Cherry by Soft Lenses

The photos here were taken from the same Cherry tree as

the previous post.   (As they are not plain 5 petals flower,

this is not Somei-yoshino) 

The softness (?  Blur) on the previous post were created by

the Focus-Shift = focused image and the out-of-focus image

were mechanically superimposed on the shot. — But here,

the softness was caused optically by the lens’ aberration.

= Those first 4 photos were taken by the homemade

single glass lens = nicknamed “Gaudy lens” .

Among my homemade lenses, this is the most useful,

easy to use lens.

You may say, the aberration of this lens is too much

though, this is what I wanted.   🙂

Above those two photos, you can see the type of

softness are very different.  = The photo above and

the following 3 photos were taken by  the modified

(front diverging lens was removed)

Tokina Wide-Converter.

Regardless the technical blur blur, all about

the photography (or any art) the matter is the

end result = if it is good, it’s good. 

Nothing else.   😀

(And when the result was the same, the cheaper

the cost is the better.)

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Peach flower

—— (Photo above: taken by a homemade, so-called Gaudy Lens)

Peach flower is much more appreciated in China than in Japan.

In Chinese myth, the famous Shangrila was written as 桃源郷

which mean The place where the Peach Blooming. = (neither

Cherry nor Banana.)   The reason why Chinese value Peach more

than Cherry is, not only its juicy fruits but the color of flower is

more reddish.

The color Red mean prosperity and the longevity to the Chinese.

In a stark contrast, Cherry Blossom is the symbol of the ephemeral

life, even the death to the Japanese (in the Buddhists context.)  So,

Japanese appreciate its moment of the flower falling like a snow

storm, as well as when it was fully blooming.

——- (Photo above Left : by Canon Fisheye Zoom 8~15mm —

——–Photo Right : Converging Lens from Tokina Wide converter.)

The reason why Chinese likes Red was originated from the vermilion.

Vermilion is the Mercury Oxide = deadly poison = therefore it is a

very effective preservative to the timber. So, the Chinese temple etc

has been painted with Red Vermilion = never rotten for thousand of

years.  So, Red Vermilion is the demonstration of the longevity !

And there was a fancy story of the Vermilion, whether it was a 

fabrication of the novelist or not, there said to be an Elixir of life made

from Vermilion, which was repeatedly oxidized and deoxidized 9 times,

called  九還丹 in China.  (If you found it in the Net, you may try ! )

—— (Photo above : Converging Lens from Tokina)

To the Japanese, the appreciation of Peach flower was in its

association with the girl’s festival (桃の節句) on 3rd of March

other than that not much special feeling in the Japanese mind.

So that, other than in the fruits orchard in a country side,

we don’t see as many Peach trees like Cherry in town .

—— (Photo above : by converging Lens from Tokina

Wide Converter mounted on a Bellows = Photo right

= As the lens was mounted on a bellows, it can focus

from ∞ to 1/3 close-up)

Front element of the Diverging Lens has been used somewhere

else, and the left over converging element was used here.  😀

(You may amazed, how photography can be done in such a casual manner.)

[∞]

OMG – Magnolia flowers ?!

London has been having no real winter = no ice, no frost not mention

a snow.    And having the flowering Magnolia.  

OMG, this is utterly crazy.

Of course, there could be “Special garden variety” of  Winter Magnolia

of which I’m utterly ignorant though, this one may not be the case.

Still, this tree had pretty early flowers last year as well.

I do like to break the convention — but this case is not funny.

I like to act brainless though, I have no fun making a fun out of

handicapped person.  Especially if it was created by the human error

such as an industrial poisoning.

I hope this magnolia has normal gene though, = if it was the case,

the climate alone was the cause ? — did it got such wrong ?

It’s just a beginning of January.

( —– in here, top photo was taken by the Zeiss 18mm and the

rest were taken by the homemade lens.)

This photo above was an additional comparison, taken

by the specially modified Canon FD 50mm F1.8 while its

focus was shifted during the exposure. = Since the image

of this lens has little aberration and halation (only having

superimposed out-of-focus bokeh) the contrast was

much higher = more glare) = different kind of fuzziness !

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Selfridge Xmas Window 2015

Hand is a body parts which got second highest concentration of

the nerve after the eyes.  And especially we human got our hands

best developed among the any animal, we have best and the most

delicate control of them.    So that, not only its dexterity and the

function, its acquired the mean of expression as well. 

We can read the meaning of what the hand is telling or symbolizes,

and the eyes tend to follow what the hand is expressing.  

(I mean not only F**K or Peace sign but also more delicate mood

of its operator as well.)  🙂  

In old days, Selfridge’s decoration was based on the Children’s Tales

— though children themselves are not the shopper, and the Xmas

itself has changed its character too = Religious to Kid’ and to the

Grownup’s Shopping event.  🙂

= So, the window decorations now are,   Grownup’s fantasy !

(often, bizarre one) —– and they are fun to watch !   🙂

The lens used for those shootings were either Canon Fish-eye 8~15mm or

homemade, so-called Gaudy Lens and the Camera was Canon 5D Mk-III.

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Kyocera Junk Macro — in Practice

I’m well aware, making lens etc is one thing and actually use it is the other. 

Still, whether any worthwhile photo was created by it or not, is totally

different matter. —– I know, in this world, some of the people is having

a pleasure of possessing something rather than use it = just for a show-off 

(of his, her wealth or So-called Good taste) —– and the manufacturer is

well aware of this phenomenon too. So that they are producing specifically

designed outrageously expensive model for this target, with “Art” or “Opus”

kind of the name.   A camera, recently introduced from Leiz, Leica SL is one of 

the extreme case, = the camera which can takes more or less the same kind of

picture but priced whopping  $7450 for body.   Even if non of the photographer  

would buy it, still 10 of the “Leica Collector” in the world ought to buy = because,  

it was made by Leiz and listed in their catalog.  (Collection has to be complete.)

A Camera lens, I made out of junk

Kyocera-Yashica compact Zoom

Camera has been with me a

while  = waiting to encounter

good subject. ————————

Then, I found a tiny tiny dot on a Fig = it was an egg of the Green Lacewing.

Not very fashionable subject still, it is good for a macro-photography.

So, that’s how the top photo was made. ( x4 Magnification. though, quality

of the lens in comparison to my previous work, was not very impressive

—– shows chromatic aberration etc, hence,  not very sharp.)

—– still, it was a proof that the lens was in operation. 

(= I’m not feeling happy for just possessing the lens.)   🙂

*

    PS :  In order to have a bit more sharpness and the evenness of the image,

I put a hole of Black tape to reduce the effective F-Aperture to half of the

diameter (equivalent of 2 F-stops down) = the image quality was dramatically

improved ! — You might be realized that how the optics behave in simple

manner and lost a faith to worship expensive lens.   😀

(In fact, we are paying for the Brand image, not necessary for the quality, 

otherwise who pay  £3000 to a plastic camera ?)

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Still, Flower Patch — with Gaudy Lens + LED Ring Light

When I walked through a side of that flower patch in the evening, I found

there still quite a few flowers.   As it was already the dusk, I decided to go

there again with my camera and the LED Ring Light on Gaudy Lens.   🙂

I’m not convinced that this

combination suites for the subject.

(some shots were done while the

LED Ring Light was not fixed on

the lens-front but held separately,

aiming from above.) — This Ring 

Light was the same one I’ve made  

for the 100mm F2.8 Macro Lens,

and powered by 3 x 2500mAH-AA

battery (through a 5.6 ohm register) = it can work more than 120 min’ continuously !

= Not too bad !

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Gaudy Lens — with one F-stop “less gaudy” Image

Gaudy lens was intended to fill the gap between “Double-Density Pinhole”

and the “Two Element homemade Lens” with added convenience of the

easy focus.  In a quality of the image, DD Pinhole has no details of the subject

= totally paintary image.    And an omnifocus Two Element Lens has certain

softness, still not so strong. —– I wanted to have somewhere between.

 Though, the original Gaudy Lens 

 showed too strong halation = so that,

 I made it a bit less by reducing its

 effective aperture for one stop.

 = 33mm x 0.7 = 23mm (equivalent 

of F1.8 down to F2.5) 

(It was done by placing a black paper with 23mm hole, back of the lens.)

So, they are the answer. = fuzzy enough but not too much.  🙂

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Gaudy Lens, gaudy images

They are the pictures of the first field test of a homemade lens I described

on the previous post, the Gaudy Lens.

The lens is a single meniscus magnifier lens with no coating, hence a lots of

aberration, halation was unavoidable —– in fact that was what I wanted

and the very purpose to make this lens.

Same as a bright light, the strong bright color causes strong halation too.

— even worse, the fuzzy image needed to have a bit more contrast =

increased highlight = brighter color spread more. It’s an orgie of the color.

Thank you very much to see all through the photos.  In the next post, I’ll put

a bit more moderate version of the same flowers.

(With a trick of a piece of small paper.)  🙂

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How about a Glittering Gaudy Lens ?

Do you know, this is called “Kawaii” in the Japanese norm today.

Settle with flowers to create Kawaii image was rather casual approach though,

otherwise — kitten’s picture if not small child or young girl.

— But these days, to deal with child or young girl, the risque is too high.

So, I would rather choose a camera. —– best of all, it’s cost virtually nothing.

Here, it was a 30 years old Olympus film camera.    The camera of that

age is much easier to disassemble and to utilize its mechanism.

 The camera then had auto-winding-up, rewind (Photo above left = the 

train of gears on the bottom of the body convey the power of the motor in

the winding-up spool to the rewinding fork), auto-focus, collapsible lens

etc, very useful mechanism though, “fully auto” then did not necessary 

had everything. = The exposure control was done by one mechanism = 

= two L-shaped blades worked as a Shutter and an Iris same time.

(Photo above, right)   Under the bright light, the blades open very little  

and close quick = worked as high speed shutter with small F-aperture.

And when it was dark, blades will fully open and close after a while, 

so in any condition, it gave a combination of somewhere between.

(Though, such mechanism is not useful anywhere else.)

What I found useful was their zoom lens barrel.  I removed all the lens

and the mechanism then I put a single meniscus lens. (So that the zoom

barrel became a focusing helicoid for the lens which can give the focus

from infinity to 1/2 close up.)  This lens has about 60mm focal length

and the diameter of 35mm = effectively F1.8.

The lens had no coating and such single lens has a lots of aberrations and

the halation of which I’m after and this lens got glittering gold encoder.

— isn’t it gorgeous or bad taste ?  😀       ( I didn’t put — it was there.)

Incidentally, this lens showed this character (and see the difference)

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Flower Patch (5) — by 2-Element Homemade Lens (B)

2Ele Nikon

And the lens here was the other one, for Nikon mount type.  

Nikon fitting can be mounted 

on a Canon Eos body but not 

the other way round because 

the Nikon body (its frange-back 

on the Lens mount) is 2.5 mm

 thicker = Canon Lens on a Nikon body

can’t have an infinity focus but in the other hand, a mount 

converter on Canon for Nikon can have 2.5 mm to play with.

(Photo above, the lens was fitted with Nikon to EOS adapter.)

—– the reason why I further made Nikon type of this lens was,

“I wanted to have this fuzzy image in 32 MP sensor”— serious !   

(but the Canon is going to have 50 MP soon, how interesting.

—– Why 200K kind of image needs 20Mb size details ?

= this is THE Paradox — or joke Sir.   😀  )

Those two have a similar structure though, looks very different.

= Nikon type is much smaller still, as its front lens got stronger

curvature, it got stronger distortion.  And unlike Canon type,

I didn’t put an Iris (hole in a black-tape) the image has more flair.

—– (for a sake of choice, I left this fuzziness as it is.)

I got quite few lenses which give me sharp image, so it’s nice to have other

choices of the lenses which could create fuzzy, painterly images from subtle

to utterly impressionists painting like one.  The beauty of this exercise is,

I don’t need to rely on the tool (so called program) somebody else has made.

My art has to be created by myself and for it, I don’t use a readymade template.

(of cause, I didn’t make 5D camera myself, still some time I do.)   Ha ha ha.

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