Japanese Koi and Russian Industar 61L/Z 50mm F/2.8 lens

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Koi is the Japanese word for carp fish. However in English the word Koi normally refers to ”nishikigoi” the domesticated colourful ornamental carp fish that originated from Japan. Nishikigoi (錦鯉) literally means brocaded carp fish.

Japanese koi or brocaded carp fish

This large aquarium illuminated with overhead spot-lights that enhance the metallic colour of the koi and add interesting sparkle to the ripple on the water surface. -- Camera: Olympus Pen E-P1, Lens: Zenit Industar 61L/Z 50mm F/2.8, set at F/5.6 and 1/250 second at ISO 800.

Koi fish is a very popular decorative fish especially in the Far East. To the Japanese Koi fish symbolises perseverance, endurance and the strength to overcome difficulties in life. The word Koi also pronounced the same as another Japanese word meaning love and friendship.

The Chinese character for fish is pronounced the same as the word for ‘surplus’ or ‘abundance’ and symbolises profit, gain and good fortune. Carp fish is a popular theme in Chinese paintings. Colourful or red carp fish in Chinese painting is considered an auspicious sign. It comes as no surprise why many homes and businesses in the Far East love to keep ornamental fish and especially the colourful Nishikigoi (錦鯉) fish in their premises.

Purachina Ogon or White Metallic Koi

Close-up of two white metallic Koi or Platinum Ogon together with other Nishikigoi. The white metallic skin colour make the white Koi easily spoted in this dark aqurium with cloudy water. -- Camera: Olympus Pen E-P1, Lens: Zenit Industar 61L/Z 50mm F/2.8 set at F/4, 1/125 seconds and ISO 800.

Koi or  Nishikigoi (錦鯉) fish is not a tropical fish and prefers cooler water temperatures. The water temperature here under direct sunlight can get too warm for Koi fish to live in. So most of the Koi ponds over here are either indoor or in a heavily shaded area so that the water temperature remains at a comfortable level to keep the Koi fish happy.

For photography the swift movements of the koi fish requires a shutter speed of 1/125 or above at close range. A wide aperture fast lens can help in the shaded darker condition of this large Koi aquarium where I photographed these Nishikigoi (錦鯉) fish. This series of photos were taken with a manual focus Zenit Industar 61L/Z 50mm F/2.8 lens mounted on my trusty Olympus Pen E-P1 via an M42 to Micro Four Third adapter.

lively and playful Nishikigoi or Japanese Koi fidh

Nishikigoi or Japanese Koi are lively and playful fish always actively swimming and moving around in all direction. -- Camera: Olympus Pen E-P1, Lens: Zenit Industar 61L/Z 50mm F/2.8 Lens set at F/4 and 1/30 seconds with ISO 800.

I wanted to include some movement blurs to express the swift movement and liveliness of this group of Koi fish. The shutter speed is intentionally dropped lower than 1/125 seconds in some shots. Thanks to the Image stabilisation of the Olympus Pen E-P1 camera I was able to get good images handheld at shutter speed as low as 1/30 second with the Industar 61L/Z 50mm F/2.8 lens

To photograph the Nishikigoi fish you need patience as they are unpredictable with their movements.  Using manual focus lens designed for 35mm film camera like the Zenit Industar 61L/Z on subjects with unpredictable movements was never easy. It requires practice, concentration, and anticipation on where the subject is likely to appear.  But once you got it all right and look at the fine results taken with manual focus lenses it always gives you a sense of achievement and control.

Colourful Nishikigoi or Japanese Koi

Colourful Nishikigoi or Japanese Koi scampering to the water surface expecting food from visitors. -- Camera: Olympus Pen E-P1, Lens; Zenit Industar 61L/Z 50mm F/2.8 set at F/4, 1/60 second and ISO 800.

The Zenit Industar 61L/Z 50mm F/2,8 Russian made lens is easy to manual focus and an enjoyable lens to use mounted on the Pen E-P1. I was pleasantly surprised with the results from this Industar 61L/Z which is a Russian copy of the legendary Zeiss Tessar lens.

The Zenit Industar 61L/Z 50mm F/2.8 is a sharp lens with strong contrast and good saturation. The Zeiss Tessar lens design is also well-known for its low chromatic aberration. The Industar 61L/Z with the aperture set at F/4 chromatic aberration is very well controlled. No noticeable CA was found with this series of images which were all taken at F/4.

 

Three Wise Monkeys

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I have some photos of Nikko Tosho-gu Shrine a UNESCO world heritage site located in Nikko, Japan. This is the shrine with the three Mizaru, Kikazaru, Iwazaru — the orignal Sanzaru wood carving on the top of the stable building. That is the wood carving of the  “see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil” monkeys – the famous Three Wise Monkeys. There are around eight panels with wood carving of monkeys in various pose around the stable building but these three monkeys are the most talked about and everybody knows them.

The photo of the three wise monkeys or sanzaru was taken almost 20 years ago during a one day tour to Nikko on a Saturday. The weather was really bad on that day. All traffic and tour buses going to the Nikko Toshogu Shrine were stopped by the traffic police for almost 2 hours due to heavy fogs and low visibility. When we arrived at the Nikko Toshogu shrine our tour leader was in a haste to make up for the lost time on the road. The weather was still misty and cloudy when we entered the shrine compound.

The see no evil, hear no evil and speak no evil monkeys

The original film scan images of the three wise monkey was dull, watercolour-liked and uninteresting.

So the photos of the three mystic apes were taken in a hurry as our tour leader was rushing everyone to get back on schedule. The condition of the wood carving was not helping as it was in dire of some restoration work as the paintwork was faded and washed out.

The camera used for the Three Wise Monkey photos was the Olympus OM-4Ti. The lens was the OM Zuiko 35-105mm F3.5-5.6 zoom lens set at the 105mm setting. The film was Fujichrome Provia 400X, exposure setting not recorded. The focus was slightly out, the misty atmosphere and the faded wood carving added to the poor quality images. I had tried many times to improve this image but just couldn’t seem to get it right .

Few days ago I suddenly got this idea to turn the three monkeys into a black and white photo to see how my sanzaru image will turn out. I tried the Gimps’  Black-and-White film simulation plug-in. This wonderful Gimp plug-in can simulate a wide range of popular black-and-white film emulsion with choices such as Kodak Tri-x, Agfapan 25, IIford FP4 and etc. The Photo below is the Kodak Tri-X version.

Monochrome image of the three wise monkeys

The photo of three wise monkeys is converted to black-and-white with the Kodak Tri-X look using the BW film simulation plug-in of the Gimp.

After the conversion to a Black-and-white image on a separate layer I experimented with blending the top Black-and-white layer with the colour layer below. I tried all the blending modes available on the Gimp editing software. When I set the top BW layer to value blending mode  I was surprised to get a better looking three wise monkeys without doing much editing on the original image.

The Sansaru or the three mystic apes of Nikko Toshogu shrine

This images of the Sanzaru or three wise monkey is created by blending the converted black-and-white images with the original film scan.

So I started working on this sanzaru image again with this new found technique. May be this method of blending a black-and-white image with a color original to enhance a film scan is not new to others but it is a first for me.

Here is one with three layers blending. The base layer is the original Three Wise Monkeys from the 35mm film scan. The middle layer I used the Gimp G’MIC Black-and-white conversion mode and blend with the value blending mode. The top layer is a duplicate of the bottom layer with the black point adjusted blend with multiply mode at 50% setting. I am quite happy to see the rather boring original image of the Three Wise Monkeys now looking better and closer to what I saw back then. The image also looks sharper even with no USM or sharpening applied.

See no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil" or "mizaru, kikzaru, Iwazaru" the sanzaru or the three wise monkeys

This is the final images of the Three Wise Monkeys of Nikko Toshogu Shrine blend in 3 layers on the Gimp . I am quit happy with this final result of this sanzaru photo.

Looking at some of my 35mm film scan images in my collection I really wished I had an Olympus Digital Pen camera or something similar 20 years ago. That is funny because just about 10 years ago I was saying to friends and myself that digital photography still had a long way to go before they can catch up with 35mm film images. Well, what can I say now? I supposed time has changed and the table is turned.

Panorama with Autostitch

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Panorama photo is nothing new to us. In fact we were making panorama shots since the film day. That was rather primitive back then.  What we did was we pan the camera as we took several photos of a scene each with a different angle. When the film is processed and printed we stack and line up the prints to form a panorama of the scene.

When 35mm film scanner became affordable we made a scan of the panorama images from our 35mm negative.  After that we stitched the panorama photos together from the scan images manually with a free software suit called Panorama Tools. The process was time consuming and slow but nevertheless we had fun and enjoyed taking and stitching panorama photos.

3 photos panorama stitch of the Pavilion Mall dragon

A 3 photos panorama stitch of the Pavilion dragon taken with the Olympus Pen Lite E-PL2. Camera set to A mode ISO 200 F/3.5 1/80s and the M.Zuiko 14-42mm F/3.5-5.6 II zoom is set at 14mm.

Today all modern digital cameras have built-in panorama mode and some of the cameras even stitch them in-camera. But we still enjoy doing it the old fashion way. We had tried many panorama stitching softwares over the years and many were free software. Some of the free panorama software actually stitched better than the panorama software that came bundled with the cameras. My old favourite was Panorama Tools but now I much prefer Hugin – Panorama photo stitcher  which is based on Panorama Tools with enhanced user friendly features.

However when I want to do some quick stitching for web use and for fun I usually use the demo version of Autostitch panorama stitching software. Even though this version of Autostitch is called the demo version but it works perfectly and is free for download from Autostitch website.  It actually stitch better and is easier to use than the Canon PhotoStitch that comes with our Canon PowerShot camera or the stitching mode of the bundle Olympus Viewer2 software or the Olympus IB software.

The Pavilion dragon stitch with Autostich

This is a 2 photos stitch of the Pavilion dragon stitch with Autostitch software. Camera is Olympus Pen Lite E-PL2 with M.Zuiko 14-42mm F/3.5-5.6 msc zoom lens set at 14mm F/3.5 ISO 200.

In the Olympus software you need to set the camera to panorama mode and follow the instructions exactly. If you missed out any step or did not set the camera to Panorama mode, Viewer2 either refused to stitch or stitched some photos that looked like a masterpiece from the great abstract art master.

That was what happened when my wife took some panorama shots of the 600 ft-long Pavilion dragon with her Olympus Pen Lite E-PL2. She missed out the directional step after setting the camera to Panorama Mode and two sets of photos were not set to panorama mode at all. The not so intelligent Olympus Viewer2 failed to stitch any of this set properly. However this was not a problem for the highly intelligent Autostitch panorama stitching software – it was able to stitch them without much problem.

You can change some settings on the option screen on Autostitch panorama software and after that it run unattended. The single page option screen is about all that you need to do on Autostitch before starting panorama stitching.

The Pavilion dragon Autostitch from 3 shots

Autostitch this Pavilion dragon from 3 shots taken with the Olympus Pen Lite E-PL2. Camera was set on panorama mode ISO 200 F/3.5 and the M.Zuiko 14-42mm F/3.5-5.6 II zoom is set at 14mm. The images is then completed with minor tweak on The GIMP image editor

The demo version of Autostitch panorama stitching software is available as Window software only. We managed to stitch all the panorama photos on this blog post with Autostitch running under WINE and in Ubuntu Linux. Autostitch is not only easy to use it is Wine and Linux friendly as well. The other two free panorama software that I mentioned above have both the Window and Linux version available on their website.

Viva Home Shopping Mall Dragon Year Decoration

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We were on the way home after one of our chinese new year visitings when my wife suggested dropping by Viva Home Shopping Mall.

Viva Mall, previously known as Plaza UE3, is situated along Jalan Loke Yew.  Despite Plaza UE3 Mall’s location on such a busy highway within the vicinity of Kuala Lumpur, for years this plaza had never really flourished as a shopping mall. Not many people knew about Plaza UE3 then and probably few could even remember such a shopping mall now.

Kha Seng Group took over Plaza UE3 a few years back and gave it a new makeover and re-branded it as Viva Home Shopping Mall. It was reopen on April 2011 after almost one year of renovation.  Our first visit to this “new”  Viva Home Mall was around May last year and had not stepped foot there since.

Today we decided to spend our afternoon at Home Shopping Mall .  As its name says, Viva Home Mall wants to re-brand itself as a one-stop shopping centre for the home owners with products ranging from household, kitchenware and utensils to furnishing, decorations, etc.  So, my wife was hoping to find some special or unique items for the home.

Viva Home dragon CNY decoration

The Golden dragon for 2012 Chinese New year decoration at the centre court of Viva Home Shopping Mall. -- Camera: Olympus Pen Lite E-PL2 14-42mm f/3.5-5.6. Lens: M.Zuiko digital 14-42mm F/3.5-5.6 II MSC standard zoom set at 14mm f/3.5 1/100s and ISO200.

Though she didn’t find the product offerings there any different or unique from other shopping centres, but instead she found a giant golden dragon in the centre court of Viva Home Shopping Mall. Of course there is no way this golden dragon can match the magnificent dragon of the Pavilion Kuala Lumpur in size. Nevertheless, they did create a sizeable dragon in the centre court for the 2012 dragon year celebration.

CNY dragon decoration at Viva Home Sopping Mall

Looking from a low angle near the front of the dragon the Viva Mall dragon is not bad looking. -- Camera : Olympus Pen Lite E-PL2. Lens: M.Zuiko digital 14-42mm f/3.5-5.6 ii MSC standard zoom set at 4mm f/5.6 1/80s ISO400.

The Chinese New Year theme for Viva Home Mall was “Imperial New Year”. The mall was lined with lighted artificial cherry blossom trees around the centre court and at the surrounding outside of the mall. The Centre court was also surrounded with many beams and pillars put up for decoration with little dragons that supposedly resemblance the imperial court pillars.

Viva Mall 2012 CNY dragon

The Viva Home Mall Chinese new Year dragon viewed from the top floor of the mall. -- Camera: Olympus Pen Lite E-PL2. Lens: M.Zuiko digital 14-42mm F/3.5-5.6 II Msc standard zoom set at 42mm f/5.6 1/100s ISO1250.

This happened to be an impromptu visit so I did  not bring my camera with me. However my wife was happily shooting away with her Pen Lite  E-PL2 with the M.Zuiko Digital 14-42mm F/3.5-5.6 zoom lens.  At least this golden dragon made up for not finding the household items she was looking for in coming to Viva Home Mall.