Baby Corn

While taking the husk out of the corn (on the cob = maize = indian corn) I found something the addition on the bottom of it. —– They were the baby corn.    I’m not sure whether this is the way how baby corn was grow (and harvested)   Then I realized that they are just a miniature version of the normal corn = nothing else.  They are not wearing a wig for the weekend.  They carry the exactly the same task = fertilize the each grain of the corn.  Same as the human foetus having all the organs = heart to the brain, baby corn expect and prepare to become full-sized corn.  Baby corn is not a joke.  (Don’t you know, if you give enough water and the sunlight, the each sprouts will grow to full size cabbage ! —– I’m just kidding.   😀 )

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August Moon

August Moon   (In few days time it would be a new moon —– so, a solar eclipse is coming.)      In Japan 15th August is the Moon Festival though, in the Moon Calender, it will be in the September.  But I’m not sure how many people still remember it.  —– They might be thinking more, if north Korean missile is coming when they see the sky now. —— Lunatic isn’t it.

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PS : The photo above which was taken by the Tamron SP 500 mm F8 Mirror lens shows the Red and Blue fringe = it is a chromatic aberration.     This is a reputed to be one of the best 500 mm mirror lens in the history, —– I couldn’t accept such flaw in this lens = I may need to check if any loose element in the lens occurred ?   (By the way, why this photo is not as sharp as the other photo “Red Moon” is, this one was taken through double grazed window —– Red Moon was taken while window was fully opened.  😀  )

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Oleander

This is a tree flower which I have deep attachment, hence I want to see more here = though, strangely she was not planted often.  Probably because people afraid of the poison of this plant.   In deed, if you feed the handful leaves to the animal (cow or goat kind) the animal would die easily = strange contradiction is, its poison (Oleandrin) has very similar effect to the poison of Foxglove (Digitalis / Digitoxin = Very strong stimulant and or poison to the heart) —– yet you can see the Foxglove everywhere even though Foxglove can kill you too.
The reason why I feel such attachment to this flower was, she was associated with some poets who I respect, — and its poisonous nature.    When I was small, my hero was the Ninja or humanoid Robot, not a Superman kind of American comic fantasy.  So, we kids practiced how to make a rope to climb a wall or the formula to make a poison.  (still, I never heard of any accident with those poisons = Japanese got necessary knowledges —– idiot can’t be a Ninja = we kids wanted to master the real skill, not dreaming in a silly fantasy to fly a sky.)

Very remarkable fact of this plant, Nerium Oleander (夾竹桃、キョウチクトウ）is, that this plant has the will and the ability to survive while eliminating other plant with its poison.  Oleander was the plant first revived and flowered on the literally scorched ground of the Hiroshima, after that atomic bomb.   Hence, she was named and honoured as the Flower of the Hiroshima. —– (Hidden message here might not be a flowering peace but a kept poison / we never forget.)

(Those photos were taken by a homemade lens nicknamed “koda-fun lens” with or without extension ring.)
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Onion Business

Some time, I had to buy the onions from a street open stole, which has been wet by the passing shower.   Of course I have a choice to go to super market but I’m not such fussy.  (The same onion could be half of the price on the street — still, it would be only a matter of 10P 20P kind of money.) —– Then what will happen to that wet onion IS a bit different story. = I peel off all the wet skin and made them dry.   With wet skin, onion would get rotten easily = so, why not to make them naked. —– You might say why DO I choose to have so much trouble,  just because I didn’t buy dry onions from a roofed shop while paying 10P more. —– Is that true ?    AM I doing  more with wet onions ?    Whether it is a dry one or wet onion, we need to peel off exactly the same number of the skin = only the difference IS to do it now in advance or later.     Without seeing this, most of the people who saw my naked onion just got shocked.  Very Very funny.   😀    This IS the typical sample of,  how our mind was stacked with a preconception and couldn’t see even a plain truth. —– Open your eyes.   😀

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Remove the reflection

After I published the post “Instamatic Macro” I received a mail asking me how I could manage to eliminate the reflection inside of the shiny Macro Tube.   The man was a reader who read my old post “ Tiny Life ” long time ago and in fact, he made the same Macro adapter using similar aluminium can, but having the trouble from the internal reflection. 

(He said that he splayed the inside with a Mat Black Splay Paint though, even with such paint, the surface was pretty smooth and making rather high reflection which is ruining the image.)  On top of the smooth surface, the inside of the round pipe acting like a converging mirror, making a hot bright-spot in the center of the image.  (Hence, its reflection created the images in the previous Post —– though, those photos were the exaggerated reflection from a shiny metal pipe, not from the real macro tube.   😀 )

There are the several method to eliminate the internal reflection = Applying a good Black Velvet is the one, though to glue-up a soft cloth inside of a small can is a very awkward task.   ( I can guaranty you struggle — I know, as I did it before.   😀  )     Proper design will put the proper light barrier discs, though, to insert the full-size disc need to have a full opening of the pipe-end.   Bend and insert a semi-flexible disc (ring) and make it stand in the position is the other way.   (Still, not easy though.)

—– What I did was, to insert a paper spiral inside.   I made a spiral using a semi-soft (stiffer than drawing paper) = (First, made the 3 paper rings which got 2 mm larger  diameter of the can’s internal diameter— then cut and connect them to make a spiral) Then this spiral was slipped inside of the can.  (It needs a good rotating manoeuvre ! ) (I made a paper tool to catch and move the spiral = Photo left.  And how to use it = Photo right.)  —– when the spiral settled in the good position where all the reflection and the glare was shielded, fix the position using a glue.  = Job done !   (for the clarity sake, in the photos, the edge of the spiral has not been painted black. —– I hope, you can see how to work-out this game.)

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PS : For an educational purpose,  I’ll show you the scene behind. Photo left was the same mosquito but without having a reflection eliminated.      And the photo right was how the spiral inside of the macro tube looks like.

 

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Throw a stone

The words here “Throw a stone” is a metaphor or a symbol indicating that there is a meaning behind of such action — in Zen term, a Direct Transmission.  Why Direct Transmission ? — Because the words couldn’t convey the meaning behind or such meaning would be lost if it was expressed in the words. 

After many years, I suddenly realized that Lord Buddha never spoken about the Concept or the Idea conceived in the mind other than in the metaphoric stories.  His teachings were doing or show what or how to do.  And never explained what its action for or meanings of it.  So that, the Disciples were guessing or making their own interpretation if not their own understanding. —– The most of the scriptures were such kind of interpretations or guess-works and very little real teachings of Buddha was recorded because of very few could manage to catch the meaning behind, let alone describe them in the scripture.  (So that, the Buddhism has been surrounded by the mountain of buzz-words created by a superficial capturing such as Selfless, No-thinking, Mushin, Dedication, Self-sacrifice, Detauchment, No-greed, No-emotion, No-fear, Mindfulness, Middle way, — etc etc.)

In deed, Lord Buddha didn’t teach  the meaning or the intention behind of his teachings.  BECAUSE to explain such meaning WILL destroy the teaching itself. (It was recorded in the scripture typically as “Unanswered Questions” =  the abstract, imaginary notions such as an idea of  SELF or theoretical existence like an Infinity, were completely ignored by him.)

—– Do something, JUST do something without do other than DO, = such as to take a bicycle and ride, and go shopping.  When you do such riding, you ARE not thinking how to ride, how to push the feet or take a balance = because, you do it without any conscious “Let alone any conscious of I’m DOING the bicycle ride” = In fact, you ARE doing it without your SELF.  AS this IS the evidence of that the SELF IS not exists, and the idea of the SELF was a creation of your conscious or IMAGINATION.  Since the SELF is not exists, the notion or its word is not exists either (in other words, they were INTENTIONALY created to deal with those notion.) = Therefore, it IS not possible to explain the idea of “There is no SELF” = you can’t explain this without using the notion or the word SELF other than you yourself realize that you ARE riding the bicycle without the conscious of SELF.  Lord Buddha taught his followers to learn it through the action (or a kind of repeating practice — mind you there wasn’t a bicycle then.  😀 ) —– still, how his teachings was successful or succeeded was quite questionable = AND as he was aware of it, he had to leave the very last words “Don’t take the other’s words, learn it by YOURSELF” —– The history of the Buddhism showed nothing but the silly misunderstanding or more precisely the lack of understanding among the followers since then.   (I’ll show it with the most typical sample of “Middle way” in the next post.)

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Save a junk (replace a Prism of Pentax)

In our network, I seems to be a man, the most hopeless junk would end up.  May be because I could find a way to repair or utilize it = not just I got some skills but also I’m keeping many junks which could be used as a spare to repair.  So, people described me a resourceful man —– then I gave a thought or two

—– May be the matter here was not what I got for spare or a skill to use but the way of thinking. = I got very flexible way of thinking, — or more precisely I never trained to follow the standard or regular method, therefore I may conceive totally different approach and able to find a fancy solution.  This is a freedom to be an outsider.  😀

One typical sample is the Tilting Macro Bellows of which I made the orignal nearly 50 years ago.  Only a small cost of lens and camera body caps + straight bracket etc, (and some cut and grue works) = what I got was a device which can make a close-up photo up to 1:1 + tilting adjustment.  Simply the reason to make such adapter was, I needed to have a macro lens though, I didn’t have a money (I was a Uni’ student and my saving had gone to Nikon F body and 50mm F2 already). —– If it was the situation, the answer and the solution was, why not to make one myself !  The requirement for close-up photo was, to hold the lens further away from the body, and how far from the body correspond to the magnification = 50mm extension for 50mm lens would create 1:1 / life-size close-up. —– And what I made, Tilting Macro Bellows, was good enough, and worked exactly what I expected.  In there, there was no jump of thinking = everything was pretty rational and simple —– yet still, as no body ever made like this before indicates, there was a kind of blockage in thinking that the camera device must be very rigid and elaborated. (to be a good salable commodity —– no solution for homemade poor man’s choice can be existed) 

A Pentax film camera brought by somebody got hopelessly heavy black fungi in the center of the finder prism.   In normal sense, the prism may be replaced (by Pentax or somebody keeping a spare parts) but the cost of the repair would be no less than £50 or even more, while the value of such old camera would be less than £50.  It’s no worth to consider. = so, the camera came to me.  —– I was thinking to use its mirror to make a side view adapter etc. 

Then somebody need a film camera for Pinhole photo, I thought this camera can be a good candidate.  For hours of ultra long exposure (use dark ND filter together) view finder has to be blacked-out too. —– but, to frame a direction, finder would be useful. —– To remove the fungi, peel off the paint and coating then clean the glass — is a straight forward procedure though, — wait a moment, the prism of the 35mm film camera must be all same size (as the image size is the same 36×24 mm) the prism doesn’t need to be the same Pentax. = Why not Canon. (as I happen to have a disassembled Canon body, it was easy to get a prism out of its frame.

So, I disassembled the Pentax K1000 body to remove the fungi infested Prism. (It’s alway the case, — I know from the past 40 years experiences — a screw fixing the wind-up lever is the most awkward to Remove.   Some of them were CCW screw and break-off, or using screw lock grue = needed to heat-up and melt) 

Once the top cover was removed, the prism is easily accessible.  Behind the prism (alongside the view finder) mounted CdS are for measuring the exposure. (Photo Right)  Pentax is doing exactly the same since their SP, but later addition of the top (smaller) CdS is to compensate the strong back (sky) light.

(Photo left was Pentax prism.  Photo middle was Canon Prism.  Photo right = Canon prism was happily settled on the Pentax head. )

On the end, the Prism swap operation was a great success.  Leaving an empty Canon junk frame behind,  the Pentax K1000 got new lease of life.     🙂

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Ultra Wide Angle Lens (Sony 12~24mm F4 Zoom)

I had an opportunity to test an ultra wide-angle lens, Sony 12~24mm F4 lens.  With its spec, the lens was amazingly light (in comparison to similar Nikon or Canon lens, it only half of the weight.  And smaller.)  Mounted on Sony A7R body, its handling balance was very comfortable. And function well.

Though, the image itself, the 12mm lens’ 120° view is not so new to the man using 15mm lens or fisheye lens almost like an everyday occurrence for the past 40, 50 years, looks nothing special.

To make the view with a big distortion of perspective or looks more natural is not difficult at all. (in fact, it would be only few degree of the camera angle or move the position few steps away.)

The lens was supposedly a rectilinear, not fisheye though, having rather prominent barrel distortion.  (Both Nikon and Canon seems to have about the same distortion) (All the pictures here showd quite of a vignetting (corners getting darker) because of they were taken with fully open F4 = so, the shutter speed was 1/3000th kind and the water splash became the dot ! )

The lens said to have some measure of dust and water protection though, we better not to trust them.  Simply because, we the user will be the one who suffer with the trouble, and the service charge of the Sony is three times more expensive (Any service start with £90 deposit and another £90 for repair — even for just tighten-up a screw !)

The image which give you the impact or pressure may not necessary be created by the lens, it is simply the matter of subject or the landscape.  (You have to find the “impressive subject” first.   😀 )

But I’m not implying you to feel any impact here.    😀

(You know, it IS a joke = Ultra wide-angle or Fisheye is easy to make a joke as they can twist the view very easily.  In other words, often it is very tricky to show the natural view without any exaggeration.  Such as, that the lens can take a picture of very confined place though, it would give a false impression, as if it was a wide space.)

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XF Symposiume (of connecting people)

In this post, Sharp images were taken by Sony 30mm F3.5 lens.  a bit fuzzy images were made by the “Fun camera lens” and even fuzzier images were by a Pinhole on A7R camera.  (Fisheye images were Pinhole with Mob-phone Fisheye adapter)

XF Symposium was a gathering of the organizers who is organizing the local activities to connect the people.  And the MAZI is a way to provide a digital platform of the communication of the members. (Like a small-scale SNS)

As the nine organizations participating and each group having their own project, I’m not able to tell who is doing what. (If you are interested in, please contact them by yourself.)
http://friends.deptfordcreek.net/creeknet-xf-symposium/
http://wrd.spc.org/creeknet-xf-symposium/

Between the sessions, we were offered to have a delicious vegetarian carry, authentically cooked by an Indian chef, and mango smoothy. 

Unless we got the energy in our stomach, our brain doesn’t function well.  (though, to fill it too much, we may fall asleep.  😀  )

After the session, we popped out to the park next to the Steven Lawrence Center.  (In fact, it stand alongside the Deptford Creek itself.)

And even more food and drink was offered.  What a good picnic to have a Sumer solstice Day !

It was really a hot midsummer, — be in the park, or stay well-air-conditioned inside was a good question.  = It was a situation, whether we should stay with the nature or take an advantage of the modern technology.   😀    Anyway, we had a good chat, not necessary a serious talk about the community. —– What community ?   We are the eating together community.  It’s a paradox Sir.    😀

Alongside the park, shallow Deptford Creek seems to be pretty clean and looks present. (I saw even a Damsel fly !)

Don’t worry, Deptford Creek seems to be pretty in good condition.

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Go into a mud (but not me)

(On this post, as it happened often, the sharp clear pictures were taken by Canon Fisheye lens, a bit fuzzy images were taken by a Pinhole, and more fuzzy pictures were by homemade Mag Lens on Sony A7R camera.)

There was an event to walk the low tide creek, at the Deptford Creek, organized by the Creekside Discovery Center, as a part of the Creeknet, XF Symposium. — http://deptfordcreek.net

It can be a kind of treasure hunting or a nature study.

(So, the “Treasure” found in the past walk has been displayed in the center = after such tenacious repeated  hunt, there may not be anything left though.  😀  )

M m m ——.

So, the participants borrow the big wader and the stick and get the instructions.  (but being as a Japanese, with our deep religious restriction, we wouldn’t touch somebody else’s shoes, let alone a wader worn by hundreds of others = It was the same reason how the prisoner could keep their shortwave radio in a prison camp of the WW2, as the Japanese soldier never touch the prisoner’s possession.)

And receive more lectures.

So, at last they marched away to the mud.

And after came back in one piece, received even more lectures.  After all, to organize a community activity is a campaign.  Campaign means persuading the mass with one opinion, same to the political campaign. —> Successful one may become a politician. (and get a power and money ?) — am I too cynical ?   Ha ha ha  😀

Don’t get me wrong, to show this picture here, is not meant to be implying a “Rubbish”.  Walking in the mud is a great act though, a funny story here was that, they are appealing that the new development of the area are destroying the environment and the nature etc etc —– but they’ve found that the water is getting cleaner, the more fish, shrimp, crab were found etc etc !  (Unlike the hundred years old traditional housing or local cottage industry, those new developments are having much more strict environmental regulations (such as a sewer etc).   Don’t dwell in an easy buzzword.  See the situation with your clear eyes.  (If you have one — or two ?)

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