Sweet image (2) — aren’t they rather Goth ?

The photos here were taken by the DD-Pinhole with a LED ring-light.   Pinhole mean, there is no grass optics which may block the light of shorter wave length (Blue to UV) and the LED used were very cool day-light type (recycled from a discarded cheap work light — there is a high quality LED which got exact 5500°K but with the cost)  = resulting to produce very blueish photos. (I should have set the camera’s White balance to somewhat 8000°K in advance)

You may say, they are not pretty sweet kind but more likely a Goth taste !   

I agree, but, is there anything wrong ?         Ha ha ha.   😀

Nevertheless, I like this approach / technique.   Anyway, the photography chose the subject.   If it doesn’t, it mean, it IS a kind of general photography, not worth bothering to. —– if you say, there are numerous impressive photos in the field of general photography —– Are they ? If you look it again, you will realize, it is impressive because the subject WAS impressive = not the photo.  Photo was just a good copy of such subject.  Nothing else. = you can send a robot to do a copy.  = It is not a photography but a listing up, curation of the subjects.   There is an occasion, as if the subject was almost placed there to be photographed.   Photography is a very heavy activity in the life.

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Sweet images

Well, they were yet another template like photos — fuzzy cherry flowers, this time created by the homemade Mag-Lens.  

Don’t worry it wouldn’t cause any infringement of the copyright law.    😀

It supposed to make fragile flowers even more soft though, strangely, it made flowers looks somewhat like a ceramic craft.  —– ?      Are my eyes got something wrong ?

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Flower flower = x3 Lenses

Suddenly many flowers started to open. (The above seems to be a Plum flowers) — So, I’m capturing them with a lots of lenses (?) — above, by Sony E 3.5 30mm Macro.

This is rather early though, Somei-yoshino Cherry by Sony lens.

And this year again, the early Magnolia by Sony lens.

The same flower by homemade Mag-lens.

Yet another shot by the Double-density Pinhole.

The same flower by the same DD-Pinhole but with LED lighting.

Cherry flowers by Sony Macro lens = straight shot.

Then by the Mag-lens.

A bit too messy though, by the DD-Pinhole.  (Being as a Pinhole which is pan-focus, messy back grownd become very prominent.)

So, how about with added LED Ring-light. (Hoping the back mess going into the dark)

By the Mag-lens.  (Only the far back grownd showing funny coma aberration.)

By the DD-Pinhole.

DD-Pinhole with LED Ring-light.    Good evening Sir.

And they are the Lenses(?) and the camera — Sony A7R with E 3.5 30mm Macro, DD-Pinhole and  a homemade Mag-lens (A lens originally from a magnifier, mounted into a lens barrel from other compact camera = equivalent of 40mm F2.4)

Well, this is an extra addition = Yama-zakura (see its brownish leaves come out with the flowers) taken by the Fun camera lens.

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Metalica of Steel wire

He said to be a hard-core original member of the heavy metal Metalica. 

Though, long time he had been confined in a box in my place.  As a hard iron man, without having a high voltage power he couldn’t play a single note nor even just shake his body.  (The story behind was, that a part of stock taking, I need to document and Video my kinetic works.  But a trouble was, that I couldn’t find the electronic controller of this man.) —  As seen on the photo, he was a man on the stage standing alone = just an empty wire work. — So, how he could play music let alone move his body, as there is no mechanism or trick was seen on the stage.   Well, that IS the ingenious part of producing him. = He play a music with the resonance. = Tune himself to the vive and excite himself.  (The base, stage vibrates almost invisible mode.  Then his wobbly body resonate and amplify the movement, so start to shake, following the resonating frequency.   Acoustically or mechanically, his body is very complexed = depend on the resonating frequency, he vibrates different way — and his heavy instrument got rather large inertia and makes own vibration.)  The reason why I haven’t done this video making was that I wanted to compile it with metal music — how to synchronize the beat and the body movement etc etc, not mention the trouble with music copyright. 

Anyhow, today, I’m going to see my friend video maker Funki Porcini, who got amazing creativity and video editing skill ! = We are going to produce Matalica on wire MV.   (Wish me luck.)    😀

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Baby baby

Yesterday I went to see my friends and their three months old babies.  Those babies are the cousins each other and born only a day apart.  (This photo = Pinhole)

When I saw them, I noticed that one of them had very hard birth from the shape of his head.   Dady explained me, it was a 40 hours battle.

The baby having the face amazingly resembles to his parent = that’s because of their Gene, yet still the babies having big head despite the mother’s passage he had to came through hadn’t been evolved accordingly, was because the our (or ancestor’s) choice. = We human changed from herbivore to omnivore started to scavenge animal carcass, borne marrow etc. resulting our brain grow bigger. (omnivore needs to process much  more information too = needs more brain power.  —– And to compensate a such painful trouble of giving a birth, a pleasure the woman can get from the sex is far more = otherwise the woman would say “Oh no, never again” and the human race had been extinct long ago. )  

Funny tendency of our attitude is, that we accept the physical appearance of the baby such as the face, and do know that the lines on the palm is fixed on the birth, still wouldn’t accept that the basic character (such as expressed on the line on the palm, the tendency in the emotion, a type of the brain, or Ego etc) =  accordingly a kind of the life that the person will have, IS also fixed.  (People doesn’t like to be fixed or been told by the others, and hope to have a hope = expect good luck, and the effort would change the fate = be optimistic.)  It’s not a matter of Gene, but the Karma which was specifically given to the person.   Otherwise why the person was made to be exist as this person.  = It IS the same person since he was born.

(Those photos were by modified Olympus Pen-F 38mm F1.8 on Sony A7R)

( by PEN-F 38mm lens)

(by the Fun camera lens on A7R)

(Fun camera lens again)

So, they were the camera and the lenses I used here = Olympus Pen-F 38mm on Sony A7R, Fun camera lens, Pinhole (equivalent of 21mm lens view and about F125) and the lens from a Toy camera.  ( The point is, I could carry all of them in my pocket.  Why do I need to go back to a heavy DSLR. )

This Pinhole photo showing about 90 degree view and heavy vignettes (corner fall off) — ISO was 25600.    Think, if this photo was ordinary sharp image, would it be useful for you ? — I don’t think so, since we are not seeing the world in its detail, anyway.

Yet another baby photo by a Pinhole (ISO 25600) on a DLR train — the girl wanted to touch the camera. 

You see, a Pinhole was usable even for general snap shot.   😀   (Of course, such as the ISO 25600 — in full color ! — was never possible without having a processing power of the digital technology. —– So, I’m not insisting the pure analog in its own sake.  I just want to have the image I want, not the image what the manufacturer recommends. = What they recommend was the style of the mass market of which they make and sell in millions. )

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Wabi – Sabi

Time to time, you might have heard the Japanese words, Wabi and Sabi, especially in relation to the Haiku Poet Basho or about Tea making and its pottery work. (such as tea bowl)  The word Sabi is related to Sabi-shii or Sabi-reta etc all of those meaning may be clearer in the visual metaphor than a lexical explanation (since those notions has to be grasped by the naked perception not by the thinking brain = hence direct transmission) — imagine you came across the place looks like abandoned or inhabited houses. = you may use a word ghost town.  No single soul on the street neither any sign of daily activity. Though, it is the very matter I’ve talked about in the previous post = if you were a westerner, your psych imagine a ghost town in a western film which is a dry, dusty, sun stricken street of wooden hoses — but here, in Japanese case, it has to be darker, under the shade of the tree, and rather wet, moss-covered half rotten houses. = you may feel even spooky.  This is rather exaggerated case of Sabi-shii scene.  And if you were here alone, you must feel quite Sabi-shii / lonely or desolated.  Then stretch your imagination further to the inside or the back of the house, what sort of the things you may find — wooden utensil ?  or a kind of bowl for eating, drinking ?  — a kind of the people used to live here, might be a poor farmer or casual worker helping those farmers = anyway, having had hand to mouth kind of the life = everything was a bare minimum.  So, if the bowl was not wooden but a pottery, how it looks like.  A bowl made to exchange for few vegetables or a caught bird, the pottery wouldn’t have a nice glaze or any decoration = just enough function for daily use. 

In the case of pottery, those images are the completely opposite of the Wabi, Sabi. Or I should say the typical decoration in the western standard, which the people think “gorgeous”. (but may be rather poor taste though) 

And in comparison, this is a Japanese dish in its decorative formal style. (This is Nabeshima. — If this one had no clack, it could fetch £10,000 even though this one was made by a trainee (= the lines were rather messy), hence second grade) —– Still, you may noticed that the stark contrast in the visual design = The western approach try to fill all the space with decorative images but Japanese leave the blank space.  Why ? It’s because of the Zen philosophy.   Western philosophy says, Nature avoid the vacuum but Zen is the matter to live with the Void.   So, to the westerner, gorgeous mean filled with nice decoration but Zen sees the peace in the blanc space.  If the nature was not in the free space, it is not natural but a fraud.  And Zen reject any intentional act as an unnatural fraud.  Especially in terms of Tea making, it got to be absolutely humble and everything has to be a bare minimum. —– This principle was in strict force, almost to an austere level.  So, when this principle was applied, a tea bowl has to be as a bare minimum = away from any intentional, artificial decoration or even an attempt to make it looks good.  In this philosophy, Tea-master Rikyu found the cheapest and the most humble pottery made for and used by the poorest people was the most suited for Tea making, which showed the Wabi and Sabi.    (Photo above right)   And this is the typical sample of the Wabi.  (In fact, this was the back or bottom of the dish the photo before.) = There was no intention to make it looks any better — it was naturally shaped and finished.  Its unassuming naturalness was not created by any intention but rather say, it just happened because it did nothing particularly. This absence of human intention = nothing is the core of Wabi. = poor humbleness, be natural in its material is the matter.  —– So, to a potter, this is the most difficult paradox in the pottery and the ZEN. = Tea bowl have to be made but made without having any intention to make it.   The answer is,  Make it with the mind of NO-Mind = Mushin in Zen. 

(In practice, just to be a potter, not a business man but just potting and let the pot to have its own fate = a pot made out of soil should have the face of soil and show the face burnt by the fire.)  (Photo above are the most tipical Wabi bowls, left was made by Koetsu)

(To an untrained eyes, “rustic” or lack of skill may looked like or confused with Wabi, though, the important point is, Wabi’s roughness or unevenness  was created by the unexpected accident, such as a fallen ash or unevenness of the fire not by the hand.)  = Think, Karma created Wabi not the hand let alone the brain deliberately thinking.  And the participant for tea ceremony has to appreciate such imperfect feature as an encounter on the moment.  (Which called Keshiki.) — The photo above, the vase showed a kind of Wabi on its glaze though, its pretty shape was too commercial.  Yet still, the right one seemed to have certain character to join Wabi = it’s a poor mans non-assuming daily mug, rather cheap product still it IS nothing else of Just a mag ! — but the photo left is a typical sample of a sham pretense.  On the surface of the mass-produced cup, a fake pattern of the dripped glaze was painted.

—– Now you might start to understand why Japanese garden or even an arranged flowers never had pattern or even a symmetry.

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Very Funny !

Very very funny indeed.  I’m living in England long enough to know the English expressions, the meaning and its hidden venom. (learned with a pain and a disgust)  And I actuary told or faced with this words  “Very funny” = in fact, when people said this, the real meaning was “What a hell of this = I wish, I spit you if I could”   (When the man in charge with the matter faced to a strong inquiry or complaint, in order to sway the trouble, he use this word. = didn’t respond straight therefore the trouble was not exists still at least responded therefore in its appearance, didn’t ignore the matter — still no answer or admission was given. = World is still peaceful as before (to him or his company) !

   Though, in this case, the situation was much funnier than any cynical meanings.   Please refer to the original story. = when I try to contact a Tripod manufacturer Manfrotto, about their crumbling disintegrating aluminium parts,  I needed to fill their complaint form with my full personal data.  And to the space, I put the photos which showed cracked, crumbling aluminium die-cast. —– It seemed the photos were just gone before I pressed a button to transmit the complaint text.   And today I received a thanks from Google Map for me to up-load the photo(S). = How funny ! ? ? ?

—– the photo was intended to prove what was the real situation to the man in Manfrotto who gave me a rather empty response which indicates that they haven’t seen the photo hence doesn’t aware how it was serious.  = So, instead, I put the photos of crumbling die-cast into my blog post (otherwise there was no way else to show the photo to them)  —– The funniest part of this story was, that why a part of the Manfrotto complaint form was addressed to the Google Map.   And one of the most inteligent organization, who got the most sophisticated image recognition program yet able to distinguish the block of aluminium to town-scape / landscape even to a block of building.  

So, the Google Map IS proudly showing the aluminium die-cast with Manfrotto address to the  world.  Very very funny. = (to Mr Google and Mt Manfrotto)

—– I wonder, on their Map, what is this photo going to do ?     Ha ha ha  😀

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Snowscape in Japan

I found those screen-shot image among the news (Jiji-news) from Japan.   They are having very heavy snow these days.    Japan has the highest snow fall (in the urban area, more in the mountain) record in the world, somewhat over 11 m (nearly 40 feet) high — I’m not joking = you can check it in the Guinness Book.   When it’s very heavy, the visibility could be less than 1 m = hard to see the ski trail of a man in front. (I have actuary ski down in such condition once. = in fact, we had a run for the life.)   So, the view of the (not too heavy) snow scene could be like this.  The landscape over a snow curtain.  And I like this impressionist like image !   Shame I was not in there.   😀

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Soft Option (2)

I found quite few very sharp macro lens (or the lens unit which can function as a macro lens) among the junk optics, still there wasn’t many soft macro lens so far.   So, this lens seems to be an exception.  The lens itself was yet another omunifocus toy lens though, when the lens was pushed forward and went into the close-up region, the spherical aberration seemed to be increased, hence the image become very soft.   Otheres may say it is a useless lens, still, for the sake of the soft image, I very much like this character. = So, this was yet another soft option = the special goodness this lens can offer.

And how unusual this lens IS too apparent on this photo above.   It’s fuzzy, still, we can see certain information = its mean, this is a usefull picture in the certain situation. (like for the evidence)

With the extension, close-up photo is fuzzy, still showing certain detail.

Same can be said in a distant subject = fuzzy, still, amazingly, having the details.  (did you noticed ?  The center of the enlarged photo, back-slash straight line is that crain ! )

With a normal lens, it should looks like this. (This one was by the Zeiss Distagon 18 mm lens) — that crain seems busy working !  🙂  

  Forget the theory or blurh blurh, see how “Fuzzy lens” works in practice ?

Unfortunately, situation was not ideal at all.  Under rather wet and windy days, I couldn’t find good flower.  Worse still, they were on the higher branch. —– So, this was what I managed to do with “Fun camera lens + close-up extension” and its “Fuzzy image” !

When the subject was not rich, it is the time to go to humble Zen Photography.

I’m serious.  Believe me.  😀

But these last photos here were by the other lens from Panorama toy camera, with close-up extension.  Despite the cost nothing plastic lens, the photo looks quite normal isn’t it ?    Almost religious belief that the photo has to be pin sharp, the lens got to be expensive hi-quality —– Who invented this idea ? = Only untill few dicade ago, most of the people was quite happy with a photo of the Instamatic Camera, printed on 3″ x 5″ chemist print.   Once you get rid off the idiosyncratic idea, you may find how you can be free to create “photographic image” = you don’t need to be just passive to encounter the subject neither just passive to receive (and buy) manufacture’s supply. 

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Soft option in close-up photo

The lenses of which I dubbed “Omunifocus Lens” produces quite usable images from infinity to 0.5m without having any focus control.  Yet, it has a limitation — closer than 0.5m, the image became too blurred.   Still, if the position of the lens was adjusted it can produce pretty sharp image.   So, I ordered the close-up ring for Sony E-mount and while waiting its delivery, I took a soft option of close-up technique.  = The lens was stack on the camera mount with 10 mm high soft plastic putty. (Bluetack) = As the lens was positioned further away from the image sensor it’s enables the close-up shot. 

Those homemade lenses were mounted on the OM body cap (which can be used as a Sony E-mount body cap), so that I can change each of the lens quite easily = take one out and just stick the other.   Since its humble origin from a toy camera or disposable camera, every lens are all one or two plastic, still each of them showed the different character.  Such as the one from panorama camera got quite deep depth of field = keeping omunifocus character even under the close-up shot. (Photo above left and middle)   Still the other lens showed very nice soft image. (Photo above right) — Can you believe, those images were created by the lens costed almost nothing !   And now you might be realised that the photography even with such thousands pound Hi-Tech camera may not necessary be very precise and rigid technology or art = in fact they can be very soft.  (You can see the images if the optical axis of the lens was 15° out.) 

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