Carnival ? in Greenwich — 500mm Lens Portrait
For a Theatrical Art Event in Deptford, the audience was asked to come to the
gathering point at Cutty-Sark ship Greenwich, while wearing a mask.
So, at 6:30 evening, Thames side of Greenwich suddenly see the
Venetian Carnival like atmosphere.
Performer, their staffs audiences all alike under the mask.
Those photos were taken by Tamron SP 500mm F8 Lens on Canon 5D Mk-II.
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Wide-angle Pinhole Photo
In the previous post, I’ve shown you ultra-wide or Semi-fisheye “Diopt-Pinhole
Hybrid Photos” which mean, it used not only pinhole but combined with an
optical lens too. —– The photos here shows you how the device looks like.
In fact it was a very simple device = Double-density Pinhole was mounted back of
an EOS mount-adapter and a pretty heavy concave lens was mounted on its front.
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If anybody try to do a pinhole photo on a SLR camera, (still, it could be done in
all sorts of the way such as a “Photo-sensitive emulsion was painted on a panel
which was placed inside of a huge Shipping container box and a small pinhole was
made opposite wall = Transportable [Camera Obscura] ) in most of the case,
people places a pinhole panel on the camera front where the lens was removed
and obtained fuzzy image of about standard lens. (If a camera used was Full-frame
DSLR, it would be equivalent 45~50mm lens but with APS size, it would be about
85mm lens image).
Because, such as Canon EOS camera has 44mm flange-back (distance from lens
mount to image-sensor) and the diagonal size of 36x24mm frame was 43.26mm
=> If you draw a Triangle 43.26mm wide, and 44mm high, you will get a spread
of the top-angle 54 degrees.
The shorter the hight of triangle, the wider the spread though, you can’t place a
Pinhole panel closer than 37mm (7mm inside of the Camera) otherwise it
obstructs (or damages) the mirror. This limitation lead me to resort with an
optical glass to obtain wider view in the pinhole photography.
So, the inside of the device, you can see blue panel of a beer-can (Photo Center)
and the Double-density pinhole of which the outer hole was 1.5mm and the
center hole was about 0.15~0.2mm. (Photo Right).
After a field test, where I found hopeless Halation in this optics, I realized that
I need to give an Anti-reflection covering to the shiny beer-can. 😀
—– (The photos above shows the comparison = with or without Concave lens.
—– Note : Pinhole Photo has NO distortion or any optical aberrations
—– = Since it is not Optics NOR bends the light. (Save a Diffraction. )
— (Being Pinhole, there is NO focus or Depth of Field = Fun to make a Close-up !)
It needs further refinement still, at least, I got pretty wide “Pinhole Photo” view.
—– whether it was worthwhile or meaningful was arguable though, it was
what I wanted. (with fun ! ) 😀
By the way, the lens I’ve used was cannibalised from a “Fisheye adapter lens”
widely available in the net. (about £10~£15 but quality is what we paid
= I mean Don’t expect too much. —– this is a Fun Project. 😀 )
And about the lens mount-adapter, I’ll talk about it in the next post.
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Graffiti ? in Deptford
I don’t know how to call them Graffiti or Painting.
Anyhow, what-so-ever, They are there as they are.
I remember that about 10 years ago, I met artists who got their studio in
the pink building. — They were doing a kind of “community art program”
to paint big garbage bin in the town to black and white “cow like pattern”
= Making the city looks more pastoral and natural !
—— What an utterly fantastic marvellous idea ! ! ! (I lost a word then. 😀 )
===== Guessing from the pink wall, they seems still there.
(Mind you, I’m writing this without any cynical connotation at all.)
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Camera Cafe
They says it’s only one Camera Cafe in the world — may be, but I don’t care.
On the Photo above, end of street is British Museum (This is Museum Street).
Past decade or two, we are seeing less and less camera shops. Small camera
shop disappeared because of big discount shop such as Jessops.
And Jessops disappeared because of the internet shopping.
But before, local camera shop was a kind of talking shop and to the regular
faces, shop offering a cup of coffee or two. = So, to have a chat while having
a drink in a camera shop was not unusual sight at all. But digitals changed all.
Unlike a film photography, digital camera gives the result on the spot and
any short-coming become visible at once = anybody can see what’s wrong
and what to do. (if not, try other button = no need to learn, just press it !)
I know Camera Cafe many years —– they even organized a fund-rising
campaign to help Tsunami victims in Japan (gosh, 3 years ago !) = So,
it is a kind of node in the society and a salon to the photographers.
And as a second-hand camera shop, they got quite a collection of
Zeiss lenses both for Hasselblad and Contax, on top of more familiar
Nikon and Canon. (as far as I’ve looked around, they are cheaper —–
such as Nikon F4 body, they offered for £250 —– only a while ago, I saw
it £350 at Nicolas of Camden = hence I nearly bought it but I got 150mm
lens for Hasselblad in stead (which I sold same one 25 years ago) (I can
test and use the lens on my current 5D Mk3 but to test Nikon F4, I need
to set up a dark-room to deal with B/W film again = a bit too much :-))
The technical staff, Richard (photo Left) was a film maker before and
having immense depth of knowledge over lenses and the cameras.
Very nice man to chat with. 🙂 —– and they got an exhibition space as
well (see the details on their website).
Looking back the shopping list I did in there (such as Nikon’s 35 mm
PC lens, Olympus 80 mm Life-size Macro etc etc.) —– I realized, that
I’ve been buying a kind of the item rather unusual = hard to sell
—– it’s mean, I’ve been a good customer to them. 😀
(But in the same time shop is keeping it’s own Reson de etre !)
They are open till 7:00 evening —– the best of the things there IS
they don’t have the restless tourist like customers. 😀
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Does Meditation helps ?
There was an interesting report which studied the benefit of Meditation.
After a medical report about the effect of Meditation was published in JAMA
Internal Medicine, numerous articles which quotes this report has been
published. = This is the one of them (Wall Street Journal)
http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702304887104579304691799314468
Meditation Has Limited Benefits,
Study Finds
Mindfulness meditation can ease stress but
won’t curb problems like being overweight
Certain types of meditation may provide some modest relief from anxiety,
depression and pain, a new study found.
But the study found little evidence for other reported benefits of meditation,
including help in curbing substance abuse, poor eating habits,
sleep disorders and weight problems.
The report, published Monday in the journal JAMA Internal Medicine,
reviewed the findings from 47 previous studies, all randomized clinical
trials, with 3,515 adult participants in total.
Many people use meditation to ease stress and promote general health.
The purpose of the report was to examine the accumulated evidence to help
doctors determine how best to counsel patients on the possible benefits and
limitations of meditation, said Madhav Goyal, assistant professor of
general internal medicine at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore
and the report’s lead researcher.
In each of the underlying studies, participants received professional
instruction in one of two types of meditation: mantra meditation or
mindfulness meditation. A popular form of mantra meditation is
transcendental meditation, which involves repetition of a phrase
“in such a way that it transcends one to an effortless state where focused
attention is absent,” the study said.
By contrast, mindfulness meditation emphasizes training in “present-focused
awareness,” or mindfulness. The study noted that the distinctions between
the meditation types aren’t always clear.
Researchers found that only mindfulness meditation produced some benefits.
For example, the improvement in patients with mild symptoms of depression
was similar in magnitude to what might be expected from the use of
an antidepressant, the study said. It also noted that there were few
mantra-meditation studies to include in the JAMA review, which could help
account for the lack of evidence of benefits from this type of meditation.
The study didn’t find any evidence meditation was harmful.
Researchers culled through nearly 19,000 previous studies on meditation to
select the most scientific. Dr. Goyal said his team used rigorous inclusion
criteria. Each of the 47 included studies was a controlled trial in which
at least one group received either a therapy with known psychological
benefits, such as exercise, or a placebo instructional or educational session,
he said. Studies that looked only at children or adolescents, or those without
a control group, were excluded.
“Although uncontrolled studies have usually found a benefit of meditation,
very few controlled studies have found a similar benefit for the effects of
meditation programs on health-related behaviors affected by stress,”
the JAMA report said.
The report’s findings show that meditation is perhaps less effective in
alleviating stress-related symptoms than is widely believed, said
Allan H. Goroll, professor of medicine at
Harvard Medical School-Massachusetts General Hospital, in invited
commentary also published Monday in JAMA Internal Medicine.
“The studies overall failed to show much benefit from meditation with
regard to relief of suffering or improvement in overall health, with the
important exception that mindfulness meditation provided a small but
possibly meaningful degree of relief from psychological distress,” he wrote.
Still, Dr. Goroll noted that participants only received 30 to 40 hours of
training in meditation, which could indicate that “meditation is a skill that
takes time to master.” He also said more evidence is needed to draw
more robust conclusions about any benefits to meditation.
“People come to a meditation class because they’re suffering in some way,”
said Jon Aaron, an instructor at New York Insight Meditation Center, which
promotes mindfulness meditation. Through meditation, they learn to relate
to their stress in a way that is more productive, he said.
Lindsay Gellman
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Something took my attention was that the way the other articles were
created while quoting the original JAMA report.
= Despite the original JAMA report gave only limited “prose” to “Mindfulness
Meditation” and found no positive effect in “Mantra Meditation” a lots of
subsequent article has been using this report as if it was the positive proof of
the effect in Meditation. <= this was a fraud !
See the real situation by Googling this = type [ JAMA report, meditation ]
—– This fact highlighting a situation = simply, people doesn’t actuary read
the line in detail but easily deflected by a misleading head-line = and this
tendency was exploited by those organisation who is making money
selling the Meditation practice.
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In reality, it is same as any religion, Meditation may work, may not work.
= It depends on the person’s Karma. (Everybody got own different Karma.)
And even worse, the effect of Meditation depends much more on a person’s
mentality. —– A person who got addiction, dependency, depression kind of
mental problem, it needs long term treatment = not few months medical trial.
Naturally, if anybody who is possessing a strong will and able to keep a strict
regime, the person wouldn’t get a trouble in the first place.
It’s mean, in case of opposite tendency, neither Meditation which is not a
Magic Bullet works.
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So, here is a funny but fundamental question. = Buddhism / Zen is
stands on the Selflessness, not a strong will or mind, because mind itself
shouldn’t be existing there. — But, “Strong will” wasn’t it a part of the Self ?
Well, this is the most fundamental question = I’ll write about in another post.
___/\___
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Facebook Bug
What I supposed to download was a map showing the different cooking
styles of O-Zouni (celebrative cooking for new-year) all over in Japan.
In stead, what I got was a hacked-in fraud from Facebook. —– on the face
it looks like a notice from Google Chrome though, in fact it was a disguised
mail which tricks us to give Email address and its Password to Facebook
= as the sender’s ID was shown on the top-left corner.
—– In order to deceive, it is showing the big G-Chrome Logo but their
“Facebook Logo” was not shown. (my be excusing with “Technical hitch”)
And saying “You’re using a web browser that isn’t supported by Facebook”
while showing Net-Explorer, Mozilla-Firefox etc etc —– despite I’m using
latest Firefox. = it was just a sheer pretext to steal Password. (Anyhow, as
I don’t use SNS, neither need to have Facebook convenient Browser. 🙂 )
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Why they have to take like this desperate measure. = Now hundreds of
thousands of people leaving Facebook everyday. It is an out-of-dated
old fashioned SNS, and only old users (30~40s) are still keep using it.
(Young and more active user has moved to LINE or SNAPCHAT etc.)
= So, they are desperate to fill-up the lost numbers and hack-into
the address book to trick the friends to join —– by sending false mails
which says “Yoshi is asking you to join Facebook” 😀 😀
How Pathetic. —– I’ve been wondering why people need to have such
kind of FALSE feeling of being ” CONNECTED” = now everybody
knows that such superficial number of “So-called FRIENDS” or
number of LIKE is nothing to do with “Real Human Relation”.
Nobody feel confident with the empty person who couldn’t even
stand alone but seek numbers in So-called Friends or Followers.
————–
PS ; The further trouble I discovered about the aforesaid
Facebook Bug was, —— it was very difficult to delete that file,
as I didn’t obey and sign-up for them to finish their task.
So that, I needed to find the file and delete it. ==> But, later
I discovered that the Facebook Hacker left a virus in my PC
which blocks the function of “Copy and Paste”. So, when I try
to Copy and Paste = what appeared on the screen was not what
I copied but the logo of G-Chrome and the Hyperlink.
Hyperlink to go back to the same Facebook page.
= which is harassing us to give-up and sign-up to them !
—– Can you believe, this is what Facebook is actually doing.
Are they such desperate in this extent ?
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Season’s greeting 2014
How the 2013 has been for you ?
I hope it was a pretty productive year for you.
For me while blogging, do something, see the friends etc etc
2013 has gone almost instant !
(Still in a hind sight there were so many things had happened ! )
So, it’s always the question —– have I done enough ?
—– May be. —– In middle way. Ha ha ha 😀
(Or, I might have done quite drastic. 🙂 )
What so ever —– we have to see the next stage. = Let’s face it.
And I wish your best happiness in the coming new year.
—– Hold the breath, listen ! —– You know, it’s coming.
( —– —– Tap tap tap ! —- Ha ha ha. I’m kidding)
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Pre-Christmas Street
Together with some shoppings I went up to the center and I saw
the town has been prepared for the coming Christmas.
Leicester square was having a Fair Ground.
I wouldn’t be impressed by the Swiss Center having colorful LED trick
or see a huge Snowman, still I dropped the jaw
to see the Stature of Eros was in a huge plastic dome 😀
Until decades ago, the drunken people in the Xmas to New-year’s Eve,
were accustomed to climb up the stature and caused a damage, was an
annual ritual together with jumping into a fountain in Trafalgar square
though, as the England grown into a civilised country, Eros Stature has
been covered-up by ugly boarding —— and now, it’s in a plastic dome !
After some shopping in the China-town I went up to the Oxford Street.
Before, “after Xmas Sale” literally started after Xmas though, with
a rather harsh economical situation,
all the shops are having their Sale already started.
And it is in the season of Christmas Carol, I encountered a Steel-band
playing beautiful Xmas tune !
I still couldn’t comprehend how and why the slight dent on a
steel-drum can be tonally tuned = What a beautiful invention !
They are almost a fixture in a Christmas time,
the Special Window Decoration of the Selfridge.
—————– (Photo right: LED decoration on the South Molton Street )
————————————————————- ( Photo right: London Rikishow !)
——- (Piccadilly Circus again —– The plastic dome with it’s AD panels
——- seems to be a good business venture. 🙂 )
Same old Trafalgar Square and a Christmas Tree
= an annual gift from the Norway.
Northern side of Trafalgar square is the National Gallery.
Western side is Canada House and east is South African House.
And there is a mountain of flowers for departed Madiva.
After walk up Oxford Street to Selfridge and walk down from there ,
it was already the night —– still it wasn’t too dark for a photo or two.
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Mouhitsu = Blush Calligraphy
In the Japan-Post New-Year Card design Free Template site,
they are also offering two interesting design tools.
One is the Blush Calligraphy other is to design Name Stamp.
Calligraphy may seemed similar to other drawing program though,
their one is using the speed of finger movement to the thickness of
the line = hence a bit closer to the real blush touch.
When you start the program by clicking red button on the bottom,
loading takes minuet and open the screen like this above.
—– you may have the choice of colors or Black ink, and three sizes
of Blush. ==> then just try. (as many times you like. 🙂 )
Black button right bottom is to re-start, and Red button for finish.
Use the finished Calligraphy into their Design-kit and to upload is
straight forward though, use it as an image, it’s “png” format
has to be converted to “jpg”.
( To convert “png” to “jpg” is in this process:
—– Bring the Downloaded image to desktop. and
Double-click this => “Open with” =>[Paint] —– then click and open
left top icon and go to “Save as”=>”jpeg” (Yes, to asking small window)
—–> The saved image in “jpg” is on the Desktop ! —– or somewhere.)
(I found a fun without having a mess of Blush and INK ! —– but,
write on touch-pad is very different from real blush writing, of cause.)
To design Stamp (they says Hanko) needs Japanese character input.
(To do this you can Google and download Microsoft, IME Japanese, or
you may pick up letters in the Net and Copy-paste as a design input)
—– So, these are the samples of the Name Stamp (Hanko) I made.
—– Left = the Seal of Yoshizen (良禅之印) Center = Kinetorori (キネ瀞裏)
—– Right = James (じえむす) in Hiragana 🙂
Japan Post is providing those service only till January —– so, if you like to
design your own Stamp, better do rather soon than later.
Anyhow, enjoy if those program / Design Tools are useful to you.
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