2014 — Japanese New-Year’s Card Design (Free from Canon)
Following last year, I show you a Card Design Web-site of Canon again.
When people design their own card and print it, quite likely people use
Canon printer and consume their INK = so, they can sell more. 😀 / 😦
(A printer of HP etc was in fact made by Canon !) = Have you ever seen
Chinese or Korean Printer ? Unlike electronic goods which they can copy
by buying the same components made in Japan, printer has to be made
in incredible precision and has to keep work 5~10 years = no Chinese
can make. So, the Canon knows, they should give back some.
Those are the link to their Free Card design site :
http://cp.c-ij.com/ja/contents/10n201/list_45_1.html —————- Formal style
http://cp.c-ij.com/ja/contents/10n202/list_45_1.html?log=nt-02 ——— Casual
http://cp.c-ij.com/ja/contents/10n311/list_45_1.html ——- Material components
When you click to their site, you will see a screen like this (in Japanese).
Still, left hand Column you can try clicking (and return) next by next.
(In fact, the link above are the same to first three on the column )
In order to avoid the mess, I’ve made those samples in Collage
= you can save from here and clop OR download from Canon site.
The sample above, left is a letter Spring. —– the center, the letter Dream
—– Right, ancient figure / original shape of the letter Horse.
The samples above 3 may be used as a component.
Right, Stump face saying “Good sign of Long-life and Happiness”
(Canon site has English etc too, though, not for New Year but
to make for Xmas Card. = Cultural difference is here ! )
PS : Those Link also provide Free Design Templates.
They are reputed, trouble-free good site. = Worth visiting. 🙂
http://www.designbank-nenga.com/
http://nengarank.com/html/index.html
http://www.wanpagu.com/top_illustration.html
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JFK —– 50 years ago
On this day, 50 years ago, I was up in the Mountain Shelter.
23rd of November is a Japanese National Holiday, equivalent of the
Thanks giving day / Kinro-kansha no Hi (勤労感謝の日) —– and when
ever those holiday could be conjoined to the weekend (with additional
day skip from the school) I came up to the mountain.
On that time in the Shelter, there were 2 more senior keepers.
As I was a youngest (still in the high school) I got up earliest and put a
light to a heating stove and a cooking stove, and while waiting the water
to boil, I was preparing to make a tea.
Then, a senior keeper “Saigo the Devil’s Ear” (地獄耳の西郷さん) came down
from upstairs and told me “Hey, Kennedy was dead”
“What ? what did you say ?” “Kennedy was shot dead” “How do you know ?”
“Other climber’s radio said” (Saigo-san often put a tea-cup over his ear and
listen other’s conversation in distance = hence his nick-name.) then we put
a switch on to our radio. —– yes, the news was true.
(The time, when the news spread to the world = afternoon in Dallas was,
still very early morning in Japan = 4 or 5 o’clock) —– anybody who faced
this news when they got-up, was just shocked and depressed, wordless.
—– It was the moment when I heard the very news.
___/\___
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Year of Horse — Card Design Material
This is an addition to the previous
So, it is for the link to Japan Post
and in their site, Material section.
I think, those material must be
easy to download and use.
And if you like to compose it with
Japanese style Blush Calligraphy,
either see the old post or see the next post and try it by yourself ! ! !
(4~6th page of Material section has many calligraphy samples ! )
Japanese New Year’s Card 2014 / Year of Horse
Gosh ! It’s the season again
to see the search-term looking
for the New year’s card design,
which ended-up here.
— On the beginning, I just used
a card design for myself, then next
year people asked me where did I get ?
—– and to give the informations became an annual custom here.
Those samples were provided by the Japan Post and they are free to use
for your personal greeting card though, the image I could copy here were
not in full size, and you are advised to go to their site and
properly download.
( They are enticing you to send out the card by Yahoo Mail, otherwise,
they made it harder for just copying it as they are [png] format,
not simple [jpg] = I guess, Yahoo use the data for their AD
—– free mean there is always a catch. 😀 )
Japan Post —– http://yubin-nenga.jp/search/ —- click here will open this
Then, clicking left of Hose-man will open right screen-shot which is
showing thumbnails of ready-made New year’s card templates (1000
of them), or if you click right of horse-man, the page will show you the
material for you to design a card.
(I’ll show you in the next post)
Autumn Color – (2)
Unlike the color of eggs from super-market which color was
controlled by the coloring agent in their feed, the color of autumn
leaves are completely natural phenomenon. (You can’t dye them. 😀 )
If only the selection of plant may be artificial, such as Japanese Maple
was imported to the west only because of their blazing color in autumn.
When the plants was exposed to the air of sudden chill, their
Green colored Chlorophyll noticed that their role to carry-out
Photo-synthesis come to the end —– hence they disappeared.
—–> Once the green has gone, another color underneath which
has been masked by the green, such as red Carotene become visible
= Voila’ glorious Autumn color on fire !
Appreciate it while you can (if you like) ! 🙂
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Fancy Vinegar Flask ! ——- ? ? ?
Week ago I’ve bought rather fancy item from Lidl shop.
I don’t know the name which the receipt said Geschenkset. = Anyhow
this is a Glass Flask to serve Vinegar and Olive-oil on the dining table.
They were sold as a gift set (for a Xmas ?) —– Olive-oil and a Vinegar
together with a glass flask for £7.99 !
In fact, I was not interested in to
buy Olive-oil nor Vinegar, but
fascinated by the design of
glass which I can use it to
design strange sculpture kind.
Though, watching this many
days, I still couldn’t figure out
“How to make this” —– how a
Glass Craftsman made this !
Simplified description is, “Small glass flask inside of larger flask”
though, it is an utter puzzle to me = How it was made ? —— through a
hole of large flask, inserts a glass pipe with melted glass on the tip-end
and blow it up to make a small flask inside, and weld two together on
the edge of the hole —– though, as the photo above showed, the neck of
the small flask is not an one-piece straight pipe = inside small flask was
made separately and the outside pipe was welded later. But how ? ? ?
= If anybody who is reading this knows about the way to make,
please put a comment “How it was done” !
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Halloween ? —– Yah, it’s coming !
Nothing special, I just came across the girls who seemed to have a rehearsal kind
for a tomorrow’s event. (I guess 🙂 )
The color has been a bit over saturated. —– It wouldn’t harm anyone. 🙂
Have a funful Halloween.
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Eating Kombu / Kelp Sea-weed
Since I don’t have a habit to pick up a cracker / biscuit or sweet kind, instead,
I’m having a kind of light cooking for an odd bite.
I wrote about green-bean / string-bean with Goma-ae source, daikon etc etc before.
And here, how about boiled Kombu / Kelp.
Although, I, myself never seen how it’s grow in the sea bottom, Kelp is not a special
sea-weed, it said to have deep forest of sea-weed of which each Kelp is 20~30m long !
—- I saw them when they were spread and dried on the beach = 1′ wide of long long strip.
And, neither they are special item in Japanese or Chinese food shop.
Japanese eat them most commonly for Dashi (soup-base) and in many other cooking.
(I don’t think, I need to repeat how nutritiously good they are, as it was too well known. 🙂 )
I have no idea how Chinese eat them still, we can buy dried Kelp easily and quite cheap
in Chinese shop. (Photo Left)
To make Kombu-maki — first soak the dried kelp strip in the warm water for 10 min’ or
so and thoroughly wash-off the sand and dirt. Then cross-cut them 2~3″ and roll-up.
(Authentic Japanese Kombu-maki roll was tied-up by edible Kanpyo string though
I short-cut it with tooth-pick. Photo Center ) And boil them in the plain water half to
one hour, then add a packet of Dashi or if you like fishy taste, add a piece of dried squid
as well. (photo Right) —– and after while, add a Soy source according to your taste, and
if you like even a bit of sugar ( I like to put some hot staff as well) — keep boil them until
rolled Kombu become very soft. ( I heard, the authentic one was slow-cooked over night !)
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(Boil them how many hours depend on the quality of the Kombu and your taste. — even
from the same pack, some Kombu would be boiled very soft, less than one hour though,
tough one may be still hard even after two hours. —– If you found it still hard, just put
it back to a pan and boil further. 🙂 ) Generally, Japanese Kombu / Kelp is soft and good to
eat but more expensive —– still, considering the serious environmental pollution problem
in China, may be spent a bit more and buy it in the Japanese shop could be wiser choice.
Most of the Japanese Kombu came from northern Japan / Hokkaido where no problem of
radiation scare has been reported — thanks goodness.
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Stabilize the Camera — Chest-Pod
There are many way to stabilize the camera. Starting from the way to grip the camera.
Ultimately a use of Tripod or Mono-pod, even a use of a Bean-bag.
Still, it’s all down to a mind-set of the photographer = Whether to pay an attention
against a possible camera-shake and become aware of own doing?
If it is a case “Doesn’t matter that the Stabilizer built into the lens should take care of
that problem”. —– This is the most funny situation. It is only a psychological trick.
The stabilizer may save a photo while cancelling a camera shake for further 3 stops = such
as in a situation of 200 mm lens, it would be safer to use a shutter speed 1/250 or faster
and with the aid of stabilizer it “may” drop to 1/125 or 1/60 —– still “may not” works.
In such case, I would set 2 stop higher ISO setting to get 2 stop higher shutter speed.
—— In the same time a “Maestro” may say “other than ISO 100 color is not in its best”
—– Oh, really ? ! The BEST mean it is still in a relative matter = NOT the absolute.
Our right-eye and the left-eye are not necessary even seeing the same color.
(Test it your self if you are not aware yet. 😉 —– If not aware this discrepancy,
how the one could boast about “the critical Color” 😀 )
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I used be working close together with the publishers, their printers, plate-making engineers,
and one of my closest climbing mate of mountain has studied Printing Technology and
became an expert of the photo-scanner (such as Crosfield’s machne) —— I heard many
wired stories of “Special Sorcery” in their trade —– still, when it makes the print on the paper,
such as slight difference of the paper which is different a roll to roll, or even a humidity in
the air changes absorbency of the paper hence changes the color of print, etc. etc. = there
can not be any reliable absolute or perfection. It is just someone’s preference.
Anyhow, computer to computer, this CRT to that LCD screen, the color is always different
= what fuss about such minute difference. 😀
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As I grown-up in the time when the color film was ISO 64 or 100, B/W was 400 and even with
push-development, ISO 1600 or so (Kodak Royal Record Pan = ISO 12500 was existed though)
I had to stabilize the camera other than ISO speed. So that, I tried many kind of chest-pod.
(though there are too many — even I don’t remember how many I bought and made myself.)
So, I show you two of my handmade.
This is a chest-pod of current use on my DSLR. The simplest, hence the most neat one !
It was made by aluminium pipe and a short piece of C-channel (which was cut and bent).
(A trouble was, the Airport Security suspects that this is a part of a disguised weapon. 😀 )
—– Unlike western people, I hold a camera right side down (it’s a Japanese tradition)
therefore when I shoot vertical-way, this chest-pod come against my left shoulder
just under the collar bone.
And this is the other one I made for EOS Film Camera which doubles as an external
battery chamber. ( AA x 5 rechargeable batteries instead of 2CR5 Lithium battery)
And it functions as a chest-pod exactly the same way as the other one. But this one can
fold down under the camera bottom. ( I don’t make a rubbish for a sake of Youtube. 😀 )
The advantage of this shooting style is, the hand which triggers the shutter, its elbow was
firmly lodged onto the body, hence it is far more stable than the style having right arm in
the air and move a finger to trigger.
—– May be because of the fundamental flaw of the camera holding style in the west, the
camera shake is unavoidable, hence, it gave an opportunity to the manufacturer to produce
“Stabilizer” and sell it for £500 more price ! (I don’t think it costed such amount for them. )
—– In a video image, shaky picture is annoying but on a still, “two stops slower” seems not
much use —– better use same £500 to another shopping, and set 2 stop higher ISO, —– above
all, have a practice to gain a stable holding of the camera would be far more advantageous.
Since, to gain calm, stable mind to stabilize the hand would be far more beneficial to the
one’s whole life in general. Anyhow, not all the lenses you got, has a stabilizer, and
living with unstable mind wouldn’t bring any happiness.
Better think it in different angle and better change the mind-set and the way you shoot.
(If you doubt, have look a photo here and the photos by 500 mm lens in the previous post. )
(Here, the Zen practice comes in. 😀 )
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Beach Rose
I don’t think I need to show whole plant of this Rose as you can find them just round
a corner of street — with a sweet fragrance but having such dense sharp prickles.
I thought this rose, Rosa rugosa is a common rose in any sea coast in the northern
country though, it seems it was originated from east, and once introduced to the west,
it spread everywhere since, even they were classified as “Invasive plant” in the US.
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The reason why I thought they are common was that I was thinking their seed pod
(some people calls them “Sea tomato” ) was carried by the sea stream and spread
to other places. —– When I saw them first time in the northern Japan, where people
call them as Hamanasu or Hamanashi, I was overwhelmed by its impenetrable bush
spread on a sea side as far as I can see. Then, its sweet fragrance was embedded to my
subconscious alongside a Song “Shiretoko-Ryojo” (知床旅情／A memory in Shiretoko)
Since, I was on the way to Shiretoko Peninsula with the botanists who wants to see an
unique species of Violet only grow in a remote corner of that Peninsula.
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So that, when I saw this rose again on the shore of Helsingor, Denmark, just outside
of Kronborg Castle (famous for Hamlet) 33 years ago, its smell instantly took me
back into its old memory. ( Sigh ! How far, we have drifted —— 🙂 )
Though, in reality, her ancestor didn’t come riding on the wave, but travelled in a box.
( Not so romantic. How shame. 🙂 )
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