Mami Strap Showcase

Hello everyone and welcome back to Tiro Finale for what is our first ever group photography challenge involving all the writers here on Tiro Finale. At this point, we are no strangers to group articles having covered some rather broad range of topics. Nevertheless, here on Tiro Finale, we strive upon producing as much original content as possible down to the photos we use for our articles. While the idea of a photography challenge had lingered around for a bit, we never quite got to it due to the lack of suitable topics. That is until now, when yours truly has come up with a simple photography challenge entitled (Character) Strap Showcase. With the condition for the photography challenge as follows:

1. Character - limited to a single character
2. Camera - limited to our smartphone's camera(s)
3. Indoor shoot - no dedicated illumination/light sources

The conditions may sound simple but, there is more than meets the eye with this challenge especially with the last two conditions which can severely hamper the quality of the final shots. Most notably in the form of noise due to the lack of sufficient lighting. Too much noise and the photos will come out grainy. Moreover, any form of aggressive noise reduction will result in reduced sharpness.

With those conditions in mind, I set about planning on ways to meet all three requirements. Starting with the first, it was a really simple choice as to which character I would feature, Tomoe Mami, of course. Unfortunately, I only had one true Mami rubber strap on hand at the moment with the rest of my collection residing off-shore at the moment. Accompanying her, are a recently acquired Mami mini-figure charm and;

A Mami can badge that I bought during my recent trip to Tokyo. My camera of choice would be my trusty iPhone 6's 8MP snapper with its venerable f/2.2, 29mm lens. Compared to Tiro Finale's other writers, my choice of optical hardware would be seemingly at a disadvantage. But this was a deliberate decision as I was adamant on proving to Takuya that you could still eek out great photos from smartphones from this era. While the iPhone 6's sensor may capture as much resolved detail or have optical image stabilization, I was more than confident that its good dynamic range, short focal length and accurate color reproduction would still help it stand toe-to-toe with the others.

Lastly, I positioned the location of the photo shoot near a window to take advantage of getting as much natural light as possible. Taking into consideration the time of day was important too, to prevent harsh light from bleeding out the details. To add as much color as possible to the scene, I used Mami's Nesoberi and Bebe's plush as the background and a large Madoka Magica poster as the base. Accompanying the Mami strap I would be featuring was a mini-pillow with the exact same Mami design! 

This particular Mami rubber strap was manufactured by Broccoli and purchased from Mandarake. You can still see the price tag of both the original retail price of 700 Yen and its resale value in Mandarake at merely 200 Yen. What a steal! The strap itself is also fairly larger than most standard rubber strap sizes.

Moving in for the close up shots, I immediately noticed my first rather jarring issue. The plastic cover surrounding Mami was causing a great deal of reflection that would not go away despite my best efforts. To be fair, that is perfectly understandable given the nature of glossy plastics such as these. 

The solution? Simple, just remove said plastic cover and you will be able to appreciate Brocolli's Tomoe Mami rubber strap in all its glory. With its chibi-like proportions, I must say that I am quite the fan of Brocolli's interpretation of Mami. 

Even better still, the rubber strap itself is actually very detailed carrying forward all the details from the illustration including the various intricate lines and details on Mami's outfit. In addition, the overall coloring and finish of this rubber strap is also very good especially when you compare it with the other cheaper Mami straps. No surprise then that this rubber strap sold for 700 Yen when it was first released.

I had initially planned on using this Mami rubber strap as a charm and key ring for my house keys. Unfortunately, I had to pass on that notion as this particular Mami rubber strap turned out to be much larger than I had initially expected it to be. Bringing around such a larger rubber strap would be a little troublesome especially when I often place my keys in my pocket whenever I do carry it around with me. Still, I am sure it would be ready to serve some other purpose in the future should the need ever arise.

After my fill of shots taken, I carefully placed my Mami rubber strap back into its original packaging before returning the it and the other trinkets into my box of collectibles. With all three conditions for this challenge met, this challenge is officially complete. But the outcome of it, still ultimately falls upon you the reader. Do let me know what you thought of these shots and feel free to comment on any other challenges that we should try out together. Until then, thank you so much for reading and have yourself a wonderful day ahead.