lever to widen the angle of view and the zoom-in button or lever to enlarge subjects. If using an SLR, you zoom by turning a ring on the lens. If the image in the viewfinder is fuzzy, see if the camera has a diopter adjustment you can use to sharpen it.

•      Autofocus. Cameras have one or more focus zones or areas, each of which is often indicated in the viewfinder with cross hairs, boxes or brackets. The part of the scene that you cover with one of these focus zones will be the sharpest part of the photo. Many cameras will focus on the center of the scene but others will focus on the closest part of the scene covered by any of the focus zones. How close you can focus depends on the camera and lens.

•        Autoexposure. The camera's exposure system measures light reflecting from the scene and use these readings to set the best possible exposure.

•       Autoflash. If the light is too dim, the auto exposure system will fire the camera's built-in flash to illuminate the scene. If the flash is going to fire, a flash lamp usually glows when you press the shutter button halfway down.

•    Automatic white balance. Because the color in a photograph is affected by the color of the light illuminating the scene, a camera automatically adjusts white balance so white objects in a scene are white in the photo and other colors are free of a color cast. 

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PhotoGrafit Imagining is a combination of Photography and Graffiti . the art of photographing being the concept edited and changed with a spice of graffiti and the freedom in it makes up the name PHOTOGRAFIT. Imagine the endless possibilities

Write your thoughts in picture,paint your memories in essays.
The most precise way to present your inner most feelings is through images.
Let your imagination go wild let your emotions blow you sky high.

Imagine   it,                          Capture    it,                          Immortalize    it. 

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