Flowers in the Park — Cropped Macro (ish) Photos

Those photos were also in the file, taken in August though, long forgotten  😀

[]These day many compact cameras came into the market started to say that they got x20 super-Zoom / such as equivalent of 24~1000 mm —– m m m,  ? ? ?

Soon I realized, they are not optical Zoom to 1000 mm, but it was combined with Digital Zoom = in another word it’s a fraud. Thanks to the extremely advanced image sensor in the camera, the quality of the image is good enough for the most of the user even if it was in fact just a cropped, enlarged image —– most of the  consumers are happy even with Phone-camera !

So, why not = Camera manufacturer has gone over the blue line.

So,   the center part of this photo was cropped and enlarged to the next photo.

(Click the photo to enlarge —– not too bad isn’t it  🙂 )

As a matter of fact, those  originally near 10Meg bit file photos are reduced here to mere 500k bit or so, in order to upload.   Nobody ever complained, neither me 😀

Among the photographer who bought Nikon D810E,  who did ever needed to enlarge their photo to more than A2 size ? — Vast majority of the so-called photographer  who is showing their photos in the net,  is in fact surviving with small job for brochure or web-site photo or occasional wedding photo,  if there were job at all.

( I was lucky to survive,  when I came here,  there wasn’t a bilingual photographer who can negotiate and coordinate with English company —– hence,  I nearly monopolized Japanese commercial and editorial business here )

Looks like just ordinary close up though,  this is an cropped enlarged image.

Those cropped Macroish photos are no way near to the quality of proper Macro lens shot though,  if a photo like this was shown in Wiki,  you may not noticed or complained. —– this is a reason why I’m using Fisheye lens a lot such as in a party occasion. = in other words,  use a Zoom lens such as 24~70,  24~100 wouldn’t be necessary = good enough photo could be produced from good primary 24 mm lens !

( So, we don’t need to spend hefty money or carrying heavy lens  😀 )  ( Better not be obsessed with useless QUALITY ! = be relaxed.  take Middle way  😀  😀 )

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Snap shots in the Park (a Month ago)

Among the photo-file, I found those photos — Yah yah, I did those but been forgotten.

Just to have a walk,  I carry my camera and just click for no purpose,  hence I forget.

May be I’ve been doing too many project,  but I’m dealing them only one at the time

—– unless it is on front of me,  I’m not necessary remember another matter.

( May be this is the Zen though,  others might say ” Oh, you are just getting old”  😀 )

As it was the Independence Day of Jamaica,  there was a local event for the people.

Lots of cyclists.   I found this family has mounted 5 bicycles on the car !

Yes it was yet another peaceful day.  Nothing to write about.  

Hence it has been forgotten — still,  photos was in a memory card   😀

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James’ Birthday Party

My friend James had a big Birthday Party.   So, those are the snap shot of the Day.

Many guest arrived with a present and a card, and their proud cooking as well.

(I brought the materials and cooked Miso soup in there. —– and brought that

Fun Clock  🙂 )  Therefore, James had to carry out the task to open the heavily

wrapped present with joy and  the surprises.  Especially somebody brought hefty

Astro Telescope as a present, serious construction work had taken place,  with

excitements and the puzzle of  kids and the grown-ups alike  😀

Mountain of the food has been prepared by his wife and his sister and more dishes,

casseroles were brought in by the friends.  Soon, they were over flow out of the table

and on top of them, yet another BBQ was prepared in the garden. 

———- ( Kids staff  🙂 )

———- ( and here, Baby staff  😀  )

When, night fall = good number of the fire-work were shot.  

Looks pretty impressive  🙂

Then James was asked to give a speech  😀 

—— and a big chorus of ” Happy Birthday to James”  😀  😀

As the Moon rose, people had to queue  to see it in the Telescope.  I wonder now on,

is James going to watch the stars on top roof of the former Greenwich Town hall 😀

(where we are using its rooms for Wireless Network weekly meeting). 

M Party went on to pretty late night.

M The friends kept talking and drinking.

M —– I don’t know till when  🙂

M (I had to excuse to catch a bus before midnight)

M

M

M What I found in his house was this painting,

M —– said to be the Old-masters painting !

M M m m m ? !  —– Really ?

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Scarlet Pinpernel / Pinhole Macro Photo

Scarlet Pinpernel,  commonly known as Red Chickweed was said to be common weed though,

I’ve seen only handful times in this country, and nowhere else. 

In the first encounter, I’ve almost got a shock = plant looks like its white cousin but with

beautiful vermilion red flowers.  = ” This must be the famous Scarlet Pinpernel, here this is it”.

Though, this is the very strange elusive plant.  (or elusive to my eyes ? ). 

They grow always unexpected unlikely place. = never grown in  typical glass land but somewhat

in its edge or margin of left-over land.  And most unusual character is they never appear in the

same place next year. = hence,  years later, I just encounter in somewhere else, unexpectedly. 

It’s defy all of my rational observations. = They have seeds = very tiny round seeds with no

hair which can be only dropped to the same ground, which mean never able to travel far ——

how come, in such condition why not to germinate in the same soil, same place again.  = and

who carried the seeds to the new place  ?   —– Ant ?

And even more strange character is,  in my experience, their seeds never germinates when

I put them to a pot next year.  And even if I got a plant from a ground and planted it to a pot,

they just die. —- Some one said, that I shouldn’t give too much water = I knew, but in nature

the soil they grow could be very soggy with a heavy rain = why the water I’ve gave, soon after

transplant could kill them ?

—– So, my guess is,  in old days, this peculiar elusive character of the plant was well

known to the people hence, it was chosen to be  the nickname of the Hero in the

Baroness Orczy’s novels  [ Scarlet Pinpernel] =  ” They seek him here.  They seek him

there. —– My own elusive Pinpernel “

As a comparison, this photo was taken by Micro Nikkor 50 mm F3.5 with extension

tube and a Reverse-ring, at F3.5.  Magnification was x5.

And the top two photos was taken by the Double-density Pinhole with extension tube =

equivalent of 90 mm lens / ISO 1600 with flash-light.  Canon 5D  Mk-III.

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Fun Clock for James

One of my friend James Stevens is going to have his 50^th Birthday party in this week.

James is the organizer of the OWN (Open Wireless Network) and having a workshop,

advising the people for their use of computer, network connection etc.

What remarkable about him is, this [etc] part.

He does everything about electronics = from lighting to PA, audio system to how to

organize and set-up the event. Hence, he knows everybody in the field and knows

“Who got which equipment, in where etc” = therefore, able to hire (or let the others

to hire) thence able to organize fully equipped film event, art event, about anything.

He is everywhere, in fact he is the Don.

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This remarkable character came from his fundamental open minded attitude to see

anybody and help anybody who came to him.   So that naturally he learned everything

and acquainted right people in every field.  He himself isn’t an authority of everything

but a man to know the authority who can help him = therefore he doesn’t need to be

an authority nor boss still he can solve all the issue as others follow him.

In my eyes, he is a Good Buddhist at work = helping others and make things happen !

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—– anyhow, as he said he is going to have a birthday party, I prepared a present

for him. = I made a fun clock.

(I never sold my work but just give them to the people for such occasion).

( I don’t think I need to explain about this = this is what it looks and function as it is,

that all though, if I may boast, its looks silver wire is in deed Staring silver ! )

Happy Birthday James.

___/\___

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Double Density Pinhole Photo (2)

As I promised before this is the sample photos of  “a bit sharper Double-Density-Pinhole

Images”, and those photos were taken by the Canon 5D Mk 3  and Nikon D810 camera.

Both of left images were taken by Tamuron 90 mm Macro Lens with F-setting 2.5 (fully open)  2000th second.  ISO 100.

Top two were by Canon 5D Mk3 and the Pinhole image was taken ISO 1600 and AV setting  (0.8 sec with +1 1/3).

Bottom two were by Nikon D810  and the Pinhole image was taken ISO 6400 setting.(Non-CPU-Lens setting  = Camera says F45.  1/2.5 second ).

—– By the way, I haven’t found why the Canon’s image (Top two) having Magenta and Green cast.  Both Cameras were set to AWB (Auto White Balance) though, as cloud moves, lighting condition was not exactly the same, therefore don’t make a conclusion about the color contribution of each camera on those photos.

Above those 6 photos were taken by D810,  ISO 6400,  F-setting was F45 or F64, Shutter time was  1 second ~ 1/4 second.  (with lots of Re-try  😀 )

On this time, Outer Pinhole was 1.2 mm and a smaller pinhole was made in the center of Metal-coted film, and the  panel was mounted on Nikon Revers-Ring  (hence, it enables to use it in different focal length, with or without extension ring. 

And with [Nikon —> Canon Mount Adapter] the same can be used on Canon as well)  🙂

As Pinhole panel was fixed on a revers-ring,  it enable ( just 🙂 )to use ordinary Lens-hood (Lens-hood is essential) = two photos above are the sample when hood was dropped and direct sun light hit the pinhole, though some might like a photo with strong halation  😀

By the way, I cover the Camera etc, with lots of stickers to conceal Camera name, Model name etc —– to make it looks cheap,  and my friend who actually possess D810 adopted the same attitude = It would discourage a mugger  😀

After dealt with a lots of Pinhole pictures —– ordinary photo looks rather fresh.

It looks not too bad too.     Ha ha ha  😀 

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Double-Density Pinhole Photography

Ideally, soft-focus image should have solid focused core and the soft flair around it.

The more the photographer is decent grown-up person, even soft image is rather subtle.  Though, I’m not very well grown up decent kind = tend to take it to the extreme   😀  (Hence, if I cook for myself, the taste is pretty strong = if it got to be spicy hot = it would be extremely HOT = Otherwise, what is the point to cook hot food  😀 )

Therefore, my soft-focused image goes to even more extreme = and in this  experiment, I gave a larger pinhole halo to small pinhole image = Concentric Double pinhole photo image  🙂   My approach to the Life is ” Why not ?”  😀

How you can put small hole inside of another hole  ? ? ?  = 😀

This is a Philosophical Problem = Hole is where VOID is = unlike gap, hole was represented by its circular edge, and this edge define the area of the Void = its inside is already Void, hence, there is nothing to form yet another hole  😀 

In photographic term, Pinhole can act like a lens, provided when the correct exposure was given though, when two hole exists in the same place, how to give long enough exposure (shatter time) for smaller hole while giving shorter time for larger hole ?  = 😀

—– My solution was, to cover larger hole with ND filter to reduce the incoming light.

(There is a gray filter called Neutral Density Filter to reduce the light, though together with Kodak CC (Color Compensating) filter they became hard to obtain item now.) 

—– Instead to use ND filter, I found an Aluminum coted plastic film of tea packaging. —– Not good enough for normal photography yet, enough for fuzzy pinhole photography  😀

[]To measure the Density, I placed this metallic film on front of the lens = the exposure reading was dropped from 1/1000th to 1/15 = 6 stops drop on shutter speed. 

Hence, the size of pinholes should have also 6 stops difference in F-aperture logarithmic scale.

(such as 2mm, 1.4mm, 1mm, 0.7mm, 0.5mm, 0.35mm. 0.25mm = larger pinhole, 2 mm and small one should be 0.25 mm)  —> The metallic film was stacked behind of 2 mm pinhole and a 0.25 mm hole was pierced in the center.  —– (From the result, I think, the lager hole should be 1.5 mm and smaller hole 0.18 mm = images would be a bit more sharper  😀 )

Still, the experiment which costed virtually nothing = results are not too bad  😀

———————————

PS :  Few people who has failed to do this kind of pinhole photo asked me why —– I’m using equivalent lens (this time 100mm lens) for set-up and framing, then the View-finder was covered up with black-tape.  Stray light from View-finder makes wrong reading of exposure.

Most importantly, I’m using extremely capable Canon 5D (Mk 2 and Mk3).  

Pinhole photography may not be done with another camera. 

For instance, a pinhole shot done in 5D Mk3, with ISO 3200 and AV setting, 6 seconds —– the same pinhole mounted on Nikon D810 with the same ISO 3200 setting and 6 seconds couldn’t make picture, as it looks more than 3 stops under exposure.   Even with 30 sec’, 60 sec’, 120 sec’, further with ISO setting Hi2 (equiv’  25600) didn’t make ANY difference. 

Nikon couldn’t work with non-CPU incompatible lenses.

—– I wonder if anybody has ever done Astro-photography with Nikon D810, I would like to know how it was done ?

—————————————-

PPS :  I found the way to to take Pinhole Photo by Nikon D810.

(1)  Go to the Menu / Non-CPU Lens / and set Max F-Aperture to F22.

(2)  Push Meter Coupling Lever (for Aperture Ring) anti-clock-wise, till F-aperture indicator on the Control Panel shows F45.

(3)  With ISO setting, 3200 or so and [A] (Aperture priority) = camera would give more or less correct exposure.

(*)  To adjust the exposure, even if you use the Exposure Time given by [A], say 2 second for Manual setting and select 1 second or 4 second —— exposure couldn’t be correct unless you push Meter Coupling Lever to F45 position.  (Because, the brightness of the image was not determined by the size of pinhole and the shutter-time, but by the gain of signal amplification in the image process )

 —- In fact, you can control Exposure Level by this Lever (by pushing it to F32 or F64 etc) = it is very awkward —-> Solution would be, tie a string to the Lever and fix it to the position of F45, and the Exposure adjustment should be made by changing ISO setting to another value.

London 2012 Festival at Southbank

Way back from the center and crossing the Waterloo Bridge, I saw huge Baobab like tree !

And a lots of cloud around the Southbank  where Festival Hall, Hayward gallery etc are

situated = It was a festival or a kind of  massive gathering  🙂 —– it seems there are some

performances but most of the people with family or friends are just hanging out there. 🙂

It was a Friday early evening.  So, just have a drink and chat together.

Some set-up for the kids to play = in fact, sandy beach is a familiar set up in the Southbank.

But this time the sand got red and blue too = supposed to be the national color of the flag. 

The festival is a side-show of the Olympic.

So that, there is a Fair Ground and some ride as well. 

When thousands of the people comes, there always the street performers. 

A magician Diobo (photo, center above) showed incredible magic which I was utterly

bemused.  = As it is an open space = there couldn’t be any set-up.  And he was bare-hand =

no sleeve to hide any trick —– still he could move a cigarette and rift it up from the

ground (no invisible string or strong air movement) or make a mouse disappear and

reappear from inside of an egg etc etc = may be usual staff though, what impressed me

was, as I said, its impossibility.  How he could do that ?

Magic Circle must be the last secret Brotherhood.  Iron rule of secrecy and the devotion

to the perfection.  

Among many performers, a Yogi like performer (photo, above right) were sitting without

any movement.  One was perched on top of a stick = looks fascinating though, this is not a

magic = they were just sitting on an iron frame which was hidden in there loose cloths.

And there was the anti-capitalists campaigners as well.

Those wild meadow like flower bed must be created in few days on a shallow soil brought

onto the concrete, and when the event was finished, they will be just thrown into a skip =

a symbol of superficiality of this kind of Green pretense.

Then, I took a bus to go back to my place. 

(Those photos above were taken from inside of the bus)

—– all the photos were taken by Zeiss Planer 85mm F1.4 lens on Canon 5D MkIII = its mean, everything

were manual = hence, due to my eyesight some are not very well focused.  😦

(I didn’t expect to shoot the photos.  Only the 85mm lens was there which I have had brought to show

to my friend  😀 )

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Is Charity Self-sacrifice ?

There was a search term = [is Charity self-sacrifice ?] came to my blog.

I think I’ve talked about those matters many times yet, it might be better to clarify them again.

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In Zen, there is no notion of [Charity] or [Self], let alone [self-sacrifice].

They are the notions exist only in the Mind, away from the situation. (It was deduced

from the memories = stacked mind with accumulated knowledges from the past 🙂 )

Charity is not a separate notion from one’s deep mind (in fact, whether Mind itself is exists or

just an intellectual hypothesis = artificially abstracted idea —– is an interesting argument)

or in the subconscious.

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Lord Buddha explained “ Nothing stays = only appear to be there in a moment”

in the context of the entwined mechanism of the Dharma as

the Karma = relation of Cause and the Result resulted.

The reaction, which is away from the thinking and we call as a Charity = it is in fact “it is nothing

but a prevailing Dharma” was explained in the post [Compassion and Charity in Dharma] (link)

By reading it, you must be convinced that the Charity is not the act of the SELF, far from it,

it exists because of NO-SELF in the first place.

NO-SELF, still the one was acted in such a manner — Who acted it = Dharma.

This is the Core of the Buddhism. = Acting moment to moment in its best, as

the Dharma IS, hence create the life as total is, What the Buddhism IS.

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Not only the situation, (situation is a mare face or appearance of the Dharma driven by the

Karma concerned) but also ourself is dependent to the Dharma (or we are the Dharma itself),

in moment to moment = hence there is no fixed notion of the Self could exists.

As Self isn’t there, but the Dharma = There can not be the sacrifice of the Self.

The person was just acted according to the Dharma or as the Dharma IS. =

To help others is not a sacrifice of the ONE, but simply it was needed

by the Dharma. (hence, the Dharma acted using the hand of someone)  🙂

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Therefore, it must be clear, there couldn’t be Charity or Self-sacrifice. If any of

those kind of notion exist there, it is a pretense derived from the knowledges

and a Self-conscious vanity.

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So-called charitable act to donate money to the Sect is just a system of sucking.

In most of the case, so-called founder of the Sect is not a holy man but an entrepreneur.

= that how those Sects became so rich and the leader became a millionaire, driving Mercedes

while leaving the followers in poverty.

Yet still, if you need to donate a money, it is in deed self-sacrifice and the

waste of the money :-D.

Since, the fact shows, = how many years the Sect there ? === has they changed the world ?

Where the money donated by the peoples has gone 😀

—– to see and hear what the Dharma says or requested you, IS the matter,

not what the sect tells you.

And to see the Dharma, you need the eyes of Mushin = Mind of No-Mind )

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Do a charitable act in Mushin is easy, just do it = it’s your spontaneous reaction.

(If it’s needed to have second-thought = it is not the matter of charity but the business project

= you have to asses the return in comparison to the investment = this is not Buddhism  😀 )

___/\___

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Ship in a Dock / Stubnitz

I went a Ship moored in the King George V Dock with my friends.

In fact, to see (and hear  🙂 ) a gig performed by German Jazz, and Punk Rock band.

I went there with my Canon 5D Mk2 with only 8-15 Fisheye Zoom since

the other lens is a bit too big and heavy  😀

(Though, some of the picture, the auto-focus was failed)

And some of the photos were taken using LED Ring Light)

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