Hand-held Photo for 1 second

This photo was taken in a church in Schwetzingen, Germany when I visited and listened  

hundred of Pipe Organ in Europe.

As far as I remember, this photo must be the best usable Hand-held photo (which got an

evidence), in my entire life.  —– how can I say this ?  =  The film was Kodachrome  ISO 25.  

The lighting condition like this = if it was ISO 400,  1/30 or 1/15,  F2.8.  —– just count on

your fingers, it became  1/2 ~ 1 second for ISO 25 Film.  But the lens was Pentax  17 mm F4.  

It was in deed 1 second F4.    Please look into the mirror above the organ key-board. =

The image in the mirror was me holding camera = no tripod.

Still you can read (well more or less) the music score.

Not too bad isn’t it for Hand-held for one second ?

—– (Knack to hold the camera is,   1) Close armpit and put elbow solidly on the chest.

2) Don’t push button with pointing finger alone but do it as if you are squeezing all the

finger inward.    3) Relax, never been tensioned.  Just hold breath and release the shutter.)

(Because of an Organist who is facing the key-board, hence couldn’t see the progress of a 

mass service behind of him, it is necessary to have a mirror there to see the timing.)  

—– Well, it was a long time ago,  when I had a muscle.   😀

[]

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”  😀 )

[]

Google Search

It seems that from the eyes of Google, I may fallen into a category of the least useful

data in their business.    Despite the fact that the owner of WordPress (is Google)

putting quite big companies AD into my blog and making money, still my own  “Profile”

and ID are useless such as my Mail address, user name on Youtube, not mention this

very Yoshizen couldn’t be congregated to one ID.

To define the ID can make the Person (with all the associated Information, even oversaw

history of search record, the contents of Email) as a clear target of AD = convincing

profile to target an particular AD to a potential buyer of their product.

Not only my ID but also the theme or contents of this blog is too wide-spread = hard to

define the main subject, not just peaceful Buddhism, not necessary the Art, or simply a

Photography —– and why the strange Cooking here ? ? ?

[]

Until a year ago, to find my post by Google Search was very easy, just type search-term

such as  [Tree of the Life],  [Bodhi-tree] etc. would lead to my post on the first page of

Google list, if not on the top, reflecting the number of hits of which people has made.

(It was automatically done by their Search-engine algorithm.)

Then Google has changed it, and [Tree of the Life] [Bodhi-tree] were disappeared and more 

commercial items such as selling books or an AD of a Tour visiting India got the priority.

It seems, [Cooking Daikon Zen] is still coming up on top of Google-search though,

the other one such as  [Cooking aduki-bean Oshiruko]  which used to came on top too

had almost completely disappeared while showing thousands of other items which got

just a single word [aduki] or [oshiruko] even contain just [Cooking].   Otherwise, only

searching by  [Cooking aduki-bean Oshiruko Yoshizen blog]  will show my post.

Read a screen shot above “ No results found for Cooking Oshiruko Yoshizen Blog”  looks

very funny isn’t it = their automatic search algorithm couldn’t see the title of my post.

— Really ?   (What sort of manipulation behind here ?)  😀

—– Is this because of they thought I’m not a profitable customer (who isn’t very cooperative

for their business term.) ?    Regardless, a quality of the information of which my post got.

(Please read it = How do you think — and try to test the  Google-search  by yourself =

you may see,  next target could be you.)

[]

Funny fact was, when I found that the Google Image was showing the miner picture of

[St.Lucia] laying on the sand (?) instead of the main figure which was receiving lightning,

I mocked them “Haven’t they got the eyes to see the Art ?” and posted the photo on Google+

(as I suspected that the people who didn’t join G+ may be getting a raw-deal )

—– then the post [St.Lucia] started to came-up on the top page of 13,700,000 items on their list.

—– Why funny wire figure came above much more important picture of the religious paintings

of the old masters’ in the museum.

This signified the fact that the Google listing was not operating neutrally by the

automatic algorithm like what they says, but by the people who got a certain intention.

Google might be aiming to become the force in the “Big brother’s System” = The Ruler

though, it is a direct confrontation with the Dharma / Law of the Universe or just

obvious common sense.  

Who do they think they are ?    Are they thinking, they are the auditor of the world ?

[]

PS :  Yet more funny story was, after I’ve put this post, my friend who tested this, found

that my post  [ Cooking Oshiruko]  came back to the top page again.  😀 —- Who is watching ?

[]

The company who cross the line to become too greedy seemed to get a punishment of the

Dharma.   Such as a company even I, a small man on the street disliked because of their

over-stepping business practice,  get their own cause boomerang-back.

10 years ago I really hated Microsoft. —– Then, they tumbled down, being accused of their

monopolizing business practice.   And the Apple who I really hated, saw the same fate.

( remember what happened to Steve Jobs.)   It seems this is the turn of the Google —–

I’m very very interested in to see what would happen to them.   😉

(It may not necessary come from the front door straight to their business tactics such as

from the rival businesses, but it could come even from the back.)

(PS:  Funny coincidence —– I just found this article in the Wall Street Journal =

Yahoo tops the net traffic over Google) = When I think, everybody think the same too !

[]

In principle, the Dharma should be the all the existences which is in the invisible “Void”

without having Self or its own mind.

It is like a huge machine operating in rational interaction, —– though, in its invisible

unknowable part of the Dharma still seems to have a will to determine our fate.

Though, this “Will” kind is not whimsical or impartial, but simply tells wrong is wrong,

right is right —– to the larger and longer term extent and to the balance of whole Universe.

Because we human-being is too small to know whole extent of the mechanism of the

Universe, we have to leave it as unknowable still, simply it is “Yet we know the whole”.

We are discovering more and more, still we never found anything irrational =

everything down to the sub-atomic particles to our mind mechanism still keeping its

rational cause and the effect linkage. = nothing bore-out from nothing miraculously.  

So, simply, when we (even a company) did something wrong, it creates a distortion in

a balance of the Dharma ===> causing repercussion which we called Punishment.

This mechanism is the System Principal of the Cause and the Effect,

the Linkage mechanism which was called Karma and they are the very Teaching of  

Lord Buddha.

___/\___

 []

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 !  🙂 )

[]

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 ?

[]

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. 

 

[]

Home-made Light-stand (1)

This is one of my home-made Light-stand, second simplest one, which I found in a box

I’ve stashed it away 20 years (?) ago. (the most simplest one was using a bent single pipe.)

Light housing was made out of  7 mm pipe of which the top was rounded by tapping and bent.

Photo Left : Originally it was using very small tungsten bulb for an indicator though, those

bulb doesn’t last long, not mention a problem of heat-up.  

So, in this occasion, I changed it to a wite LED (Photo Center) .  In this kind of design, the matter

is the “Adjustable Pipe Clamp” = here they were made using shallow Aluminium C-channel,

bent to U-shape.  = One screw can loose and tighten everything at once. (Photo Right)

Thanks to LED, it can light up pretty long time from three AA batteries hidden under the base.

[]

Don’t ask  “What is for ?” = You may not ask a painter  “Why you sketch this land scape ?”

To see an aluminium pipe and think how to use and to make them into a certain shape and

appropriate structure is a game of creativity.  —– simply it is a fun.  🙂

[]

Grown-up with Pain

It seems the Politicians are arguing about yet another law to deal with “Dangerous Dog”

after many cases of the children (even Policemen) were attacked, even by their family dog.

[]

To my eyes, there lies a fundamental problem of our society’s attitude toward the animals

and the nature in general.

I’ve seen a very small child run to cuddle even a big dog which is somebody else’s dog.

May be as a civilized people, we should be friendly with animal etc. though, animal is

the animal for ever.  May be thousands of hart-warming story of the friendship between

human and animals, though, we shouldn’t forget that we are only a part of the Fauna,

and other part of the member never belong to us, let alone dictated by us.

Our apparent dominance is just a superficial pictures.

[]

Be friendly but cuddling them like a Soft Toy is totally different matter. —– have you

ever seen the dogs hugging each other ?   Or does cats do it ?   Only Primates hug !

Even if it is familiar picture to a dog, suddenly a small child who’s smell is totally

unknown, come close and start hugging, the dog react their own way —– could

bite-back, scream and the smell of blood only excite them.

We shouldn’t mistake, “Be friendly” doesn’t mean “THEY also act like Soft toy made

by human” — we need to distinguish and treat them as another member of the Fauna

who could still be dangerous.

[]

Same misconception is in the education, publication etc. = with a sort of

“Humanitarian Ideas” = treat others as equal, not to be violent, etc. or talking about

not giving “Psychological Trauma” etc. (even seek a damage compensation against it).

(Worst is in Japan, in the children’s book all the fearful image of such as Wolf or any

Dangerous animal has been disfigured into cuddly cute “Figure” and even the

carnivorous Ogres became just another member of a democratic society!

(Ogre is the symbol who AGAINST the society = counter reference = they got to be bad !)

In the other hand, a Manga or Game Hero uses all sorts of lethal weapons to kill

enemies in the most violent way, was not checked.

So, a kids grown up without learning a pain (to the self = to the others) does the most

horrifying killing when he or she (these days, women has been committing really

dreadful killing = it seems they really found the equality) commits a murder.)

[]

NO! Grown up is a process to learn with Pain.  Its trauma is the basis of the imperative

memory “What we have to pay attention” and the teachings of DO and NOT DO.

—– We intelligent civilized people “can” understand what was told or written, is false.

The notice or warning was for the excuse of the liability of the Authority. = I told you.

(Please note, I’m not advocating a teacher, instructor sort, resorting with a physical

violence or harassment in order them to enforce their “idea” to the students.)

[]

Respect the Nature is to accept that they got their own Karma hence rightfully exists in

this Planet = Respect WHAT THEY ARE, not impose our idea such as faithful cuddly dog

or beautiful song bird etc.   To lean this without pain, it wouldn’t be sublimated to the

bottom of our subconscious, and reflect it to our behaviour or perception.

—– In most of the situation, our behaviour, perception were not controlled by our

civilized conscious thinking but invisible subconscious.  We only think after.

( —– by the way, I don’t intend to offend the unfortunate victim mowed by the dog.  

I really feel sorry for them. —– especially, me too, can’t get on well with the dog

= as, I’m a cats person. 🙂 )

[]

Mind in the Syber Space (and Under the Hormone)

There was a rather sad news on the radio that a girl committed a suicide after bullied on SNS.

In reality, it was only a line of letters on a screen, still we take it as a message from somebody

and interpret it in a certain context —– some time too seriously.

(And in this case it even caused a girl to hang herself.) 

[]

With Twitter accounts in my name  (though, whether they are “mine” or not is arguable since

they are created by somebody else. :-))  I used to receive a lots of direct massages to my Email,

of which most of them were saying  “Somebody spreading dreadful rumour about you ~> See

this”  or  “lol, I laughed so much of this picture of you ~> See this”   and lure to get virus or 

see AD —– (Though, I only guess, since I never ever clicked and open. I don’t know what’s there.

Then I set a filter “Twitter, Direct massage” automatically go to the bin.)

= The reason is that there is absolutely no possibility, somebody I don’t know can make any

serious rumour about me, or post a photo with my name on it (since, all of my ID is fake.)

Other reason is, if it was true, it must be a fun to other people = enjoy it yourself.

Make the world smiley place is a good things, why not ?

If anybody doing it on behalf of me, I’m very much thankful. 😀  

[]

To deal with Syber Space, I prepared to the worst scenario, hence I don’t give real ID as

much as I can.   As I got friends who are (were?) Anarchist, Hacker, (ex?) Terrorist, etc etc. and

know a bit of computer, I’ve seen a program which can generate all the combination of possible

Password and hack-in etc etc. = I don’t trust so-called Security at all.

So, if I got to do Net-shopping I use a bank account which got only just-enough balance left.

False ID to each registration prevents two information joint together.

(You know, First name + Post code can find “Who you are and the full address”. To add DOB can

access NHS data. From here, to hack-in to Banking data is just a matter of keyboard. etc etc.

—– And on top of those, such as Google is keeping all of our Net history in their side.

A hidden file of Picasa is keeping extract sample photos of naughty site you’ve visited.(not me) 🙂

—– search your HDD, [Photograph, Picasa, Information] or check ALL the files in your Picasa!

—- and those information has been given to the National Security.  You remember?  ! ! !)

We are completely naked in the Net.  = So, remember to use snail-mail if you are dealing with

something dubious.   Utilize a convenience of Internet, free of cost, having certain trade-off.

 

We human being is a social animal, and rather vulnerable existence, hence very susceptible to

the environment and the social-environmental condition.   Therefore, we were genetically

programmed to pay attention to others, though, to take other’s words too serious is a trouble of

the person who read it. = It is a juggling work.   To listen what other’s say might be important, but

in the same time, to detached from it, is also important.  Other’s words could be crucial though,

just put a distance and think “Who the person bother to send such a message is ? And what’s the

intention ? Hasn’t this person got anything else to do ?” = such observation will shed a light to

the situation. —– And much more importantly this detached mind-set prevent us

to be deflected by the emotion.

[]

Still, to take an other’s message in certain context is depend on the mind of who read it.

In a philosophical view, the things in the world is not really existing but only in the mind,

let alone such as a message in the Net. = It is an indirect-indirect flimsy existence.

And physically they have no danger. Just delete it.

And the Buddhists may not believe the Self is even a real existence = if the Self is not there,

why afraid to be harmed or lost in a Syber bulling.

[]

 Yet still, if you take matter in a mind too seriously, this article may show you the reality,

Mind is not a kind of Holy existence in a mysterious sanctuary.    There may not even be a

so-called spirituality.    They might be all in a delusion.

[]

The two faces of the “love hormone”

By Brian Dodson

August 6, 2013

Often called the love hormone, oxytocin has shown the ability to enhance social bonding,

decrease anxiety and encourage an overall feeling of satisfaction with life. A new study out of

Northwestern University, however, finds that this ancient hormone has a dark side, and is capable

ofstrengthening unpleasant memories, fear, and anxiety. This Jeckyll and Hyde behavior results

from the fact that oxytocin has a general strengthening effect on social memories, without regard

to their polarity.

Although discovered in 1906, study of the emotion-altering effects of oxytocin are still in their infancy.

Experiments on humans as well as animal models strongly suggest that oxytocin is associated with

pair bonding, social recognition, ethnocentricity (the “in group” effect), increasing trust, decreasing fear,

and even improved wound healing. An interesting example of this class of effects can be found in a

2012 study which showed that oxytocin caused men in a monogamous relationship to maintain

four to six inches more space between themselves and an attractive woman in a crowd, while

having no effect on single men.

Other, less positive properties of oxytocin dosage have also begun to be reported.

For example, a study from the University of Haifa found that the emotions of envy and

Schadenfreude (pleasure in another’s misfortune) were increased by internasal administration of

oxytocin. Further research suggests people with borderline personality disorder, whose major

symptom is a tendency to withdraw from social interactions, exhibit less trust when treated with

oxytocin. This was particularly true in those who were sensitive to rejection. Clearly, oxytocin’s

effects on people’s emotions are not as simple as originally suggested.

This new study from Northwestern University demonstrates that oxytocin is associated with

emotional pain. In increasing the strength of social memories, it may be the reason that stressful

social situations (bullying, abuse, ridicule, rejection) can easily be brought to mind long after the event.

The intensity of such memories can be such that the memory feels almost like living through the

original event every time you think of it.

The Northwestern study, carried out by Dunbar Professor Jelena Radulovic’s group, found that

during a stressful social experience, oxytocin is released and activates a part of the brain that

intensifies the memory. Oxytocin also increases the susceptibility to feeling fearful and anxious during

stressful events going forward. It seems likely that oxytocin also intensifies positive social memories,

but this has not explicitly been examined as yet.

Professor Radulovic’s study is the first to link oxytocin to social stress and its ability to increase

anxiety and fear in response to future stress. The researchers also discovered the brain region

responsible for these effects – the lateral septum – and the pathway or route oxytocin uses in this

area to amplify fear and anxiety.

The findings surprised the researchers, who were expecting oxytocin to intensify positive emotions

in memory, based on its long association with love and social bonding.

“Oxytocin is usually considered a stress-reducing agent based on decades of research,” said

Yomayra Guzman, a doctoral student in Radulovic’s lab. “With this novel animal model, we showed

how it enhances fear rather than reducing it and where the molecular changes are occurring in our

central nervous system.”

Far from a simple “cuddle hormone,” oxytocin appears to have the same complex interaction with

human health and behavior as most other hormones. While a good deal of progress has been made,

there is still work to do when it comes to to unknotting the tangled ball of yarn that is oxytocin’s effects.

Source: Northwestern University  —– The link to the Original article 

[]

PS:  If you are a hard-core Spiritualist, you may not happy with this kind of materialistic

view though, this view doesn’t conflict with Lord Buddha’s teachings at all. Far from it, 

Lord Buddha’s fundamental teaching of the Karma = Cause and Result is nothing but a

Scientific Rationalism.   Hence, when one dies, its mind, spirit goes with.  No Atman exists.

Nutrition of the soil and the water with plenty sun, the plants grows.

This is nothing but the science.  Hence, the Testosterone in a body drive a man to do the sex.  

So, here the Physiologists talked about how Oxitocin causes in our body and gives the effects

to the mind. ——  This is the Very mechanism of the Karma.

[]

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.

[]

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.)

[]

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. 😀

[]

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”.

[]

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”.

[]

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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Macro Flash-light / Small Flash on Goose-neck

This must be a “You got to be joking” kind of funny, cheap adaptation of a flash for Macro

photography. —– And I would say “Why not” 😀

Since, most of my existing flashes, except Canon 430EX-II are not compatible for the latest DSLR

to give TTL flash control, I needed to buy one for Macro-flash modification which I described

it in a former post.

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The flash I found second-hand was 270EX-II, which is using only two batteries hence pretty small and

light enough to mount on top of a Goose-neck, instead to have internal modification I did before.

Decisive fact was that I already have [off the camera flash cable] made by Sunpak more than

20 years ago which was similar to the German SCA300 adapter system used by Metz, Agfa etc.

Sunpak tried to make the adapter for all the cameras which has been started to have new function, not

only ready-light, TTL flash control but even for focus-light for AF which was newly introduced AF camera.

Because of the Camera design was keep changing while adding new function, it was a hard task to

keep-up. —– On the end Sunpak became out of breath and bankrupted.

—– so, on that time lots of Sunpak products became obsolete and sold in a give-away price.

Once, Sunpak was a dominant force in the flash-light market with very innovative design and

versatile system such as the interchangeable head system with Telephoto head, Infra-red head,

Bare-tube head etc. not mention they produced very powerful model as well.

So, when I saw a box-full of their [Flash Extension Cable] in a camera shop, I bought all of them at once,

more than 20 cables for every type of cameras. —– Flash shoe is an awkward component to make

ourselves,  (still, I worked to make and modify, such as adding one more TTL contact to Pentax type to

make it Nikon type etc.  🙂 )  therefore, it’s better to keep enough supply of many types in hand,

and it’s got very useful coiled cable as well..

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DSLR camera manufacturer is selling their [Flash Extention Cable] and all of their Female connector has

only 1/4” Tripod screw. = Once flash was put on the cable, it has to be mounted on a stand, otherwise it

has to be held by a hand.      In contrast, the best thing of the Sunpak Extension Cable is, male and

female can be coupled, in other words flash can be perched on top of the camera, only 45mm

higher position.   So that, it can be changed Flash on the camera to hand-lighting just by pressing release

button (which can be locked as well)  hence, as far as I know, this is the best designed [FlashE xtention

Cable] in the history and the materials and the construction are also very good.

———– (Photo above:  1″ Aluminium C-channel is the best to make many structures.  

———–  And  3/4 ” Square Pipe will just fit inside, hence they can make best coupling system !  

———–  And they could be easily cut by hand tools, though it’s a very tedious work.  🙂 )

So, my modification was just Epoxy glued  female connector on top of a goose-neck and made a small

piece of aluminium channel to connect the goose-neck to the camera bracket which is the in-hose

standard to connect any of my flash-light systems to the cameras.

—– To use the 270EX-II flash as a Macro-flash, thanks to the flexibility of goose-neck, flash can be

positioned (more or less) where ever desired, with or without bouncing diffuser.

—– following photos are the Test sample of each lighting.  (Focus and  F  were Fixed)

————- (The Lens was CanonEF Macro 100mm F2.8 with home made “Ultra Proxer” / F2.8)

————- (This last set of sample photo was using   F11 —— slight difference of lighting changes

————- the character of the subject ! —– See the difference on enlarged images ) 

(And the sample photos in the field will be followed )  😉

—– those photos are taken in my room (I’m still busy dealing with boxes  🙂 ) of a small visitor,

Beetle, head to tale  6mm or 1/4″ big, using Ultra Proxer on Canon EF 100mm Macro

with 270EX-II flash and extension cable. 

 

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——— (Photo Left : 100mm Macro at F16 + Ultra Proxer, 270EX Flash with Diffuser — taken x2 size.

——— Photo Right : same setting but at F 2.8 ) 

 

Close-up Lens on EF-Macro Lens

Well, those top two photos were taken by Canon EF Macro 100mm F2.8 Lens alone.

This Macro lens has internal focus system and it will be focused down to the life-size.

 For general macro work,  it is convenient to use though, for me,  life-size is often just

not close enough.  So that I specially made additional Proxer / Close-up lens my self.

As I detailed in the post, By using the Proxer, the Lens can close to  x2 size, and

in addition, it creates almost phenomenal out-of-focus Bokhe.

The Bokhe created by this additional lens looks almost like Air-blush Graphic work.

Still, since this Proxer was made out of the front element of a Zoom Lens, it got double

lens Achromatic construction, no Chromatic aberration was appeared and the focused

image is quite sharp, corner to corner, even when the lens aperture was fully open.

All those photos, except top two,  F-aperture was set to F2.8 and the Camera was

set to AV mode.  Auto focus does work though, as the nature of this kind of

close-up work, I used manual focus.   

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