Stitch Work (2) Disco Pants !

Among my creation hence the possessions, the most bizarre item  

must be my Disco Pants. — It was a BR rail worker’s hi-vis uniform.  

But, because its size was too big for me, I’ve cut the length and used

that cut-off to make the back pockets. = So, the pants was customized 

to a flashy Disco Pants with x5 blue LEDs running light on the thigh

and slow on-off pink and red LEDs on the back pocket. 

To make the pocket, I designed it like a stuffed relief of a nude torso. 

In fact, such design was an excuse to put the LEDs.   As the figure 

was made upside down, it was a puzzle to comprehend what it was.

= all for the fun on the club night. (If it was ordinary geometric

pattern kind, it would be too boring = nothing fun and the others

wouldn’t notice it at all.)

On that time I was an almost the fixture of the club called Fridge in

Brixton. — Good (or bad ?) grown-up in a club, it’s better to have a

fun, and gone to be crazy.  (Anyway, it sound everything crazy =

I was the top dancer there, receiving free entry and the free drinks

— still, never drink alcohol, not mention any drug.  Never mix with

cloud still keep talking with all the staffs, manager, owner. = So that

the cloud mistook me a special security kind or even a real owner /

financier behind.  😀 )

To make the pockets, the material was the cut-off of the leg’s end

and the thread was the thread which I de-threaded from the cut-off.

(This story, use old thread horrified the professional machinists !) 

Because, it’s there and the easiest to use — though it needed to pull

out from the cloth. —– So, the supply of the thread was limited. 

On the end, I had to save the thread = no return stitch. = You can 

see from the photo above.   😀 

Without draw the line on the cloth, stitching was made direct on the

cloth while deciding the shape. = I think, the result wasn’t too bad.

(but I wouldn’t say the stitch work was anything near to perfect).

.

You might say,  what an effort, and a waste of the time, just for fun ? ! 

But, I would only answer, why not.   And I’d ask back, spending the 

same length of time, what can you do something  worthwhile and fun,

on yesterday or whole of your life. ?   —– soon you may realize 

that what you been doing was just follow the situation to survive. 

Was that only the life what you can have ?    Open your eyes !

What preventing you to be free was your small pretense to be a

“Respectable decent man” — can you ? —– Really ?

(Though, I wouldn’t guaranty you to get a free entry even if you get crazy. )

.

 

Wasn’t that a Contradiction — or— Enlightenment ?

Somebody questioned me after this paragraph :

—– You have to see it by your eyes.  Not from the stories.

Otherwise, Why You need to bother be a Buddhist.

To contact with all the fresh stimuli with your naked sense will

keep your brain young.  —– Which was

the last paragraph of the last post = Meaning on the Hand.

“You (mean Me) been saying “See the world in Detached eyes.

Do the things like a routine without Emotion” but here you

say “Feel it with naked sense” — which is true ?”

[]

Aha, you are right.  I didn’t pay enough attention.

It was a matter of the stage, while people gain the awareness.

= Going through the pathway, people gain the awareness and in

the same time perception, attitude etc everything will change,

but only stage by stage.  It will not happen in one go.

—– With the endless repeated practice, the person may gain a

mentality to do the practice as a routine, out of emotion, and gain

an attitude to carry-out the work/dairy life in a detached mind.

Once the person mastered this mental state, in fact the person

became immune to the emotional up and down and became a

cool observer to his/hers own life.    Once the person reached to

this stage, the person would be liberated from the Person itself.

This is the biggest Paradox in Zen. = As the person IS now free

from the SELF, there will be NO concern left = even the own life,

therefore free to commit anything.  So, feel free, enjoy or cry free.

In fact, here is an Enlightened Person.

___/\___

[]

Wide-converter to Soft Telephoto Lens

It may looks a bit drastic action to deal with camera optics.  🙂 

Though, today’s camera lens made by a plastic was often fixed by a

liquid glue hence impossible to disassemble. = So, it calls drastic action !

—– There was a funny idiosyncratic subconscious = optics has to be handled

with kids-gloves on.   And this apply to a gear obtained for almost nothing.

So, the edge of the Wide-converter (and its Lens Retaining Ring) was cut.  

And the ring was (carefully) lifted-up and removed. (Photo above left)

= Then the converter’s front concave lens was separated from

the converging rear optics. (Photo right, center front. — this concave lens 

looks as strong as minus 15 diopter.) 

Mounting this “rear section” of the converter to a DSLR camera —–

I found this optics works as an (about) 160mm telephoto lens.

And as I expected, the image produced had a lots of aberration = fuzzy images

still, by reducing the original (about) F-4 to F-11 with a hole on a black paper

(Photo above Right) the quality of the images were drastically improved.

(but don’t expect a quality of thousand pound genuine lens)  🙂 —– in fact,

this optics had achieved what  I failed before with the Tamron 300 mm lens.

= Soft Telephoto Lens !

The Photo left was fully open.  ——— And the Photo right was F-11 (?) ! ! !

But to be fare to the expensive lens, they are not just boasting the quality.

(I wouldn’t play ignorant for the sake of fuzzy image.   🙂 )

This photo was taken by the Canon EF 70~200 F2.8 at 200 mm

and a clopped center.

And this photo was by the Tamron Mirror 500mm F8 and a clopped center.

In a closer range, the effect of Iris (full or F11) looks so clear. = It’s mean,

by changing the size of a hole in a black paper (white paper may

increase the halation even more.  🙂 ) we can chose the softness to the

degree what we prefer.

—– So, I had a fun. (and planning the field test)

[]

Antic Camera ? — Doppel Anastigmat Lens

OMG !  —– In an odds and ends box in a camera shop, among the modern

high-tec camera or broken lens kind etc, I found a 100 year old camera !

It looks pretty much like German Ihharge kind but, this one was very small.

Before roll film was invented, the camera then was using a glass plate as a 

photosensitive material.   And a contact print was a way to make a print

= hence the size of the glass plate was often “Postcard size” —– though,

this camera was using “6 cm x 4.5 cm size” so, pretty small in deed as

you can see from the photo above. 

On the lens, it was written “Steinheil Munchen Doppel anastigmat 1:5.4  f=7.5cm”

— Doppel mean Double, so the lens seemed to be a symmetrical design of

stuck of a convex meniscus and a concave meniscus placed both side of an iris.

(altogether 4 lenses)    Back of the camera has detachable focusing glass.

= After framed and focused, focusing glass has to be changed to the glass plate

to take picture. 

75mm lens for 6 x 4.5 cm photo size mean, this was a camera of so-called

medium format camera ( such as Hasselblad, Rolleiflex etc) and the 75mm

lens could easily be used on a 35mm DSLR body — which I did with a

help of Pentax Helicoid Extension Tube. (on Nikon or on Canon) —– what

I realized was that this lens doesn’t have a clear crispy sharpness of the 

modern lens, but neither beautiful softness. (of a kind what I like)  in other

word, it was just an old dull lens ! (No mythical subtle touch of “old lens” ) 

I can see the character of this lens here still, I wouldn’t pretend to be a

master to appreciate this softness = it is just a lack of sharpness which

never improve with smaller F-aperture. (this photo was fully open = F 5.4)

(Lens got a lots of fungi = can’t create any sharp photos anyway.) 

The lens was mounted on a Pronto (later called Prontor) shutter — and

amazingly, after 100 years, they are still functioning. (more or less)

The photo above left was shot by using Pronto shutter 100th. (while

5D’s shutter was open with B setting, then click Pronto shutter)

and the photo right was a comparison, Pronto was opened on T setting

and a photo was exposed by the 5D’s shutter.

Something peculiar on this type of  camera then was that the most of them

were having  “Lens Rise control” ! —– Do you know why and what for ?

Set the camera on slightly low angle (about waist high) — thanks to

the “Lens Rize” (without looking up) it is possible to take picture of the

whole body, while making the leg looks longer !   🙂  

[]

Peckham Vision

Went down to Peckham, a corner of the south London, somewhere

(in the art-student sense) between Camberwell and the Goldsmith College

(both are a part of the Uni’ of Art, London now), I was lured into a building with

a word of the “Exhibition”  🙂  —– it was more like a public information event

of their activity. —– of the organization called Peckham Vision.

 <<  www.peckhamvision.org  >>

 <<  twitter.com/PeckhamVision  >>  <<  www.facebook.com/PeckhamVision  >>

The organization having a lots of group’s activities, campaign etc etc and showing

their works, even architectural town scape model !

— I thought they were made by the Architect student though,  they were made by

 the non specialist members (by hand cutting !) — ( yet still among them there

 also was a professional architect, a daughter of  a sculptor Andrey Gomery

 as well. = he is a local here)

So, the event attracted many visitors and there were lots of talking, discussion etc etc.

And there was an architectural model ( film set ? ) of  “Peckham on the year, 2115”

= futuristic scene, survival after the nuclear holocaust ! = destroyed local landmark,

multi-story car park building has been occupied by the survivors who made the

building top as a farm growing veggie, having built even a windmill ! —– though,

? ? ? —– what sort of the imagination ?

Roof-top garden might be fashionable if it was on the clouded city buildings though, 

after whole land was destroyed, hence the plenty empty land was everywhere, what

was the point to grow veggie in the top of a building. —– who bring the water there 

when the weather was dry ?     And what that windmill for ? —– Generating electricity

or grinding the corn ? = How much corn can they produce which need to have

a mechanical power ?    

Years ago, I was volunteering a keeper of a mountain shelter.  When rain water run-out, 

we had to fetch the water from a well we’ve dug on the col, 100m down, with 18 litters

buckets front and back on our shoulder. — each member carrying up the water on the 

slippery mountain trace 10 times. — Do you know how the hell it was.

—– it is pointless if the people who has no realistic imagination, try to predict the future !

It’s shame, as the model itself was pretty well made.

[]

Play with Lens

 So far I made quite few lenses to obtain soft-focus or wide-angle pinhole etc,

mostly by utilizing single lens. (still, some of them seemed to be an achromatic

compound lens)  Single lens has inherent aberrations which produces soft image.

Furthermore, I’ve experimented soft images with focus shift or even with camera

shake/vibration using aberration corrected normal lenses. Though, those approaches 

were hardly called technique but more like an opportunist seeking a good luck, since 

the success rate was rather low = lots of try and only few will show the good results. 

That’s because, when the focus ring was rotated while camera’s shutter was open,   

the resulting shake gives devastating effect than a soft nice blur.

= make smooth focus shift while camera was held steadily. = That’s what I need. 

Inside of the Canon G9 compact camera, I found pretty useful mechanism.  

(1) A motor moves the lens.  (2) Small stepping motor shifts a lens for focus.

—– though, those two mechanisms were constructed on the same plastic piece.

(Photo above, left) = I needed to cut and separate its center mechanism out of the

lim with DC motor.  (second photo shows the separated piece = the lim which can

drive a cogged barrel — in the second photo top, the lens was placed in the barrel)  

Photo 3rd and 4th showed the center mechanism — the lens was pushed out most

and pulled inward most by its stepping motor.

The photo above, left is the cogged barrel = when it was rotated by the motor,

the barrel, hence the lens will be extended(= Pushed out) (photo center)  

When motor rotate opposite direction = lens was pulled in. (photo right)

Those function is exactly what I need for a smooth Focus-shift.

 In order to have an experiment to get a soft focus by the focus-shift ( by a normal

lens, not by the aberration) I took the lens unit out of a Canon 50mm FD lens.  

(Photographic equivalent of gouging the eye !)

( a disc shaped mechanism on the right is the Iris — very useful device )

The lens unit which I’ve put inside of the plastic barrel, in the photo before was this

Canon 50mm F1.8 Lens.  —– though, on the test, I found that this Canon 50mm FD

lens can’t give an infinity focus on Canon EOS = only usable closer than few meters.

(otherwise, the EOS’s mirror will hit the lens bottom.  😦  )

[]

Then, give a thought, what all those hustle for ?

—– Why not just modify a Canon EF 50mm for EOS = 

put an extra electronic connection to override their AF motor !

(Ideally, huck into the Canon camera’s OS and reprogram it to give a focus-shift while

shutter is open = was the best though, not only the risk to destroy the camera but also,

the Canon doesn’t like it at all. ) 

[]

Graduation — ? ! ! ! of the Kyoto Uni’

Photos from Japan. —– a guy said “If anything crazy happened, it’s in Japan”.

As a very decent Japanese, —– still I agree with him.  Those photos were not from

Cos-Ple or Carnival but  can you believe, it was the Graduation Ceremony in

 the Kyoto University.

 Yes, they are new Graduates, the top-brains in Japan.  So, they are not crazy at all.  

 It’s not a Halloween or Carnival but more like an act  of Manga or Anime

 = Typical Japanese culture.

Before Manga, Japan had Ukiyoe (Utamaro) tradition.  = This tradition was in the context

 of Kabuki Culture.

[]

This Kabuki derived from a word “Kabuku” (傾く) = inclined or twisted = Eccentric. 

Strangely you might thought, the very traditional, Shinto, Buddhists Feudal society  

under the Shogun / Samurai-Ruled society,  still having very exceptional tolerance

towards the Eccentric or even indecency. ( think, mass publication of “Utamaro” !)

So, to have a public display of very extravagant Kimono of  Lord Date etc, etc, or

show-off of Fire-fighters, even a Yakuza’s stunt was a part of the Japanese culture.

= So, why not to have a FUN at the Graduation Ceremony ! ! !

(You may mistaken that it was a display of Ego, but far from it,

If the person could kill-off the own Ego, he can become a cat = otherwise, how

the one could make oneself fool, on THE day = only once in the life.) 

—– Original Report  :  http://togech.jp/2015/03/25/2105

***********

PS: Since WP changed the system for us to upload / editing, I can no longer change 

      the color of the letters = so that, the text may looks funny here. 

[]

Fun from a broken Camera (2)

It was two weeks ago when I showed this photo of Canon G9.

Among the disassembled component, I found some of them are useable.

Such as the front lens alone (photo above left)  could be used as a 50 mm F2.6 lens

and the second group of the optics (photo above center) is a very strong diverging

(concave) lens = could be used to widen the view of a pinhole camera.

In order to use a lens, it has to be mounted somewhere — to a lens mount or

to a filter ring etc. —– unless it got exact diameter or screw pitch, we need to fill

the gap and glue (epoxy) them.  

I cut a beer can’s thin metal to the needed diameter and fix it with epoxy.

To do this kind of work, I bought M39 to M42 adapter ring and M42 to Nikon F

mount adapter. (Those item’s cost were only few pounds though, it took 2 weeks to 

get them here, and as being as cheap Chinese products, noting is what we expected

= M42 screw was slightly larger and couldn’t fit to the Pentax original mount.  

And the clow of Nikon Mount bayonet was too thin hence it was too loose.  

For M39 to M42 ring, I “re-cut” the M42 screw (Photo left in the center).

 (Photo Left : Nikon to Canon Adapter though,

part of its diameter was 0.5mm too large

= needed to file-down !)

(Such laborious cutting work with file is 

nothing but a good Zen practice.  😀 )

Second group of concave lens aforesaid was

mounted on the center of M42 to Nikon 

mount adapter. (photo above center)  

And the Front lens of G9 was mounted

on to a Nikon mount adapter via M39-M42 ring. (photo right) 

So, what was those hastle for ? —– The photo (right) here was taken by the

front lens of discarded Canon G9 Camera aforesaid.

(Left photo was also taken by a single lens came from another broken zoom lens).

( I’m preparing those lenses for the coming flower season ! )

If you like to see “sharp but ubiquitous” photo, please go to phone-camera.

The photos here, the images were full of aberration and halation still where

the focus lies, it’s sharp.  (Look the enlarged photo) —– they might be

the images what we are actually seeing.

(like impressionist painter had found).  🙂

[]

Dale’s Studio

——– (Note: Photo above by Zeiss 18mm lens for Nikon = Virtually no Distortion ! ) 

Yesterday, I went to the studio of Dale in the east London who also run the Cafe,

Small White Elephant to help a documentation, photographing his paintings.

As always, when I go out to take picture, it was a sunny blue-skyed day. = Almost

like the first spring day of this year.

(In fact, I’ve told him “If the weather was like this rainy, it would be a sign of

that the Heaven doesn’t like you” as the day before was rainy.)

As always, the studio was in a disused big industrial building,

some walk from the Bromley by Bow station.  = Real East End ! —– the area

“was” really a derelict, disused industrial land though, in the past few years,

suddenly new development was started. = would become posh town soon ! ? 

Utterly out of my guess, Dale’s paintings were the riot of colors with tons of paint.

— paint was not painted but more likely, deposited on the canvas. (= so that,

even after few years, some paint was still not completely dried yet.)

I only say ” Wao, Amaaaaaaazing”.  and then, I realized the connection, why

he interested in Zen = those process to dripping the paint without having

much of  pattern or figure = almost endless work of Mushin (Mind of No-mind

= Do the task without needing to have the Thinking.)  —– And the result

—– it showed nothing or it is the everything !  (色即是空，空即是色 = like what

Heart Mantra said ) —– He was not trying to copy a style of Zen painting

but “Do the Zen” in action.

And, for the next step, for exhibition and for a publication, he needed

to have his paintings digitized.

When we finished the shooting, his friends came to the studio with cans of beer.  

In most of the case, the studio of the artist never be tidy —– so, looks like this

pile of mess = was not a mess = it was a collage of the doodles or a draft of plan

etc etc. in his past (= said to be.  🙂 )

Therefore, I wouldn’t make any question “What is this ?” to an artist.

(with obvious reason.  🙂 )

So, I even didn’t have an attempt to guess what they are — why the blobs of

the paint was kept and treasured ? ? ?

In some distance, over the Bow Creek, landscape of the East End.

The life is there as usual. (of usual kind.  🙂 )

(Camera used was: Nikon D810 with PC Nikkor 35mm F2.8 and

Carl Zeiss 18mm F3.5 for Nikon)

[]

Why Live ? ? ?

 

[ —– 以上のように、名越さんはご自身が仰るように仏教の專門家ではない「門外漢」ながら、

お坊さんでも避けがちな問題に正面から取り組み、行や瞑想を実践することで気付いた

大乗仏教のあり方にまで思索を及ぼしています。大きな問いを掲げ、その具体的な

解決方法を述べつつも、最終的には身近なところからの方便の実践に尽きるという結論は、

お寺やお坊さんの社会貢献の必要性が叫ばれる現代において、非常に大切な視点であると

思います。ぜひ本書を手に、まずはとにかく簡単な行や瞑想を試してみて、そして少しずつ

方便ができるようにチャレンジしてみてくださいね。　合掌

http://www.higan.net/book_review/2015/01/whylive.html?utm_source=mm&utm_medium=245

[]

I’ve come across a small book review (as it was so small, I should say “introduction” ) 

of a book titled “Why live as we are going to die anyway” on a Buddhist’s website

 called Higan-dera.    Its article is small and only minute portion of the book was

 quoted, (and I haven’t read the book itself) I may not to have enough source to talk 

 about —–still, what I noticed was, that despite the “review” was written by a

 Pure-land sect monk, and the book was written by a psychiatrist/alienist doctor,

 their understanding of the Buddhism were so casual and romanticized. =

May be the indication of the social/spiritual situation of Japan today.

= So much (too much) information of everything, hearsay they-say, stereotypical 

 idea (not necessary correct) saturating the society yet, non of the correct,

systematic understanding of the Buddhism was upheld.

[]

The author of the book, Dr.Yasufumi Nagoshi was deducing how individual was

connected to the human-network from a mandala drawing —– what a fancy idea !

Mandala was a symbolic depiction of the Buddhist’s idea of the world, created

2000 years or so ago, — still, long before any Mandala was drawn, human being

has been living in their network/society. —– or Nagoshi was try hard to make a point

“Human relation HAS to be in the Buddhist’s context” — was he ?

[]

It seemed, Nagoshi didn’t give the answer to the question “Why live” but telling that

the Buddhism is providing the Rules, the Practices, the Guidelines for the daily living

and through this daily life, we can connect to the others, and this vital helping network

makes the people to live and make their life living-worthy.

—– and a Pure Land monk, Jokun who gave this review seemed to have very impressed

by this view, as this human network is the way of the Mahayana Buddhism. —– sound

sweet though, still it didn’t make the answer.    Obviously they two were talking about

“How to live” but didn’t aware, or know how and why we exist here.

Otherwise, the burst majority of the world population is living without good cause or

living-worthy reason.    The reason why we live is not dependent to the romanticized

Buddhist’s idea but by the hard rational.

[]

So, Why live ? ? ? — the answer, which they should have given was, that We are having

the life which was given by the Dharma. (Mind you, since Dharma runs the Universe, it

covers non Buddhist as well.  = Same as the gravity affecting anything any people.)

We didn’t ask or chose to exist. We exist neither by accident or random occurrence.

Our existence came from all the cause in the moment of the conception and all the

preceding condition of which the Buddhist calls Karma.    So that, the one exists here,

was made by those cause and the condition = it was a rational consequence almost like

a direction.  This direction can be seen almost like a will or the plan of the Dharma and

the reason why such direction created the Person WAS that there was a needs of which

the person to fulfil. = This on-going total system IS the Dharma.   Law of the Universe.

—– It’s mean, we were here to fulfil the role. = it was not our free choice, neither we can

refuse or escape.   Therefore we live, = we have to.

—– (So that, actuary to undertake the project, “to be me” = we need to find “who me”

and the role to play.   This was the reason why “Self awareness” became crucial to be a

Buddhist — though, don’t mix-up with the “self conscious Ego”. —– the

difference is,  the detached eyes to see the self or the self imposed imaginary self.)

___/\___

[]