Images from Southbank (B)
Well, they were the rest of shots of the day at Southbank by the
— (This Lens was for Canon version, but I got Nikon version as well.) 🙂
I think, this lens and its images has enough significance, say raison de etre.
Anyhow you don’t need to agree. 😀
(What this lens amazed me was, despite its fuzziness, it still shows good details.)
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Images from Southbank (A)
Like a word “City” mean a specific area of London, adjoining the north of Tower
of London where a lots of Banks, financial establishments were concentrated,
a word “Southbank” having special meaning as the center of the art performance,
from the music concert to the art exhibition.
So, I’ve been this area quite often, long since —– though, this time it was
nothing to do with their art but just a casual snapshot on the street.
The lens used was that “Homemade Two elements Lens” consisting with two
plastic lenses = one from Toy Camera and a specs’ lens for short-eye sighted.
—– I didn’t design the lens but that toy lens happen to be there and I just
stretched its focal length by placing a concave lens on front.
(made it as a Retrofocus type)
(The beauty of this lens is, there is no focus or Iris control = just click it !)
I don’t have much of intention to control the image. I happen to be there and
the scenery was there. (by the way, there was no PS kind of process but just clop.)
Anyhow, this lens happen to have this quality which I like very much.
It’s a fun indeed. 😀
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Magnolia – 2015 (B)
This Magnolia was an utterly unexpected discoverly. And beyond of my knowledge
and imagination — came from where or if it was a garden variety, how it was
created from which parents ? ? ?
She is a tall tree and the flower is huge = as big as a Magnolia Grandiflora
( even 10″~12″ ) still, flowering long before the leaves was coming out
= closer to the Kobus but not Grandiflora.
In closer look I wonder if they are in fact a kind of invertebrate from the sea ?
—– You know what I feel and that was why I wanted to create fuzzy image. 🙂
Lens used was Canon EF Macro 100mm F2.8 and Tamron 500mm Mirror F8
on Canon 5D Mk-3. (Some fuzzy pictures were taken by Homemade Lens. 🙂 )
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Cherry blossoms with ultimate Bokeh !
In this post I experimented the Cherry photo with strongest ever kind of Bokeh.
The lens I used was appeared here before as a Proxer (close-up lens) which was
in fact a front element of a TV zoom lens. But, in this occasion, lens itself was
used as a photo-taking lens, somewhat 60mm F1.4 lens mounted on front of the
Tilting Macro Bellows (hence, good for a Macro photo as well though, take macro
photo of shaky flower under windy condition was not easy at all.)
—– Yes, they got big Bokeh what I expected though, — it seems, it’s gone too far. 😀
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Lens Test on Cherry and Plum Blossom
Those photos were taken a while ago, the same day I took pictures of Daffodils.
(After this, there must be much better full bloom somewhere else though. 🙂 )
(photo above was taken by a Canon Fisheye lens)
And the following photos were taken by the Two Element Homemade Lens above.
The beauty of this lens was that there is no focus 😀 (Other than this lens,
rest of the lenses were used with the Tilting Macro Bellows for focus.)
And the following photos were taken by a lens originally came from a Canon
compact camera G9 = it was their zoom’s front element.
The lens was Epoxy glued onto a lens mount ring and a filter ring was fixed too.
Unlike first two photos, those photos were (I think) Plum tree.
Next was a front element of a Zoom lens (I don’t remember where it’s came from,
Canon or Sigma ?) — The lens was fixed in a similar way to the other homemade lens.
Front element itself couldn’t eliminate the aberration. —– but this one showed
very strong Coma aberration — (if not a camera shake). In most of the case,
good softness of the image was created by the Spherical aberration
= so, Coma aberration was not desirable here.
Strangely, this Coma aberration appeared somewhat in middle distance.
And not much so on the close-up.
This one above showed no Coma aberration but the following one did ? ? ?
I need to have more test.
Last one here came from a cheap Wide-Converter for a compact camera.
It got quite big diameter — hence the effective F-aperture is F1.6 !
I like the images from this lens though —– strangely, despite full open F1.6,
the back image was not necessary out of focus or dissolved into big Bokeh.
Anyhow, each lens got its own character = pros and cons. 🙂
Last photo above was again by the same Fisheye lens.
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Daffodil — Lens Test
As the spring has started, I took the lenses (in fact quite few) which I “made” duling
the winter hibernation out to the test. 🙂
And those lenses were designed to use with
tilting bellows I specially made for Canon 5D.
Photo left, Those three lenses (mounted on the
Nikon mount adapter) were saved from
the broken cameras or lenses.
— Left one came from Canon G9, center one from an old zoom lens and the right one
came from a Wide-adapter and as they are having focal-length about 50mm~60mm
therefore effective F-aperture is about F2 (fully open only ! ) And being used on the
Tilting bellows they are able to give a focus from infinity to more than 1:1 close-up.
(with a bit of difficulty on use. 😀 )
Most of the photos here were taken by the “Center lens” photo before, except
the right photo above, which was taken by the Canon Fisheye lens.
Well, they were just a fraction of test shot —– still, shows some results
which I appreciate a lots. 🙂 ( —– whatever you say. 😀 )
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Singing Bowl
After the post of Wind-Bell I got a call from a person who said that she got
genuine Japanese glass Fuurin. “Oh, marvellous!”—– It’s said to have come
from a Net-shopping with a help of her Japanese friend.
“The sound is exquisite, its ethereal resonance suck you into the infinite depth
of space!” “How extraordinary!”— and she said that she got a singing bowl
from Tibet too which sound even deeper and draw us into deep meditative state.
—– though, —– What can I say ? ? ? —– should I say “Congratulation” for her
able to get hold genuine article ?
Or should I praise her keen effort to seek a genuine sound ? —– ? ? ?
Or should I flirt her that her spirit will reach higher awareness soon.
[]
It may not fare to write here like this because soon she will read this and might feel
offended though, this is not just her personal phenomenon but this is the wide-
spread misconception among those who, so-called “spiritually awaken” — or
New Age kind of people.
As a matter of fact, it is not easy to see what they are after. (Fashion ? Snobbism ?)
Are they really believing that they can get hold the Cosmic Power through a
Crystal they bought ? —– Are they believing that to keep a particular article, made
her to posses its myth and the understanding ? (It’s called Fetisizm Sir/Mme !)
[]
In this area, there are three levels of misconception.
1) Believing that the object has its own power. (Like a Crystal power)
2) Or believe the function of its object would solve the problem.
(Like an exercise machine — the matter is not what the machine is but your act.)
3) With its object, the one can imagine that he or she suddenly acquire the truth.
(Like a “Special Mantra” “Book of ancient wisdom” kind. Chanting O~~~~~rm !)
(— like seeing a film, made a person to believe “Be force with ME” ? )
Unfortunately, none of those kind are in the world. If anybody selling, it’s a fraud.
[]
Yes, I did said that the sound draw a mind into meditative state and this IS the
state of Void. This is true, — you try test = what you found? Did your brain
configure any notion out of tinkling sound ?
I don’t think so = nothing there because nothing else of pure sound is there.
But in this Void what could be discovered ? It is the question to be a Buddhist.
—– To a non Buddhist, Void or a sound of Fuurin or Singing Bowl wouldn’t make
any meaning other than A sound. Though, to a Buddhist who seeks nothing,
this Void opens the eyes to see the Void. (I said, “seeks nothing”)
[]
—– How come ? = our brain takes High-pitched tone as a sign of danger, hence
our brain activities were suddenly silenced and all the perceptions were
concentrated to pick-up further sign. — even though our higher brain did know
that the tinkling sound was mere Wind Bell and nothing to worry about at all, still,
the emotional region / limbic system and all the sensory receptors were tentioned.
= This combination : completely blank-out Thinking activities and the
completely open / absolutely passive perception is very close to the state of Zen,
and it was the base of the Clear Eyes. (Then, to see WHAT is depend on the person
— some will see the enlightenment, but some see nothing.
— you can buy Singing Bowl but not necessary the Enlightenment.)
And this is THE Singing Bowl ! —– yes it sounds more or less the same to Tibetan
Singing Bowl.
(It’s my cooking pan. = the handle was just unscrewed that’s all, and still sound nice !
— cooking pan wouldn’t make any rice sound. But it would sound just Gong ! :-D)
—– What’s wrong with this ? Do you still clinging to the Tibetan Bowl ?
___/\___
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Fuurin / Wind-Bell (2)
Well, this product / Wind-Bell here, was an utterly odd creation.
—– ( Before this, there has been a long stories of “Lens making” though, I’m
not actually making glass lens = just modifying them to an usable shape.)
—– anyhow, in order to make a lens usable, I’ve been mounting it to the
Camera Lens Mount using another metal ring etc etc = in short
I’ve been playing with lots of small metal pieces. = then I accidentally found,
some of those metal pieces makes nice sound when they were hit.
[]
So, the photos above are the metal rings hanged as a wind-bell but this one
was made to rather quiet one. 🙂 —– here, there was a post about a nice Zen
story of a Fuurin / Wind-Bell. —– Yes, Fuurin makes nice sound —– yes, on
the beginning. = second day, it became an irritation. = Hence, I made quiet one.
= it chimes only once or twice in few minutes. (When wind was not too strong.)
Its high-pitch tone with resonating tail makes our ears to listen,
and our ears can catch even faintest sound
= the ears become so sensitive,
still its sound got no meaning,
neither no-point to waite next sound
= it may come may not come.
—– So, the mind become completely passive and open.
= this is nothing but a deep meditative state.
The mind is in the state of Void.
[]
In this design, each three metal pieces had different sizes and the sounds though,
strangely, when they hit each other, they makes only one sound ! (or, to my ear)
(You know, it’s a famous Zen question, when two hand crap, why only
one sound came out, despite each hand makes each sound ? — Try to see. 🙂 )
[]
So, now on, the spring breeze has nice company.
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Poetry Contest (2)
Not necessary having a thought, I suddenly realized that the story of the Poetry Contest of Huineng and Shenxui was not right. Its contest was the 5th patriarch, Hongren try to find who should succeed him and become 6th patriarch of the Zen. Unlike the other sect of Buddhism, Zen does their learning without rely on the words. = the action in the practice or a thing or phenomenon trigger the understanding.
So, the founder of Rinzai Zen, Rinzai said to have uttered that, “On the way, (may mean Pathway) when you saw the scriptures, through them away. When you saw the monks kill them or met Lord Buddha, kill him too.” —– (this advice was meant be getting rid of any notion, and empty the mind.)
[]On the said Poetry Contest, for the answer to the Hongren’s request to show the Zen mind, well-learned top-rank monk, Shenxui wrote “Mind is like a mirror, I polish the mirror diligently for no dust to settle on it” —– opposing to this, one low rank monk, Huineng wrote “Since Mirror is not exists in the first place, where could dust settle”
—– Hongren found that Huineng has much deeper understanding in Zen, he chose Huineng to be his successor.
[]Zen teaching was started by Bodhidharma on 5th century. Though, as a matter of fact, there were numerous legend and myth about Bodhidharma but little historical facts were known, therefore any story has to be treated with a pinch of salt.
—–When Bodhidharma wanted to choose his successor, there was a similar story. He asked his disciples “Can each of you say something to demonstrate your understanding ?”
Dao Fu stepped forward and said, “It is not bound by words and phrases, nor is it separate from words and phrases. This is the function of the Tao.”
Bodhidharma: “You have attained my skin.”
The nun Zong Chi stepped up and said, “It is like a glorious glimpse of the realm of Akshobhya Buddha. Seen once, it need not be seen again.”
Bodhidharma; “You have attained my flesh.”
Dao Yu said, “The four elements are all empty. The five skandhas are without actual existence. Not a single dharma can be grasped.”
Bodhidharma: “You have attained my bones.”
Finally, Huike came forth, bowed deeply in silence and stood up straight.
Bodhidharma said, “You have attained my marrow.”
Bodhidharma passed on the symbolic robe and bowl of dharma succession to Huike and, some texts claim, a copy of the Lankavatara Sutra.
Bodhidharma then either returned to India or died. (This story from Wikipedia)
(There was the conflicting stories, —– He might returned to Persia. Or even killed in the mass execution at Heyin in 528.) []
My doubt was that why Shenxui, studying under Hongren did have such poor understanding ? (While Huineng who was working in the kitchen could still pick up the Zen understanding from overheard conversation of other monks.)
And the same question goes to the colleagues of Huike too. = they were no ordinary monks, THE direct disciples of Bodhidarma. As they lives together, they must have lots of discussion even arguments. —– still keep maintaining such variety of idea = quite logical and full of blah blah, but where the “Teachings of the Master” which was supposedly on the principle of Void and abhorrence to the words, has gone ?
And, what was the 5th Patriarch, Hongren’s understanding and the teachings of “mind” ? —– (Was he thinking, “There is Zen Mind” ? )
— Who recorded those stories ? — Was that came from the diary of Hongren ? — weren’t those stories made-up to glorify each Huineng and Huike ? ? ?
While making others looks fool = makes stories interesting. And this kind of practice was behind of all those compilation of “Sutra” or scriptures. It’s mean, we need very critical sharp eyes to distinguish what was the true teachings. 🙂
___/\___
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Jazz at the Cafe / February
Jazz night on this month at the Small White Elephant Cafe had a guest musician
Harrison Cole as a trumpet player.
Handsome boy Harrison (originally from Colombia) has been in Japan several
times, so, I teased him “You must be chased by many pretty girls there” — he said
“No no, nothing like that. My friend tried to chase those Kawaii-ko, neither him
was successful” ” Ha, ha, ha, I don’t believe you”.
—- Left Harrison Cole / Trumpet ——– Tris Harris / Drum ——- Les Booth / Bass Guitar
(They were experienced enough to ignore trespassing photographer — thanks ! )
With a good rethome and a touch of latin Trumpet, the customers started dancing.
During a break and after the music, a lots of chat with musicians, visitors
each other — there was even other photographer who was wondering what a
funny lens I was using. (my handmade fuzzy lens !)
It was more like a socializing occasion —– good fun !
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