Home-made flower :-D

It’s a middle of September, not many flower left.  

—– Don’t tell me to go to a florist.  I don’t buy flower or plant.  

They should be where they grow.  Unless I found a pot abandoned on the street.

—– (provided it’s not a meter-tall tree.)  —— Then Kinetorori murmured me  

“If no flower, why not make one yourself” —– It’s a his bad habit.

It’s the most un-Zen like practice though, —– I did.  😀 

 (Out of used envelope.)

[]

So, a flower is blooming in my room. (keep blooming for foreseeable future.  😀 )

Buddhists telling us “Live on the moment”

—– though, I took a way against it.  

A photograph is imprisoned to the moment.  

So, to have a Jailbreak of this “Moment”

I made a photo to have rather prolonged span

of time (unlike ordinary photographic norm).  

The photo above consists multiple exposure

while having its focus shifted.  = Yet another

attempt to create fuzzy image —– went

beyond a soft-focus lens,  yet keeping a sharp core of

image, unlike a pinhole photo.  

[]

Camera Stability Test

In the previous post, I talked about the Image Stabilizer a bit though I’m not a fan of it.   Since, I haven’t seen any photo which was benefited from it so far.  May be because, even without it I’m quite capable to shoot good enough picture hand-held. (even 500 mm lens !)

People may get a benefit of its Placebo effects = Peace of mind stabilizes the hand.  😀 

Still,  it was only “Impression from my experience”  —– not from the objective comparison.

—– So, in this occasion I purposely tested it.  

(but I wouldn’t say it was scientifically rigid —– Just clicked the camera as usual.) The test object was a “Pinhole-light” as you can see the photo left. = If the camera shakes, photo will clearly shows its movement at once.

I gave only one click for each speed, 1/125, 1/60, 1/30 but for Image Stabilizer (IS),  further 1/15, 1/8 and 1/4  were tested —– It was free-standing hand-held though, I was using my Chest-pod.  😉 

( Check the image of pinhole on the enlarged photo please)

Canon EF 200~70, F2.8 L IS lens on 5D Mk3  with IS On.  From left  1/125, 1/60, 1/30.   Lens zoom was set to  200 mm.

and further  1/15, 1/8, 1/4 —– even IS couldn’t save a shake on 1/4 .

The same as above but IS Off —– though, it didn’t make much difference.

Further slower speed = 1/15, 1/8, 1/4 —– 1/8 started to show a shake.

(Its horizontal movement showed,  Chest-pod stops vertical shake more !)  = It’s mean, IS made only one stop difference.

Tamron 500 mm F8 lens was tested on Canon 5D Mk3  on 1/125, 1/60, 1/30.

The same Tamron 500 mm was tested on Nikon D810 body,  1/125, 1/60, 1/30.  

Results shows almost no difference on the different camera body.

Canon EF 70~24mm F2.8 big heavy lens was set to 50mm and tested  1/125, 1/60, 1/30.

And small Micro Nikkor 55mm F3.5 lens was tested on Canon 5D Mk3 body.

—– Different size and weight of the lens showed not much difference.  

My conclusion was, as I thought before, the Image Stabilizer makes little difference, it was mare one stop.  (Anyhow for 200 mm lens, hand-held 1/4  (if not 1/8) is a hopeless situation.)  

So the lesson was, that if you are a good shooter, a sharp photo you made was = because you are a good shooter, not because of Image Stabilizer.  And if you are a bad shooter, no Image Stabilizer will rescue you.

 Those lenses are the lenses I tested with.  

Some are the latest current model but 55 mm Micro Nikkor and Tamron mirror lens are more than 40 years old. —— still working perfect (optically  😉 )  

And the kitchen was where I did those test shots.  The shooting distance was about 2m, so, I shot them while standing here (half step forward).  All from the same distance.

[] 

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”  😀  )  

[]

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.  😀  

[]

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.  😀 ) 

[]

Ring Flash / Flash Story

——– (This Ring Flash was made to use with the Fish-eye lens on the

——– Yoshi-handy handmade camera, 36 years ago !  😀 ) 

In some posts ago,  I’ve shown Studio Flash and ring Flash tube.  

May be I should talk a bit more about Electronic Flash-light. — Why It’s called “Electronic

Flash” was, before, Flash-light meant Bulb Flash = the people over 60 might remember,

even if it was not a typical bulb shape, how about Flash-cube / Magicube at the time of

Kodak Instamatic camera, they are still flash bulb, but only small.  🙂

Flash bulb was an “Explosive device” = thin aluminium foil was packed into a glass bulb

with Oxygen and ignited by an electric spark, with a “Bong” noise !  

( I only know from Antic collection though, yet before  Flash bulb, it was an explosive 

magnesium powder = it’s literally explode ! —– hence, all the assistant of a photographer

used to have a lots of spot on their face, burnt by the exploding magnesium powder.  😀)

  []  

Unlike such hot staffs, electronic flash is using a discharge of high voltage electric energy

through a Xenon gas filled tube.  To make this, a capacitor inside of a Flash was slowly

charged-up to high voltage, then discharge it in an instant to produce very intense bright light.  

Like an electric spark, it needs to be high voltage, and the larger the capacitor,  

the light produced from it would be the brighter.  

This is the reason why a camera’s built-in flash, which got only small capacitor inside, was

not bright-enough to reach distance.             In contrast, a studio type big Flash having a bank of

capacitors connected parallel to store huge energy, 

and the big flash tube was made by a quartz to

withstand the heat shock created by a

discharge of huge energy.  

And to charge-up those capacitors, studio type is

using the main electricity and a

portable type, clip-on type are using electronic

voltage converter to rise the battery voltage

to 315 ~ 350 V.  

[]

As I said, the electric energy is first charged into

the capacitor.  

The capacitor is an electric device, which was

made by insulated two metal plates or foils

to store electric charge.  In order to store as much

as energy, very thin two aluminium foils were

tightly wound together.    And to separate two

metal foils, paper or plastic film ect. which called 

dielectric material was sandwiched between.  

But most of the capacitor used in a flash equipment is a

type called Electrolytic capacitor which is not using common insulator, hence smaller in size.

   []

It is not well known to the people that those Electrolytic Capacitor has a limited life.  

Especially if the equipment was not used long time (more than a year) they might be dead

and a moment when it was switched on again after long rasp of the time, the capacitor

would be internally short-circuited and gone for ever. —– ?   Why the insulation breaks ?

[]

If you tested the conductivity of Aluminium, you may know, despite the Aluminium is a

very good conductor,  Anodised surface shows no conductivity.   With the Anodisation,

the surface  of Aluminium was covered with the aluminium oxide which is an insulator.

Instead to use a separate insulator between two Aluminium foil,  Electrolytic Capacitor

is using this oxide coating developed own surface as a dielectric / insulator.  

So that, as long as the capacitor was kept receiving electric current, they maintain

the oxidized coating on the surface of aluminium foil.   But if the equipment was left

unused long time, the insulative coating deteriorate.

—– And a moment when it was switched on again, and the voltage rose high,  the

insulation breaks down and makes two foils short-circuited and start to generates heat,

or the power transistor pumping the high voltage into the capacitor burns-out.  

If the capacitor over heat  it would explode.   (In fact, the situation is always the same

where ever electrolytic capacitor was used — such as even an audio power amp.)

  []

The remedy to this situation is, the same as to initialise a capacitor in a factory.  

= slowly charge up the capacitor while waiting the insulating coat grows on the

surface of the aluminium foil (in its anode-side, hence it called Anodisation.)

—– To do this, professional people use variable transformer (Rheostat) and sloooowly 

rise the voltage while giving hours of time.  

(If you try, — You need to constantly measure the voltage of the capacitor —– first

second or two of switch-on, when you see the voltage rise to 5~10 V, then switch-off — if

the voltage shows “slowly” dropping, switch on again to see it reach to 15 V —- then

switch-off and wait till it’s drop to 10 V and switch on to 20 V again (like two step

forward, one step back) —— in this way until it reached to more than 300 V then to

the full —– all the process will takes hours !   🙂  or 😦  

 —– But if you see the voltage drops rather quick, and  never rise above

the certain voltage, don’t push it further, and you have to

accept that the capacitor is already dead !  —– Sorry about  😦  

(still better than to see it exploded in messy manner.)

  []

In another approach, if the capacitor could be disconnected from the charging circuit.  

(But this is only for the experienced person.) —– Use the main AC power.  

Connect a Rectifier to live, and 100 K (may be reduced to 50 K, 10 K on the later stage)

register to neutral.   And use this rectified direct current to charge up the capacitor.  

In the first few seconds, when the capacitor’s voltage  rose to 10 V, then disconnect.  

When voltage was dropped to 5 V then charge it to 15 V (Keep a distance of up and

down proportional  —– repeat this again and again, while time to time having a break

(to have a cup of tea  🙂 and make a capacitor to regain a potential to charge-up to

higher voltage) and slowly bring the voltage to the full.  

From the main voltage in Europe, rectified voltage would be 310 ~ 330 V, about the

same voltage of the working flash.  But in the US  110 V, it’s needs  to use voltage

doubler circuit.   And a fully charged capacitor of 1000 microF, 2000 microF has an

energy to evaporate a tip of screw-driver, if it was short circuited — and hell like Bang!  

= Before you do any  work, always DO NOT FORGET to discharge the capacitor

through 5W 1K register.

(If you couldn’t understand  what I’m talking here straight, DO NOT attempt to try this !

—– to touch AC main, 200, 300 V DC is killingly dangerous for amateur !  

(Accident happens in a completely unexpected moment, in an unexpected situation.)

  []  

Assuming the capacitor is working perfect, the rest of the flash circuit is rather simple.

The thick two cables from capacitor were connected to the both end of a flash tube.  

And an additional cable was attached outside of flash tube = this is the trigger which

receives 3000 V or higher voltage pulse. —– To trigger this very high voltage pulse, a switch

inside of camera shutter-mechanism used to short circuit a small capacitor in the primary

side of trigger coil, then in the  secondary side 3000 ~4000 V pulse will be produced.    

But now-a-day, sophisticated electronic camera can not take such high voltage, —– instead,

a trigger to flash was done by low-voltage signal.  

= (In another word, to connect very old flash to a modern DSLR is highly risky.  

(If you got Test Meter, you can measure how high the trigger voltage of the flash, on the

connector of  Flash extension cable.  If it shows more than 15 V, (it could be as high as 100 V),  

never use it direct to the camera = Use a Slave trigger.)

  []

Once you understood the structure of flash-light, to modify it, is not very difficult.  

My Ring flash on the photo was made to take the power from Brown F900 power pack

but before it was connected to Kako hummer-head flash.   As long as it receives 300 ~ 350 V,

it will flash and the light-intensity is depend on the size of the capacitor.  

(By the way, Flash-tube’s life is also limited !  = Don’t expect it works for ever.  😀 )

(That Ring Flash Tube can take, up to  200 WS = C x V-square x 1/2 = Wat-Second

such as—–1000 microFarad x 315V x 315V x  1/2 = 50 WS = GN may be about 25~28  though

it’s all depends on the efficiency, size of the reflector, how old the tube is, etc. etc.)

[] 

Color of Flash-light

As now, photography is open to anybody and bast majority of the camera user has no

interest to the technical aspects surrounding the photography, while expecting the

manufacturer provide everything what they needs perfect.  

Hence, they don’t even care whether it is DSLR or Phone-camera.  

[]

So, everybody believing flash-light is the flash-light and all same.   Though, it is not true

—– some are more blue.  Even a professional studio photographer may not noticed but

just believing “As long as they buy reputed studio flash, it is the industrial standard”.  

In certain extent, it is true.   The quality of the flash has been really improved. (and

became very cheap.)  😉

[]

The photo above, they are the flash-tube, most left came from Bowens. (are they still exists ?) 

Second is Balcar’s  —– (mind you this tube alone costed £200 !)   Third is for ring flash-light.

(This is the Ring-flash I made for the photos which was published in the Zoom Magazine.

= Ring Flash for Fish-eye Lens. —– Since, the subject was over-shadowed by the camera itself,

it was necessary to illuminate !    Still, the lens has 180 degree of view, flash has to be exactly

in the same plain of the lens-front. = If the flash was before the lens, it will be in the picture.  

If it was behind the lens, the shadow of the lens will appear in the picture.  😀 )

[]

Though, this flash-tube was very blue (about 6500 K) I needed to use a Kodak Color

Compensation Filter inside of flash. — Most of the flash produces  6000 K Color-temperature.

Though, the standard of the Printing Industry is 5500 K,  so that photo above, Bowens tube was

gold color tinted to warm-up the color a bit.  This slight difference makes the skin-tone better.

= So, you may try to tinker the flash-light, such as stick a cello-tape on the flash face and put a

red line of maker-ink (never draw an ink direct) —– it would make

the faces in a party looks more drunk.  😀

 

Slide Duplication / Digitization using Flash-light

They are the samples, which were Digitized on fluorescent light-box = I talked about before. 

But photos above were digitized using a TTL flash-light.

( They are in large size = click to enlarge and see the details (but ignore the dust ) 😉

It’s not too bad in highlight tone. ( in the shadow, some noises due to “Brighten-up” )

If anybody visited here twice, you may noticed that the photos are different from before.

—– I’ve changed them, in fact three times as I was not happy with the color of Dupe. 

What I wrote about [Home-made Light-box] —– as a Slide-viewer, it was correct though,

to use it for Duplication was wrong.   Color was far from ideal = in fact, dreadful. 😀

[]

I tried to tinker the color temperature etc. still not suticefied, and tried to use LED light

though,  fundamentally fluorescent light and White LED has the same characteristics.  

Whitish color of LED was emitted by the mixture of fluorescent compound, excited by

LED’s near UV light = same as the Fluorescent light tube.  Since it was produced by a mix

of BGR light, its light spectrum has the typical light-spike from its chemical, hence color is

never perfect.  –—- on the end, I came to the conclusion = it’s better to use a flash-light =

its Xenon discharge light which has a continuous light spectrum is much more natural.  

Unlike easily fooled human-eyes, an image sensor in a DSLR pick-up those

peaks and the spikes and produce wrong color which is harder to eliminate.    

 

To use a flash-light for Slide-duplication is not a complicated business.  

Just place a flash under the white perspex (may be 4″ / 10 cm away). —– I cut a 2″ (5 cm)

square hole in the center of 8″ high card-board box then put white perspex on top, and placed

a flash-light inside.  (of cause, flash is aiming to the cut-out hole straight.)

I put some layers of white tissue over the flash face to diffuse and reduce the light.  

I used Canon 430EX-II in the TTL mode but on -1/3 setting. (For High-contrast original, expose -1

and brighten up with after process might be better)  Flash and the Camera was connected by

an “Off camera cable“.  With this set-up, the exposure will be controlled in TTL though, to make

it a bit brighter or darker, it is easier to use a flash with manual setting (with minimum power

setting ) and adjust the exposure by changing F-aperture or ISO setting, as it can be done from

the camera side.  ( To change the setting on the back of flash is more awkward.)

While testing this, what I noticed interesting was that a dupe made by D800 with HDR seemes

not much different from a dupe made by C’ 5D Mk-III with flash-light (only one exposure) of

which the shadow was brighten-up by common photo program. = Canon’s image sensor and

their processing engine seemed to have wider Dynamic Range in the first place than Nikon.

(To see the comparison in this post.)  To be fair, this matter needs to have more critical test.

[]

Slide Dupe by D810 HDR

Since many of my old films came out of boxes, I tried to make some digital dupe of them.

The main reason why I bought canon 5D Mk-III was that it has HDR (High Dynamic Range) built-in. —– (Though, it turned out to be unusable unless it was processed in PC with their DPP program. ( PS : It was the result of first test, hence I’ve given-up to use though, I tested again further and I found that it works in the most of the subjects = so, fair to say it was NOT unusable = some of the lighting condition and a combination of the lens may show unsatisfactory result. )   In contrast, Nikon D810 seems to be a bit subtle but it is quite useful as the camera alone gives processed image on the spot.  (Even hand-held shot, if the exposure difference was within 3 stops, it works reasonably — not perfect though, don’t ask too much = effect is somewhat similar to put a big reflector to brighten-up the shadow.)

———- (Photo Left :  Straight Copy.      Photo Centre :  with HDR.      Photo Right :  HDR and + 1/3

———- Which one to choose would be depending on one’s tastes ? )    ( St. German-de-Pre, in Paris)

So, the sample photos here are the Digital Copy of the Film slide.  The Originals were the Kodachrome ISO 25 film.  (Almost  40 years old.)

Copy Camera was Nikon D810 with Micro Nikkor 50 mm, and using their HDR setting.

What ever a way when Copy was made,  whether by film or Digital means,  the range of the tones would be lost and became higher contrast. 

Photo Left : This was a straight Copy and the Right : was with HDR.

(Original Dynamic Range of the Kodachrome was squeezed into narrower range, hence lost its original sparkle = photo looks dull now) —– Mind you, the  original Kodachrome 25 has the detailed tone in its highlight and in the shadow as well. = Otherwise, where the details on Music Score came from. —– (Camera couldn’t create, if no image was there.)  😀

—– In this extent, the resolution of Digital Camera may surpassed the resolution of such as  Ektachrome film though, the Dynamic Range of the Kodachrome yet. 

= With the use of HDR, they may just come closer to emulate the film.

 []

(This Dupe was made using Flash-light and Canon 5D Mk-III without HDR, and the photo was brighten-up a bit on after tinkering process.  —– not much difference to above HDR photo.)

[]  There is a funny misunderstanding among the people  —– People has been fooled by a word / technical term such as “Number of BIT” = To express color depth by 8 bit or 12 bit etc. those number is an indicator of “How finely divided” (Say, 2 bit mean Black or White.  8 bit mean, the staircase of darkest Black to brightest White was divided into 256 steps, that all).  

From darkest to the brightest, how many times (in exponential scale) brighter is the Dynamic Range or in old term, Latitude. 

The B/W film was known to have a Latitude of 7 stops  ( = in metaphor, a grey become Black on F 22 but if the aperture was open 7 stops to F 2 the same grey will be captured as white.)  And the Color films and TV Cameras got only 5 stops of Latitude. (That’s why TV needs many lights.)

Even after the digital revolution, the situation hasn’t been changed much, since there is NO such things like a digital sensor = the sensors and the display units are all in analogue. !   All due to the limitation of those electronic components.  

(You know, the darkest black you can see on the screen is the darkness when you switch off your device. —– Is it dark ?  😀 )

(Usable linear part of their character is limited by such as quantum mechanics. ) 

[]The most of ignorant photographer who “worship” Raw File is believing it has more though, it is like a 1′ scale and a 30 cm scale.  Metric scale looks divided finer than inch scale, Raw is a bit finer that’s all.  Lossless JPEG compression wouldn’t make so much difference to Raw.

Raw doesn’t have extended Black outside of  30 cm or White on top.  

The total length is still the same.

[]The wide coverage of  the ISO setting in a DSLR was achieved by the higher amplification of the output from the censor = if the sensor was designed for low-light,  the highest output under bright light was also lower.  = Because, the sensor has almost the same latitude or dynamic range.  I wonder, if any DSLR which has 2 stops more Dynamic Range come to the market ?  

(Of cause with one exposure.   I don’t mind if it got digital signal process built-in for this purpose.  —– Or are they expecting the people resort with after process ? —– ( PS : Some information educated me.  Now such as Panasonic’s Lumix camera and their image processing program is even correcting the aberration of the lens = It is really the electronic company’s answer to the optical problem = not by the optical design but by their own trick = electronics !  )

[]

Home-made Light-box

Whether you believe or not, this is my Light-box.   It was made out of a Japanese cookie’s

wooden box.   Into the box, I put  a small fluorescent tube and a mirror board under the tube,

then covered with white perspex = So, it became a Light-box.  (So easy and cheap.  😉 )

In ostentatious principle, the light-box should have a Print organisation’s standard light souse,

5000K etc. though in practice non of the so-called Natural Light fluorescent tube got perfect

color balance anyway.   And all the light-box in the market were too big and heavy.  

I wanted to make it small and easy to carry, since non of my client has got one as they are just a

business office, not like an editorial room of a publisher.  When I deliver the photos of the

assignment and to show the transparency to them,  I needed to bring my own Light-box.

[]

Of course, a Light-box “was” an essential tool to a “Film” photographer, but not only that, it

is a very useful tool in general.  When I needed to analyse electronic circuit, I used a reverse

print of circuit track and a photo of component side, two prints together on the Light-box to

see through the connection.  😉 —–  And this time, I used it to copy the old transparencies.

Those photos were taken at the Spring Festival in Seville in Spain.  (1974 ! )

On the duped 35 mm Kodachrome ISO 25 (my regular film then) apparently lost some tone

and I may need to refine more though, still it is usable for a net-communication.

—– PS :  (Usable but, since I was not happy with its color, I made another copy using

flash-light instead of this fluorescent light.  😀 —– I’ll write about it soon. )

I can not stop imagining, these young  Guapa Chiquita now must be the good granny.   😀

They must have had a joyful life.  (Good dancer has less worry.  😀 )

———- (This is the Pipe Organ of the St. Michel Church in Hamburg, Germany.  

———- Taken by Pentax 17 mm Fish-eye lens on Nikon FE ) 

For some high contrast image, even a dupe on Home-made cheap Light-box, using 5D Mk-III

with 100 mm EF Macro is not too bad.

 I’m really happy, after almost 40 years Kodachrome retained its original color.  

(you may say “So, What”  😀 )

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Home-made Light-stand (2) — Copper Clad Cable Spiral Lamp

This Spiral cable Lamp was the earliest I made in England.   While stay in London, I used a

Film Labo’ where many Japanese photographer were taking their film to be processed.  

Photographer is the observer of the world and the human life.   And the people who is

developing  their films are yet another kind of the observer.  —– By watching the subjects

in my film, the owner of the Labo’ seemed to have noticed who I am, and asked me  

“Do you know electronics ?”  “Yah, a bit”  “Do you know about this machine ?  Can you repair ?”

—– It was a hefty spot welder.   Hefty because of it got really hefty transformer inside, still

its structure is rather simple.   “OK, I’ll check it with my tool tomorrow”. = Next day, I found

the welder’s brake down was caused by a micro-switch in the timer controller and I replaced it.

= Here, working again.   The owner was very impressed,  not only a photographer carrying a

test equipment but actually able to repair the machine.   (He knew, knowing and able to do is

not the same thing.)   “OK, in exchange, you develop those  10 films free”  “Oh, sure”  

I like a kind of relationship which doesn’t involve a money =  I help you, so you help me.

And I started to use their small room in their studio as my office and in exchange,  if

anything repair kind of needs happened, I’ll help them.  Almost like an in-hose engineer.  🙂

(That’s how I got an experience to deal with 2500 V,  5000 WS studio type flash etc )

But to carry out some repair, in a awkward corner of the big studio space, or under the film

processing line,  I needed to have a work-lamp.  I made this Spiral Lamp of which all the

materials were piled up in a corner of the studio where used be a huge vegetable storage

in a corner of  “used to be the Covent Garden Flower and Vegetable Market”.  

(So, I know the Before and After of the Covent Garden Market !  🙂 )

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Copper Clad Cable is not common Japan where the main voltage is 100 V.   So, I first seen it in

this country.   The cable was covered by a copper tube hence it is quite solid and fire resistant,

still having certain flexibility or able to bend.  Most of work lamp was wire caged to protect

glass light bulb = so, I got an idea to use this cable itself to make protective cage around the bulb

—– then wall mount switch-box was fixed as its base. (Socket was fixed to the end of the cable

using Epoxy glue).  —– this is yet another minimalist’s approach though, all what we need are

there and perfectly functioning.  It may looks odd and a bit awkward to change a bulb though,

it worked perfect for my purpose.   Is there anything  wrong with it ?

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PS :  A quite few people, even the electrician who came to my room to re-wiring and the readers,

questioned me, how I could make the Spiral so neat ?  = Cable (Piro) was first close wound around

a gutter-pipe about 8 cm, then it was pulled and expanded.   Then both end was bent to the

wanted shape.  (Of course, the both end, the copper tube was peeled off and the conductors =

two cable were covered with proper  insulator sleeves and made proper electric connection.)

Though, I wouldn’t encourage the reader to do this kind of work, unless the person got enough

skill like a qualified electrician.  To play with main power is a very dangerous business.  It kills. 

 

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Zen in Action (3) — Latent Thinking

At moment, I’m in chaos of shifting the mountain of boxes again. Some of the regular readers

may remember, I said the same before, though it was for fitting new window but this time it

is for electric re-wiring. It’s mean, I have to shift those to the window-side to vacate the

wall-side for the electrician to access all the power-points, switches etc. (I’m not happy at all.

= so-called Electric safety standard has been changed and they say all the system has to be

kept-up, blah blah = keep industry busy to make money, but I’m dubious about

why the contract has gone to this company.)

So that, fortunately or unfortunately, I had to dig-up the boxes berried to the bottom which

I haven’t seen since when I moved to here.

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In common-sense, people only has what is essential to the own immediate life, the essential

for the daily life. —– ideally a Buddhist remained in their bare minimum though it’s the matter

of how the person define who he is = a Buddhist bikku (literally a beggar who forsaken all his

possession for a sake of seeking the truth) may needed to have one cloth to cover his body and

one bowl to receive food (then to drink, and take a water to wash himself etc.)

—– in this context when I found that the followers of

Lord Buddha had umbrella, I was very surprised (let alone the umbrella had been already

invented then ! —– this sort of analysis would lead to see the timing when Agama Sutras was

written, or its authenticity.)

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In fine day, still carry an umbrella for if it starts a rain, or carry a bowl in case if anybody

offer a food are all in the speculation (may happen but not on that moment) = in other words,

it’s only in the mind.     I wonder what Lord Buddha instructed to this matter to his followers ?

So, the teaching of “Live in the Moment” include the situation “Could happen next moment” too.

So, I carry a mountain of material to make something which could happen in any moment. 😀

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Don’t cling to your thought but leave the matter to the Dharma (occurrence of the Karma).

This “thought” meant be a kind of thinking we are doing in lingual form. —– as a matter of fact,

as Neuroscientists found that 90% of our thinking has been done subconsciously without convert

it to the lingual form. Even when we are in Mushin and totally occupied by one action, our Brain

is still in full working state unless we choose to have meditative state.

This “subconscious thinking” is no other than what we call [intuition], [hunch], and often giving

an [insight], or [inspiration] and those are the very “Latent Thinkings”.

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In comparison, what we learned in lingual form such as somebody’s words or what we learned

from the books will stay as the lingual memories.

We can say “I understood” is in fact, lexical understanding of an abstract notion of the word and

its meanings but not what it is in practice.

But what we experienced and learned in real life always carries the tag of emotion yet this

emotion is very difficult to convert and express in the words, because the tag in the emotion is

a part of the said “Latent Thinkings”.     In most of the case, lingual memory stay like a distant

objects and not necessary relate to the emotion hence, it is not necessary takes a part

in the “Latent Thinkings”.

The words “Be careful, it’ll bite you” stay as the words until after you were actually bitten =

Then, it will be imprinted into your subconscious with a pain, and “Be careful” become part of

your “Latent Thinking”.

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This is the very reason why actual practice or experience is so important to our life, and what

Lord Buddha said “Don’t believe  what others said but think yourself”

(better still through experiences).

—— (One of my Kinetic Sculpture “Cupidon / Archer” which was made mostly discarded material

—— I’ve picked-up, such as aluminium angles etc.  Except an Air-pomp (yellow one) I bought.  

—— The motor came from a Cooling-fan ) (Moving image is in youtube —> Click right column)

—– through experiences since my childhood, I knew, such as an aluminium angle is so useful

to make a structure, or such as a discarded printer contain very useful motor etc. = I collected

and stashed them in my room = hence made mountains of junks. So, when like this unexpected

situation occurs, I have to work hard to shift the boxes.

—– bad still, it’s an unusually hot summer.

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