Hop

A  plant Hop (Humulus lupuls) is a very peculiar plant, which

belong to a small family of Cannabaceae.  From its family name,

you might have guessed, yes, Hop is a cousin of Cannabis.  But

they two looks so different — How botanist found that they

were related ? ? ?    And you might have heard that a stronger

kind of Cannabis, Skunk was created by a crossbreed with Hop. 

(Though, it was unlikely the cross-pollination, nor grafting, so 

some said even a genetic engineering — how it was done

was still in a mystery.)

But, in generall, Hop was only

associated with a beer.

As a matter of fact, me to see

this plant, it was only the third 

time on my life.

First time was on a farm hedge

in the Hertford Shire.

Second time was in a fringe of

a park in the south London.

Then this time, it was a hedge of a

non assuming ordinary hose in south London. = It seems

she always appeared in the most unlikely place. (Of course,

as I didn’t go to see it “likely place” = Hop garden of Kent

or Hop yard of a west country.) — So, the question was,

how this plant or its seed came here ?      And my biggest

question IS how Hop was added to a beer in the first place.

— Has people got a habit to chew it to fleshen the mouth ? 

Then got an idea to put it into a drink ? 

Otherwise, it was the most inventive / creative idea the

mankind got.   (Though, I don’t drink beer.)   😀

(Those photos were taken by Tamron SP 90mm F2.5  on

Sony A7R)

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Pen-F Zuiko 38mm F1,8 Lens on Sony A7R

I don’t remember why this lens was still here.  This Olympus Lens

has been in the end of shelf many years.  It was a Olympus Pen-F’s

standard lens though, Pen-F was a half frame camera (24×16) and its

flange-back was 28.95mm, the lens couldn’t have a focus other than

a macro use, I might have had a test of close-up photo on Canon 5D.  

— The funny history of this lens was, on late 80s, one of my friend

photographer who wanted to experiment, “To get a rough-grain soft

image, using a Push development on a Cross-process” = In order to get

rough Grain, he wanted to use even smaller original = hence Half-size. 

—– So, he asked me to make an adapter to use Nikon Lens on a

Pen-F body.  =  I made it out of Nikon close-up ring and a Pen-F

mount from this 38mm lens = So that, this lens lost bottom mount.

= in normal sense, it is an utterly useless junk

—– though, while Googling the Net, I found the people using Pen-F

lens on the Full-frame Sony camera !    (Unlike the lenses for the

Cropped size senser DSLR camera, those Olympus Lenses has

been made to cover (well almost) the full-frame image circle !) 

To modify this lens for a Sony E-mount camera, I found a M-39

Leica lens to E-mount adapter has the almost a right size. 

So, I screwed  M-39 ring to the back of Pen-F lens (+ some

adjustment for infinity focus) = = = Voila, Pen-F lens on A7R.

The test shot on general

distance was usable but

not bliliant.

(The lens might have 

sold as a spre parts =

damaged goods)

Still, Close-up photo

was pretty good.

(Photo below, middle)

Though, there isn’t much soft texture (It may be because

the Sony A7R camera or its image process.) (Photo right)

Olympus Pen-F Lens is very small, (In comparison to such as

Nikon lens + adapter on Sony) pretty nice match to the A7R,

so that, I’m quite happy to have this  F1.8  wide-angle lens.

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What ? – 3/4 second on “B” setting ?

On the 100 years old lens,

an instruction was given,

“On a dull day, use a tripod

with the “B” setting and

give 3/4 second push.

—– What ? ? ?   In 100 years

ago, could a user of camera

give 3/4 second push to

camera’s shutter ? 

—–  Well, my guess was, that the camera user then must have

practiced a lot for the precise push of the shutter lever.  

The English tradition was, to count the second while saying

One Monkey, Two Monkey, Three Monkey ~ ~ ~ ~ !    Therefore,

only say “One Mo” would be half second and “One Monk” would

be 3/4 second !      (Really ?   You must be kidding )   😀

But I’m not sure whether a French photographer ever did

“Un Monkey, Due Monkey ~ ~ ?       equivalent Japanese practice

said to be, say “Obaaachan” (Granny) for one second and

“Obachan” (Aunty) for half second. (— Count many second by

repeating  “Obaaachan” while counting on fingers.)

— Try Count One Monkey ~ ~ ~ Ten Monkey while watching a

watch and get the rhythm.  (One day, you may need it.   😀  )

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Kodak Red Bellows Lens

(Photo left / Kodak folding No.1A — image from CameraWiki)

Well, even if you were a keen photographer and have an interest to the old cameras, you may not know the Cameras with red bellows. — They were 100 (110) years old Kodak Pocket Folding Cameras. (I got two of them though they are in a box, bottom of the pile of 50 boxes = I’ll show you a photo one day.)

— I bought just a lens in a junk box of George’s Camerafare shop in the Portobello Market.

When the camera mean big wooden camera, Kodak started to sell “Pocketable” folding cameras for the consumers.    (Be prepared, the size of a pocket then could take even today’s laptop.   😀  )

We may guess, it was a situation like teaching the people to have a selfy and send it through Net phone.   

The Kodak preloaded the teaching App on the camera body = all the instruction were written there. =Such as : Use 1/100 for Moving Objects or Gray day, Use Tripod and with B setting for 1/2 second !  ETC. ETC.  (Shutter was triggered either by pressing a lever  or using an Air pump ! )  In fact I was rather impressed to see the quality of the manufacturing standard = after 100 years, they are still working ! )

The camera was made by Eastman Kodak Rochester USA though, the Lens was made by Bausch & Romb Optical Co. Rochester, USA (once before, Sunglass, Ray-Ban was a part of this company) of which they call, Rapid Rectilinear lens. ( though, it only meant, no distortion)

The second photo above center shows the lenses = front and rear element seems to be identical (both showed the same focusing length = symmetrical design)     And each lens seems to be a single lens.  

Mounting the lens on a bellows to have a test shot = the image seems not bad ! 

Thanks to the bellows extension — have look a close-up.

Then to see the So-called Softness on the same test bench.   It seems this lens showed no Zeiss kind of softness.  (The photo left was taken by Sony A7R —– to be fair, I did the same shot on the Canon 5D Mk3 as before (right) —– in comparison, Sony showed much higher crispness and Canon seems softer) —– Still, this matter needs more critical test to find the reason.

Much more serious question over this old Lens IS, = No focal length was found still, the extension of the bellows showed it is 175mm.   Even though the front plate was saying F4, the diameter of the lens IS 24mm = F-aperture should be F7.3 but from a measuring of the exposure indicates that this lens got a brightness of only F10. —– It is quite puzzling.

= To see the old lens is fun in deed, still it is not necessary a gold mine to find any nostalgic image !  (Unless, use a homemade emulsion on a glass plate together)  😀

Such as a photo of dried Rose by A7R above — this sharpness might be created by the digital process in the camera, not an original optical image.)

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Portbello Market / George’s Camerafare

Situated in a bit west of London, Portobello is a peculiar place. 

Because of their fundamental poorman’s mentality, (in comparison to

the French, Spanish, Austria-Hungarian Empire, untill a victory

over the battle of Trafalgar, (and took over the dominance on the sea)

the England was a poor country)  the English tend to keep junk

= try avoiding to buy new one and spend the money for drink. 

Then, when they die, house cleaner emptied the hose and sold off all

those junks.  Junks came to a sunday market kind, such as Brick Lane,

Bermondsey market etc and bought by an antic dealer and the object  

end up Portobello market.   ( = A rubbish sold at Brick Lane  £5 goes to  

a dealer for £10, then bought by an antic dealer of Portobello for £20 

and sold to a tourist for £50 as a collectables  = everybody made a profit,

and happy = life goes on !)

Though, thanks to a TV program such as  the “Antic Road Show” and

people can find the information in the Net then selling it in eBay.   

So that, good salable item has disappeared from the market. And

these days, what was sold in the market were fakes, copied items,

just fancy, strange designed goods (from China, India, Africa etc).

So, the shops were filled with fancy room decorations.

And I found a shop selling the hand painted = customized shoes.

Strangely, Portobello has only two camera dealers. (as far as I know

since 70s = one in Admiral Vernon Arcade and the other open stall.) 

The dealer used to be in the arcade was my friend Brian. 

And after he retired about 10 years ago, George took over the position.

On the 80s, when Japanese got a boom collecting antic cameras, in fact

it was staged by an antic shop “Soul Trip” who started to sell thousand

of old cameras along side the many magazine articles campaign.  

And the supplier of those cameras from England was, the man in

Portobello, Brian.   Old camera boom in Japan made both

Soul Trip (Mr Segawa) and Brian rich.

The man running the antic camera shop now, George is dealing with

much humble items / junk — still unmistakably it is an Aladdin’s cave.

(simply because, the good collectables has been already sold and not

much left circulating on the market.)

In old days, I bought many old cameras from Brian (include modified

Robot camera using Leiz 50mm F1.5) and I translated the Japanese

article about the first SLR with penta prism = Duflex for him.

(I’m going to write about a 100 years old lens I found in this shop.)

When you see the open stalls selling food, vegetable started to appear,

it is the end of So-called Portobello market.  (further down the street,

you may find the open stalls selling the junk from the daily life. 

Cups and pan sort, even a lady’s underwear.

Is it anything to do with IS terrorists, the polis is taking rather hi-profile.

And this must be The John-Bull.  How shiny !   😀

(Except only one Canon Fisheye, lest of all other photos were taken by

a homemade Mag Lens on Sony A7R.)

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Yet more Homemade Lens — KodaFun Lens

 

As you can see from the following photo, this lens came from a Kodak

fun camera.  Originally, the lens was mounted on the F8(?) sized hole

on the camera body though I used this plastic lens with fully opened

condition. (Hence more halation and the aberrations which I want !)

Even Fun lens needs to be mounted in the precise position.   😀

Basically as a omunifocus lens, it’s creates a kind of certain image

in any distance = in other words, no fun on the Bokhe !

Still the matter is, where to use it.

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Homemade Lens – Mag Lens

Now I got quite few homemade lenses = call them just a fun camera

lens would be confusing, which one ? — I should call them in their

individual name.   So, the lens here happen to be originated from a

SLR’s view finder magnifier, I name it Mag Lens.  

Unlike the other Fun camera lens which is often omunifocus, this

lens has one focal point, its mean needs to be focused by means of

helicoid or a sort.    And I found a zooming helicoid of a Nikon

compact camera will do the job.   So, I hack-saw out the

helicoid part of the camera from its body frame. (Photo above)

With a test of the lens, I found the lens needs to be mounted 40mm

from the image sensor.   Then, I struggled to mount the helicoid to a

body cap, and to mount the lens into the helicoid.  (The photo above,

middle shows how the position of the fixing screw was marked

on the cap.  🙂  )

With a good extension of the helicoid, the lens can give a focus from

the infinity to the x1 macro.  Though, this lens found to have the

biggest halation among all of my homemade lens.   😀

Since the lens was originally a magnifying lens, the quality of the

macro image was quite good.

(Lens itself was F2.5 —> If I put an iris 5mm = F8, image would be

even better.)

And, it has a fade and dissolve like beautiful out of focus Bokhe !

With its shallow depth of field, a face on the card changes a lot.

This lens was a hit.

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Stitch Work (2) Disco Pants !

Among my creation hence the possessions, the most bizarre item  

must be my Disco Pants. — It was a BR rail worker’s hi-vis uniform.  

But, because its size was too big for me, I’ve cut the length and used

that cut-off to make the back pockets. = So, the pants was customized 

to a flashy Disco Pants with x5 blue LEDs running light on the thigh

and slow on-off pink and red LEDs on the back pocket. 

To make the pocket, I designed it like a stuffed relief of a nude torso. 

In fact, such design was an excuse to put the LEDs.   As the figure 

was made upside down, it was a puzzle to comprehend what it was.

= all for the fun on the club night. (If it was ordinary geometric

pattern kind, it would be too boring = nothing fun and the others

wouldn’t notice it at all.)

On that time I was an almost the fixture of the club called Fridge in

Brixton. — Good (or bad ?) grown-up in a club, it’s better to have a

fun, and gone to be crazy.  (Anyway, it sound everything crazy =

I was the top dancer there, receiving free entry and the free drinks

— still, never drink alcohol, not mention any drug.  Never mix with

cloud still keep talking with all the staffs, manager, owner. = So that

the cloud mistook me a special security kind or even a real owner /

financier behind.  😀 )

To make the pockets, the material was the cut-off of the leg’s end

and the thread was the thread which I de-threaded from the cut-off.

(This story, use old thread horrified the professional machinists !) 

Because, it’s there and the easiest to use — though it needed to pull

out from the cloth. —– So, the supply of the thread was limited. 

On the end, I had to save the thread = no return stitch. = You can 

see from the photo above.   😀 

Without draw the line on the cloth, stitching was made direct on the

cloth while deciding the shape. = I think, the result wasn’t too bad.

(but I wouldn’t say the stitch work was anything near to perfect).

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You might say,  what an effort, and a waste of the time, just for fun ? ! 

But, I would only answer, why not.   And I’d ask back, spending the 

same length of time, what can you do something  worthwhile and fun,

on yesterday or whole of your life. ?   —– soon you may realize 

that what you been doing was just follow the situation to survive. 

Was that only the life what you can have ?    Open your eyes !

What preventing you to be free was your small pretense to be a

“Respectable decent man” — can you ? —– Really ?

(Though, I wouldn’t guaranty you to get a free entry even if you get crazy. )

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Stitch Work (1)

Coming to the time hard to thread the sawing needle, I became 

aware what I learned from my mother when I was young.

My mother used to make the Kimonos herself.   Often using very

rare expensive silk such as Oshima-tsumugi.  You may feel strange

though, I was sitting and watching her work and when she needed

I thread the needle for her.   Make Kimono is of course done by the

hand stitching. (Even now, all the Japanese Kimono was made by hand

= a kind of tourists souvenir, Happi Kimono may be made by a sawing

machine (in China) but Japanese doesn’t see them are Kimono at all.)

—– Sawing, hand stitching is nothing but an utterly laborious work.

And virtually all the sawing in the Kimono-making is straight line.

Only the exception sometime is the end of Tamoto in Furisode Kimono

(= long sagged down sleeves).   Its mean, no innovative variation or

inventive shortcut kind could ever exist = just keep stitching straight.

= If it was not straight, the fabric distort, so it looks funny and make a

person wearing feel ashamed. So,to a Kimono-maker or needle woman

to become able to do an adequate stitch, it may need to make at least

10 Kimonos for a practice.  (if it was an expensive silk, de-thread and

remake again — very fine needle will not damage the fablic.)

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In the all the traditional crafts or art kind, how the novice to learn is

by way of watching and mimic = to copy what the master does.

Not mention the stitching work, which is push the needle, front to the

back and to the front again ~ ~ ~, mimicking and copy is nothing but

the repeating the same action again and again.

= IS to program the pattern into the brain. = (When the pattern was

imprinted in the brain, the action, include the speech become

automatic = automatic mean “No self”)   When the level of learning =

copying deepen to such automatic level, it’s standard or the quality

reaches to the perfection.   Because the body moves like a precise

machine without the interference of useless thought or emotion.

In this level, there couldn’t be any Ego = no emotion or high-level

thought. — so, you might wonder, what IS the motivation to do it ?

“Motivation ?      What’s the Motivation ?”

— When the task is on front = there wouldn’t be any choice but to DO.

(This situation has been misunderstood as the “Concentration” or

so-called “Mindfulness”. 😀 )

And, is the task really there ? How DO I know when myself is not there =

nor any mind, observing it.   (The people who mistook that the Zen

is a matter of awareness = A way of different thinking, couldn’t

emancipates this trap of thinking therefore couldn’t be escaped from 

this dichotomy = “Observing vs Observed Self” — When the SELF is 

 not there, WHO is observing or aware of it ?) = It’s mean, as long as 

a notion of Zen is there (or you think, you are doing a Zen),

it is not Zen at all.  Zen is being in no-mind = Mushin.

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This is the situation WHAT the Buddhists call VOID.

— Which I’ve learned from the stitching work when my conscious

was absorbed into the moving needle.

= Effectively my mother taught me the most crucial essence of Zen

without saying even a single word of Zen or Buddhism.(Of course,there

was no word of Zen or even a name of Buddhism exists on the time of

Lord Buddha.  He only showed the way to DO and what he told was the

jokes, then took a rest while sitting quiet.  When the teachings were

“Selfless” it couldn’t be taught using the word “Self” as it’s not exists.

So, he only showed the way to DO without SELF.) 

The people who was not there and only heard about had mistaken that

the sitting (and assumed to be thinking) was the matter.

Then all the misconception and the nix-up were bore out from here.

( — Sitting was just having a rest).

So, you were trapped here.   Are you watching the stitches, or

something encircled by the stitches ?

Oh, naughty you, what are you thinking. It’s just a cloth and the

stitches, still it’s better to be a naughty as we can have a laugh.    

Ha ha ha   😀

___/\___

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Silly Practice = Sun and North Wind

As I needed the cash, I used an ATM of the TSB bank.

— The machine gave me 40 x £5 note for £200 !    How silly who

needs to have 40 x £5 note.  So, I went to the inside and asked a

cashier to change them to the £20 note.  The cashier asked me if

I have an account with them.  I said no.  Then she said, unless I have

an account with them, they wouldn’t chang the note ! — Amazing,

is this a harassment to annoy the people to have an account with TSB ? 

And is there even a single person who want to have an account

in order not to receive lots of £5 note ?    Are they kidding us

hoping that the cold wind would work ? ? ?  😀

Then, I realized that’s why the floor was empty and no needed to 

ques for cashier.

—– while seeing the ATM every 50m on the high street,

who need to use their ATM again.

(Is this a mentality of the English bank or just with TSB ?)

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