MY ELUCIDATION

Practice what I preach

Panorama of the Aurora Australis, both horizontally and vertically, using the equipment and panorama technique described below.

I have four folders of images that I took to create the above imagethe next morning, :

_D3S5635-_D3S5642 (8 images) took extras

_D3S5643-_D3S5648 (6 images) lost count and lost track

_D3S5649-_D3S5655 (7 images)

_D3S5656-_D3S5662 (7 images)

Initially, I processed them all together in Lightroom 5. Created a panorama that I was not satisfied with. I made a few attempts at it.

Then, I enlarged the Preview on my desktop of the images, which allowed me to assemble them in four folders.

I created individual panoramas for each folder.

Then I made a single merged panorama of the individual panoramas, in each folder.

The purpose was to achieve the usual horizontal panorama, but a panorama of the sky was necessary, so I also created a vertical panorama.

To take the photos, I made all of these incremental adjustments, using an LED head torch (LED head-mounted flashlight). I was guessing at the amount of overlap, to enable me to stitch the images together.

The image is 27 inches × 15 inches or 8,128 pixels × 4,633 pixels and was cropped from 8,335 pixels × 5,075 pixels.

Note: This photo was aired on WIN News channel 7, weather presentation, on 30 September 2024

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Raw image vs Processed image
or
Straight out of the camera versus processed

Whoever writes or says, “I do not use Photoshop, but only the camera settings”, they are actually fooling themselves and perhaps expressing a bit of pride in what great photographers they are, comparing themselves to someone who does use Photoshop or some other software to process and edit their images.  In fact, they are actually using the camera’s image processor to interpret what the subject should look like.  In other words, the camera is thinking for them based upon the camera manufacturer’s algorithms embedded in the image processor.  “Ah, this is what I think skin tone or what a landscape looks like, so that is the algorithm I will code into the image processor.”  Maybe the camera manufacture analyzed a million images to arrive at their formula.  That is their formula.  Not mine. Personally, I like to be in full control of my camera and image creation process, even if that means I need to do some touch-up in Photoshop or Lightroom that Nikon Capture NX2 cannot achieve or vice versa, as Nikon Capture NX2 excels at other processing and editing tools that no other software can.  As an example, I used Photoshop to add text to the images below.  But, neither Adobe produce has U-point technolgy nor can they accurately read Nikon’s Color Temperature.  For example, I set measured 5,070°K, but set 5,000°K, in the camera’s menu.  Nikon Capture NX2 interprets this as 5,003°K and Tint as, –0.02, but Adobe Photoshop and Lightroom interprets the camera setting as –4,850°K and Tint as –3.  Huge difference.  Pick your software, wisely.  I have discovered over 17 years, or more, that no single software is perfect or fit-for-purpose.

In the images and explanations below, I will give my readers insights into how an image is created in the camera, either as a .NEF (raw format), .TIFF, or .JPG (fine), but not Basic or Normal.  Of course, as a starting point, it is imperative to get the color and the exposure correct.  Refer to this page to understand more about Color Management.

Nikon D3S TEST-NEF-TIF-JPG

Further to my previous post, I made a test taking four photos, demostrate the qualitative differences between the various formats:

Nikon D3S with Nikon AF Nikkor 50mm 1:1.4D lens

Color Temperature 5,100°K measured and set 5,130°K

ISO200, 1/500sec, f/11.0

Photo _D3S5536.NEF

25,323,456 bytes

EXIF contains:

423,526 Characters with spaces

252 Paragraphs

6,061 Lines

122 Pages

Note: Standard Picture Control was set applies to only .TIF and .JPG and it does not affect the .NEF image

Photo _D3S5537.TIF

37,199,424 bytes

EXIF contains:

3,431,416 Characters with spaces

240 Paragraphs

48,150 Lines

964 Pages

Photo _D3S5538.JPG (Quality: Fine)

4,193,610 bytes

EXIF contains:

150,666 Characters with spaces

232 Paragraphs

2,213 Lines

45 Pages

The .NEF (raw) image colors seems to be more accurate, but the .TIF and .JPG, take a look at the red patch and compare to the .NEF

I decided to set L1.0 ISO100 for _D3S5539, but found setting 1/250sec and f/11.0 rendered similar results as _D3S5536.NEF

When I simply converted the image _D3S5536.NEF to _D3S5536.TIF, without making any adjustments, the size climbs to:

72,532,229 bytes, as compared to 37,199,424 bytes for the .TIF generated by the camera.

58,183 Characters with spaces

232 Paragraphs

909 Lines

19 Pages

When I simply converted the image _D3S5536.NEF to _D3S5536.JPG or from _D3S5536.TIF, without making any adjustments, the size climbs to:

6,494,650 bytes as compared to 4,193,610 bytes

55,987 Characters with spaces

218 Paragraphs

873 Lines

18 Pages

I believe this information quantifies the advantage of photographing in raw format, then processing and converting the image to .TIF and/or .JPG

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From the above comparison of images you can see that it is entirely possible to create an image straight out of the camera, however insipid, if all the basic settings are correct. But, it does not represent what I actually saw. I capture images with my Nikon D3, D3S, D3X or Hasselblad 503CWD in their native raw format file. I will limit this discussion to my Nikon D3S and Nikon Electronic Format (.NEF). The camera sensor merely captures light, shadow and color and converts it to digitized data. The .NEF file has a small 8-bit .JPEG embedded for the screen and preview for photo processing/editing software. The monitor on the back of the Nikon D3S is 7.5cm or 3 inches and 921,000 dots Video Graphics Array (VGA), low temperature polysilicon, backlit Thin Film Transistor Liquid Crystal Display (TFT LCD). Use the image as a guide, only.

For the upper set of images, the .NEF image on the left, I used a Nikon ED IF AF-S Nikkor 300.0 mm 1:4.0D. With that camera lens combination, I used f/5.6, 1/320sec, ISO160, and Nikon Adobe RGB Color Space. Color Temperature was set for a previous subject and not reset, but I was able to adjust it using Nikon capture NX2 software. If I was a lazy photographer and simply shoot .JPEG images, there would not much I could do to correct the color, especially the sky. Notice the clouds look a bit purplish.

For the lower set of images, the .NEF image on the left, I used a Nikon ED IF AF-S Nikkor 300.0 mm 1:4.0D with a Nikon TC 14E II, which gave me 420mm of focal length. With that combination, I used f/11.0, 1/2,000sec, ISO800, and Nikon Adobe RGB Color Space. Color Temperature of 5,000°K. Long ago, Nikon advised that I simply set Standard Picture Control, which has no effect on the .NEF image, only the .TIFF or .JPEG images.  You will note the raw (.NEF) image is a bit flat, low contrast and ill defined as if viewed through a haze or light fog. But, don’t be fooled all of the data is there, to about 1EV in highlights and about 2EV can be recovered in shadows..

.NEF stores the in-camera preview and thumbnail .JPEG under the tag named PreviewImage in the TIFF/EP tag (0x9216). While this section of the metadata supports a true thumbnail image, Nikon cameras do not specifically create a ThumbnailImage. Instead, they use the PreviewImage location to store a small image which is commonly brought up as a thumbnail. They also store a much larger image in the JpgFromRaw tag (also in the TIFF/EP tag section). This image is a full sized image.  I have noticed that when I convert the .NEF image to a .TIFF using Nikon Capture NX2, there will be a second smaller image saved with sRGB IEC61966-2.1 Color Space.

The JPEG format has 256 levels of brightness per RGB channel, i.e. 256 Red, 256 Green, and 256 Blue. For each pixel in your image, the tonal value or brightness of the subject you are photographing is stored in the image file on your memory card, along with the color. According to Nikon, “the extra data provides more latitude for post-processing making a richer expression of tones possible and ultimately will provide superior quality output. 14-bit technology gives up to 16,384 possible levels of brightness. Increased bit rate does not result in more pixels or a wider range of colours, but rather more accurate precision on each pixel.”

JPEG files have a flexible, yet invasive compression algorithm that is responsible for their drastically smaller file size, as compared to either .NEF or .TIFF images. This compression algorithm compromises information for size. The small file size of .JPEG images are easier on the storage resources. And, when you save them with sRGB Color Space and Perceptual Intent they would be ideally suited to be displayed them on social media.

.NEF image files store upwards of 68.7 billion colors as compared to JPEG, which only stores 16 million colors. We need more colors to accurately depict a natural scene, since nature is generally less monotone and richer in shades and hues.

These additional levels of brightness retained in .NEF images are very useful when shooting a scene that has many variations of the same color, such as a sunset or a sunrise. Lack of brightness levels 16,384 versus 256 means more artifacts in the images and less of a smooth output, in .JPEG images.

Dynamic Range should steer a photographer toward using .NEF instead of .JPEG format. A camera that is capable of a higher dynamic range is closer to the human eye, as our eyes naturally have a high dynamic range.

.NEF image files process without any compression, meaning the user has full control over every aspect of the image, but lacks that level of control over images created in-camera as .JPEG image.  For example, if you rely on Auto White Balance or your method of achieving White balance was not correct, you will be hard pressed to correct colors in a .JPEG or .TIFF image. The .NEF image Color Temperature and Tint can be changed to a measured Color Temperature, if you forgot to set it in camera or your preference for artistic interpretation, by comparison.

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The science of art

Creating a Panorama Photo

Below is a step-by-step explanation of how I created the panorama. My very best advice is to ignore Adobe’s “Community Experts” because it is all hard to understand waffle.

This panorama was created using Adobe Lightroom 5 and Photoshop CS5. I would have preferred processing the .NEF images that came straight out of the Nikon D3s camera using Nikon’s Capture NX 2.4.7, but I found the sky in the rendered panorama had multiple and regularly spaced vertical darken areas, due to vignetting. So, I processed the thirteen images using Lightroom 5, initially, only selecting the Camera Calibration, Enable Profile Correction, Remove Chromatic Aberration, Match Total Exposures, then Exported  to a Folder as .TIFs with Nikon Adobe RGB Color Space as a 16-bit .TIF image. That was step one. Next, I imported all .TIFF files, _D3S5382 through 5401, excluding _D3S5391 to Adobe Photoshop CS5. Step two. Then, selected Files > Automate > Merge and pressed (Enter) Return, which brought up the Photomerge table. Then, I selected under Layout select Cylindrical, and Blend Images Together and Vignette Removal and pressed (Enter).  Depending upon the number of images, their size, the amount of Memory, et cetera, it could take awhile. I tend to use the Nikon D3S 12 megapixel camera, versus the higher resolution Nikon D3X 24 megapixel camera, for this reason. The next logical step in the panorama creation is to select Layer > Flatten Image, then go to File > Save As and pressed (Enter). Next the Save As window appears and I simly named the .TIF as _D3S5382-5401 and pressed the Save button in blue. TIF Options panel appears and I merely pressed OK.

Below, the bowtie rendering of the panorama is elongated and distorted, without adding any correction after the images to create the panorama have been selected, which is not optimal. Leaving the Layout selection in Auto will do that. Don’t let Adobe think for you.

Manfrotto components: Manfrotto 161MK 2B heavy duty, studio tripod Manfrotto 400 Geared Head (perfect for Astrophotography, Macrophotography, or any genre that minute adjustments are required) Manfrotto 438 Ball Levelling Head, in lieu of the Manfrotto 338 (to assure level of the tripod head or camera mount) Manfrotto 300N Panoramic Head Manfrotto 303Plus Virtual Reality Head (allowing Fore/Aft adjustment and Left/Right adjustment) Manfrotto 625 Hex Plate Adapter Manfrotto 340 L-Bracket

This tripod and panorama rig was acquired piece-by-piece over years, the more sophisticated my knowledge and experience became for taking panoramic photos. Fortunately, a Manfrotto 303Plus VR Head in very nice condition, though missing a set-screw was given to me by fellow photographer David Dyson who specialized in creating panoramic photos.

Let’s get to creating a panorama photograph

The word “panorama” is derived from the Greek words pân (= everything) and hòrama (= to see, that which is seen, the appearance, the view), and thus stands for the all-around view.

The first panoramas became known, in 1787, when an Irishman named, Robert Barker, patented his plans for a cylindrical building that was to be erected around a large, panoramic painting. The building served the exclusive purpose of allowing the cylindrical painting to be created and displayed, subsequently. The special painting technique, produced a new experience for the viewer, who stood on a platform in the center of the circular room. It gave the viewer the illusion of a real scene.

Barker erected his first permanent circular panorama building (or “rotunda”) in Leicester Square in London, in 1792.

When researching panorama photography, you will encounter various terminology each trying to express a concept, such as Nodal Point, Entrance Pupil, Point of Convergence, and No Parallax Point.

I am not a lens manufacturer. Though, I have designed my own sunglasses, that I wore for many years, when I was an airline pilot.

To separate some of the misinformation, the Nodal Point of the lens can be considered as the point at which the rays entering the lens converge. A lens has a Front Nodal Point as well as a Rear Nodal Point and in a simple lens the two nodes converge to a single point. Imagine a beam of light produced from a laser that arrives at the front of the lens enters the first nodal point, then emerges from the rear of the lens along a line that starts at the second nodal point and is parallel to the line along which the beam of light arrives. The locations of the nodal points of the lens are not involved in the matter of the elimination of parallax error by the use of the proper pivot point.

In the above diagram, two Nodal Points are clearly visible and can be separated from the “Entrance Pupil” or No-Parallax Point quite far. The distance between the two nodal points is sometimes called the “hiatus distance” of the lens.

The No Parallax Point, the correct nomenclature, is the ideal point to rotate your lens around to eliminate parallax, when taking images to ‘stitch’ together to produce panoramic images.

It can be argued that if your panoramas are of features tens or hundreds of metres from the camera, such as a landscape panorama, then you will not need to give too much thought to this point. That may be true for using super-telephoto lenses, but generally, I disagree. Be sure to pay attention to the foreground.

Parallax aberrations will likely appear in the bottom ½ to ? of the image of your subject that is relatively close to the camera, which will be the effect of not rotating the camera lens around the No-Parallax Point.

With most lenses, there is one special point around which you can rotate your camera and get no parallax. This point is the virtual aperture within the lens. The no-parallax point is also the “center of perspective”, but this term is not commonly used and does not describe why the no-parallax point is important.

Your images may show parallax, that is the foreground and background objects do not line up perfectly in overlapping region. Images with large parallax will be difficult or impossible to stitch or assemble together in a panorama, in Photoshop. For a “Pano Head” with lens axis correctly positioned above the rotator, use two vertical reference points with one far behind the other. Turn on Live View mode. Use grid and magnified view for greater accuracy. Position tripod so the two reference points would line up at image center.

The No-Parallax Point Components:

The Manfrotto components from the bottom to top:

• Manfrotto 161MK 2B heavy duty, studio tripod (or other that provided stability)
• Manfrotto 400 Geared Head (perfect for Astrophotography, Macrophotography, or any genre that minute adjustments are required)
• Manfrotto 438 Ball Leveling Head, in lieu of the Manfrotto 338 (to assure level of the tripod head or camera mount)
• Manfrotto 300N Panoramic Head
• Manfrotto 303Plus VR Head (allowing Fore/Aft adjustment and Left/Right adjustment)
• Manfrotto 625 Hex Plate Adapter
• Manfrotto 340 L-Bracket (designed for 35mm camera bodies, but works well for Nikon D3, D3x, and D3s)
• Camera
• Lens of your choice
• Remote Shutter Release
• GPS with Remote Shutter Release (optional)

So, what the heck does all of this do? It is for taking panorama photos in increments, depending upon focal length and allowing sufficient overlap to stitch the photos in Adobe Photoshop or your preferred panorama software with minimal loss of sky and foreground.

Using a camera handheld to take a series of photos to create a panorama, is not ideal. When stitching, the photos are typically ragged or stair stepped, at the top and bottom, which requires significant cropping and concomitant loss of foreground and background of the scene.

But, another important aspect of the above panoramic photography drilling rig is for lenses of shorter focal length of less than about 105mm. I can adjust the Left-Right position to place the pupil (aperture) right over the center of the tripod vertical center axis and then adjust the Fore and Aft position of the lens to minimize parallax or reach the no-parallax-point.

Each focal length lens I intend to use for creating a panorama needs to be tested and set up in advance to determine the no-parallax-point, before you cart this out to the field.

I have done this for several lenses and took notes, so I can replicate the set-up in the field.

For example, these are the settings of the various lenses I have tested, focused at infinity:

Nikon 50mm f/1.4D lens is at 94.5 fore/aft adjustment and 87.5 Left/Right adjustment.

Nikon Noct-Nikkor 58mm f/1.2 AiS at 80.5 fore/aft adjustment and 85.5 Left/Right Adjustment.

Nikon AF Micro-Nikkor 60mm 1:2.8D lens at 67.5 Aft on the fore/aft adjustment arm and 85.55 on the Left/Right adjustment arm.

Nikon 85mm f/1.4D lens is set at 116.5 Fore/Aft adjustment and 84.5 Left/Right Adjustment.

Note: I have done panoramas, using a Nikon 500mm f/4.0P lens, in the past. To give you an idea of what is possible.

Setting those lenses at those slider or rail system Latitude/Longitude (if you will) establishes the no-parallax-point for those two lenses, and is repeatable, in the field.

So let’s get to the process of using the Manfrotto system to take a series of photos to create a panorama.

• Make sure the tripod is level.
• Make sure the tripod head is level.
• Make sure the rail system is level.
• Make sure the camera and lens is level three dimensionally.

Level is the starting point.

I use a small carpentry level on the front of the lens hood and on the rail system.

Interestingly, regardless how careful I set everything up, the Manfrotto tripod bubble level maybe centered, and the Manfrotto 400 Geared Head’s bubble level is centered, but the Manfrotto 438 needs to be levelled. When that is achieved, the bubble level on the Manfrotto 625 Adapter will be slightly off. Which level is correct? I do not know. I never knew a Bubble Level could be manufactured or installed incorrectly, at the factory level. It is possible.

Follow these steps:

1) Set tripod on a level surface.

2) Level tripod head, with built-in spirit level or small carpentry spirit level.

3) Pick a distant vertical object, like a telephone or utility pole that will allow you to set ?, though some advice suggests to focus at Hyperfocal Distance of the lens . . . How perfect do you want to be?

4) Pick a nearer vertical object, to align, in front of distant vertical object.

5) Move tripod into position with the front leg and front of tripod head oriented toward the two vertical objects.

6) Mount Manfrotto 303PLUS VR Kit onto the tripod head with the fore/aft adjustment arm oriented from front to rear of tripod and tripod head.

7) The left/right adjustment arm will obviously be 90° to the fore/aft adjustment arm.

8) Mount the Manfrotto 340 “L” Bracket to the Nikon D3/D3x/D3s camera in portrait orientation, with the base of the camera to your right. (The Manfrotto 340 “L” Bracket does accept modern larger body DSLR cameras, contrary to some advice you may read.)

9) Check and re-adjust level of the Manfrotto 303PLUS VR Kit, if necessary.

10) Using a small carpenter square, adjust the camera left/right, so the aperture is centered over the longitudinal center of the fore/aft adjustment arm. (I drew a line down the center)

11) Set the lens barrel midpoint to over the approximate center of the tripod head’s mounting screw, with the body of the camera aft of the tripod head, as an initial, rough setting.

The center of the lens needs to be in the center of the panning tool. To find it, set the Lens Aperture to f/11.0 or f/16.0 and view the lens from the front. Move the Left-Right slider until the center of the lens, aligns with the center of the Fore-Aft slider centerline. If you choose to use a zoom lens, be careful not to change the focal length. This technique I describe is for a fixed-focal length lens, but could apply to a zoom lens, equally.

Next adjust the camera and lens on the Fore-Aft slider. Place the approximate center of the lens barrel just over the center of the tripod’s mounting screw, as a starting point.

12) Switch the camera On

13) Activate Live View

Note: There is a utility pole aligned behind the window center frame.

14) Carefully adjust the tripod assembly front leg and aft legs as required to render the distant vertical object and nearer vertical object to align in the center of the camera’s centered square Focus Point and magnify it. Initially, the test targets should line up perfectly while your camera is pointed straight ahead.

15) Rotate the tripod head or Manfrotto 300N Panorama Head, slowly left. The vertical subjects will move to the right of the frame but should remain aligned is there is No Parallax.

Loosen the lock on the panning clamp and swing the rig left and right noting the alignment of the targets. Adjust the slide forwards and backwards with trial and error to eliminate parallax by experimentation.

16) If the distant vertical object moves left, then the camera and lens need to move forward a small adjustment at a time and Step 15 repeated as many times as necessary to correct it.

17) Unlock the 303PLUS Base, using small controls on the left side of the mount.

18) Use knurled knob to adjust the fore/aft position forward.

19) If the distant vertical object moves right, then the camera and lens need to move further aft repeating step 17).

20) Use knurled knob to adjust the fore/aft position aft.

Once you have the “entrance pupil” or No-Parallax Point of the lens positioned properly over the center of rotation of the Pano Head, the foreground and background objects will remain stationary relative to one another in your viewfinder as you pan the camera.

21) Record your results so that your setup can be re-created.

22) When you are ready to take the individual photos, it would be wise to check level between each shot taken. Also, allow about 33% or ? of your frame to overlap between photos.

23) Do not change exposure . . . Verify Camera settings between each shot, that nothing has changed.

Note: Nikon AF Micro-Nikkor 60mm 1:2.8D lens at ?, attached to Nikon D3s Body was used to test this thesis. No-Parallax-Point was located at 67.5 Aft on the fore/aft adjustment arm and 85.55 on the left/right adjustment arm. The No-Parallax-Point was located 3.75 inches (95.25mm) from the Focal (Sensor) Plane position indicator.

At home, you could place a couple of long dowels or rods or iron fence stakes in front of the lens. Place one target very near and the other about a meter farther away. The rear target is a little higher up in order to see both in the viewfinder.

This setup technique can be used for medium format and 35mm film cameras as well, with a few variations to my technique.

I use two different software to process the raw images and then stitch them together . . . Lightroom and Photoshop.

I use Lightroom to process the raw images and match total exposures and Photoshop to stitch the individual images together. Of course, it can all be done with Photoshop. It is just my workflow.

After all raw images to be stitched together have been processed, with the camera profile and lens profile applied, exposures matched, spots removed as Sync’ed files, in Lightroom, and saved as .TIF files, they can be brought over to Photoshop. I suppose the same can be done in Photoshop, but I am more comfortable with the Lightroom, then Photoshop workflow.

In Photoshop, go to Files, then down to Automate, then across to Photomerge and select. A window will pop up. Add all Open Files. Layout select Cylindrical and OK. The photos will begin assemble and various steps are completed behind the scene. Then, select Layer and Flatten Image. Name the file and Save the .TIF panoramic image, with Adobe RGB Color Space and 16-bits/Channel. Trim to suite. That image could be taken to the Printing shop. They would be able to guide you what would be the best size for printing.

And, as Sean Connery said, in the movie, ‘The Untouchables’, “Here endeth the lesson”.

Note: I can offer anyone interested a PDF of the above information for $20 Australian.

Optionally, I could use my Manfrotto 190D tripod, but I do not think it will be as stable, when the legs are full extended, especially when it is windy. And, what is the point of taking a blurry photo due to tripod movement or vibration?

Lastly, more than any other tripod, and I have had more than a few, Manfrotto is my favorite.

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Quoting Forrest Gump, “Stupid is as stupid does.”

Throwing litter into our drinking water supply, do you realise that you are ultimately poisoning yourself, your family, yours friends, your pets, livestock, and our wildlife?

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Film is not dead and here is why

Explanation how to do it, below these photos-

This project to digitize a roll of 36 Kodak Ektar ISO100 35mm film was not as easy as I thought it would be.

HOW TO:

Firstly, the working space was crowded and temporary dual purpose. I would love to have a dedicated room where I could leave all of my photo gear set up, permanently and a nice darkroom. I need to win the lottery.

Secondly, I had no real experience, except laying a film strip onto a generic flatbed scanner used to scan magazine or A4 documents, though that was mostly glass plate negatives or medium format monochrome negatives. But, the quality and size is not as good as doing it the way I did it using the following method.

A proper and dedicated film scanner would cost a minimum of $1,500.

I already had my Nikon D3s and Nikon PB-4 Bellows and everything in the equipment list below on hand. So, the only additional pieces of equipment I acquired were a Nikon PS-4 Slide Copier for $169.81 and a mint condition set of Nikon Extension Tubes PK-13, PK-12, and PK-11A for $138.28 . . . So, for $308.09 I could get the job done. So, I saved nearly $1,200 for decent results.

The equipment I used:

• Nikon D3s actuated by Nikon Camera Control Pro 2 and set to L1.0 or ISO100, f/16.0 (both on the lens and in the Non-CPU lens setup), and 1/250sec, with 4,870°K Color Temperature that was measured
• Nikon PK-12 Extension Tube which gives 14mm spacing between the Nikon PB-4 Bellows and the large Nikon D3s camera body. Note, this will work with the Nikon PB-5 and Nikon PB-6 Bellows, as well. Originally, I used the Nikon PK-13, which gives 27.5mm spacing and also enables a lens to focus closer than its normal set minimum focusing distance, but then, you need to offset that with adjustment of the Nikon PB-4.
• Nikon PB-4 Bellows, though the PB-5 or PB-6 will work equally as well. Originally, I purchased the PB-5, many years ago, but found the two rail system not sufficiently sturdy, so I added a threaded steel plate to the base. The advantage the PB-4 has is that it allows Tilt & Shift. The PB-5 and PB-6 do not. The PB-6 while nicely designed and the latest version, does not have the Tilt Shift feature -and that was just dumb not to build that into it. But, even worse it costs almost twice as much. So, you can understand that before I purchase a piece of photographic equipment, I do my homework.
• Nikon Manual Focus Micro-Nikkor 105mm 1:2.8AiS lens, though I have an Auto Focus, but the Auto Focus feature is useless attached to a Bellows and the Manual Focus seems firmer when setting focus and has a small set screw to be sure focus does not change. Originally, I used the Auto Focus lens, but swapped them. And, in the process, I discovered my Nikon Micro-Nikkor 55mm 1:2.8AiS lens had a stuck aperture, because I believed I would use that . . . but, it had to be repaired, first. When I received the lens in the mail, good as new, I found I could not use it, as described in the Instruction Manual for the PB-4. Regardless, I could not leave the lens as is.
• Nikon SU-800 Commander, used as a trigger for the Flash
• Nikon SB-800 Speedlight Flash set to Remote and 12 inches or 30.48cm from the backside of the Nikon PS-4 Opaque glass.
• Manfrotto 190D tripod with #029 Mk2 head
• Nikon EH-6 AC Power Adapter
• Spare camera battery and CR123A for Commander

The process:

• Set up the aforementioned equipment
• Set in camera or via Nikon Camera Control Pro 2 the following:
  1.  4,870°K Color Temperature that was actually measured
  2.  L1.0 or ISO100
  3.  f/16.0 (both on the lens and in the Non-CPU lens setup -in camera)
  4.  1/250sec
  5.  .NEF (raw image file)
  6.  Picture Control Neutral

• • Create a focusing target on a piece of white paper, with will need to be trimmed to fit. I used a blank section of 35mm film negative strip and drew 4 lines to make a rectangular box and the small square film winder holes on the top and bottom, then superimposed an “X” and a “+” in the center. Then, insert the target where the film goes.
  • Using Live View in Nikon Camera Control Pro 2 or using Live View on the back of the camera adjust focus until sharp, with no green or magenta halo on either side of the lines of in on your focus target. Or, you may try to eyeball it. Too damn imprecise!
  • While in Live View, loosen the set screw on the back of the Nikon PS4, adjust the Opaque window up/down, left/right until centered. This is a very important step.
  • Nikon Camera Control Pro 2 needs to be set up in Tools and location of photo files and sequence number.
  • Take a Test Shot of the Target and then after the film strip has been inserted and carefully, very carefully centered and aligned, which seems to consume the most amount of time, take a Test Shot. I will almost guarantee the film strip will need to be adjusted again and again. Only discovered after you have taken a shot and viewed at 100% magnification.
  • The photo can be opened in Adobe Photoshop (CS5, for me) and that is what I initially used, but I found the colors were off and a tint or hue applied . . . But, I found Nikon Capture NX2 (version 2.4.7) the most reliable and least fuss.
  • Open the .NEF after it slowly loads to the hard drive in Nikon Capture NX2 (version 2.4.7)
  • Open Camera Settings from Edit List right column
  • Note Camera WB and Color Temp. (5000K), B1, 0 or 4,870°K
  • Go down to Fine Adjustment move it to the left 2,500
  • Note Picture Control NL Neutral
  • Note Advanced and Sharpness is set at 2 or 0, sometime Sharpness adds color/tint/hue, as it seems to in Photoshop.
  • Scroll down to Quick Fix
  • Create a New Step
  • Select Adjustment
  • Hover over Light
  • Select Levels & Curves
  • On the lower left of the Histogram just inside the ? right index and on the borderline, grab the line and drag it to the top left . . . This may two or three very frustrating attempts, which is why I initially used Adobe Photoshop. The reason it is so finicky is the Histogram is not large enough.
  • Then go to the top right of the Histogram and drag it to the bottom right.
  • Create a New Step
  • Select Adjustment
  • Hover over Light
  • Select Auto Levels (similar to Auto Tone in Photoshop)
  • Select Auto and click on the bar to expose Advanced, which reveals Correct Contrast and Correct Color Cast
  • My personal preference was to adjust Correct Color Cast to 75%
  • Go to the bottom of the column of adjustment possibilities to find the Color Histogram.
  • Select or Check Double Threshold
  • Move the Shadows index to the right, until black speckles appear in the photo, not the margin. Use the Black Control Point Tool to select the center of the largest black speckle.
  • Move the Highlights index to the left, until white speckles appear in the photo, not the margin. Use the White Control Point Tool to select the center of the largest white speckle.
  • Note: you may have to move the Shadows index to the left and the Highlights Index to the right, to minimize the largeness of the Black and the White speckles that become patches.
  • The purpose of that above step adjusts the Mid-tone Contrast, nicely.

That will render a usable positive image, as in the above, but you can fine tune adjustments from here, based upon your (tricky) memory of the subject.

The final steps would be to trim the edges and crop as desired.

The colors are very natural and sharpness is acceptable, leaving it set at 2.

Others may like to add to this Knowledge Base, if they have a different experience or better method.

I have been working on this project for a couple months and thinking about my options before that. I enjoy taking photographs with film, still. But, it has become such an expensive pain in the ass to develop them and get clean results, with High Definition .TIF images, without spending at least $100 per roll sending it to the corner camera store which produces “Home-style Cooking”, code for spots, dust, scratched negatives and otherwise complete bullshit. A professional commercial lab is interstate, takes such a long time that by the time I receive the film, photos, and .TIFs, I have forgotten the details or where I put my notes. AND, costs at least $100.

Should there be any wonder why the film industry has been flushed down the toilet by the expedience of taking your most precious photos using a smartphone camera.

Let me state that if you do not make backups of your backups, then electronic files on a hard drive can be lost in less time than it took me to write this. AND, recently, I lost 50,000 images and at least as many documents on my backup External Hard Drive.

So, all the smartphone freaks with clever photo editing Apps go ahead and capture your most precious moments in life using that phone, baby photos, graduation photos, your first car, wedding photos, and whatever else worthy of a photograph and I guarantee at some point in the future they will just be gone. Shit happens in life.

Film is virtually indestructible. BUT, we destroyed the industry because we want immediate results to post to instagram and facebrag proving we are living life to the max or we are more clever than anybody else.

I lost 50,000 images and at least as many documents, camera and photographic equipment manuals, car repair manuals, all of the articles I have had published and earn money for, photo of models, tax files, immigration files, photos of my wife, ancestry and family tree information, the WHOLE LOT!

Cannot delete film.

***

News you can use

Raw versus Processed Image

Nikon Capture NX2 (2.4.7)

I exposed for the rose, thus the background appears under-exposed and the overall photo appears drab. The Raw Image needs to be processed to bring out the love. The Raw (uncooked) Image Data File (Nikon Electronic Format or .NEF) appears drab because I set in-camera minimal Sharpness, neutral Contrast, Brightness, Saturation, and Hue.  The tonal range in the .NEF means the details in the darkest shadows or brightest highlights is captured, because the RAW photo retains all of this detail, should basic exposure principles be applied. If I exposed the photo for the darkest areas, then the highlights of the rose petals would have been well and truly over-exposed and minimal if any detail would have been captured.  So, I exposed for the brilliance of the rose and compromised only a little to bring out some of the detail and color of the background.  What you would see on the camera’s LCD screen is actually an embedded .jpeg preview or reference image, which looks crisper than the Raw Image.  Processing the .NEF, brings out all of the details captured, as is evidenced by the image on the right.

***

You get what you pay for does not always apply

I have tried an expensive carbon fiber tripod with a ball head and others. A tripod is an essential photographic accessory for any photographer who takes their photography seriously, especially for one who uses telephoto or macro lenses. It stabilizes the camera, replaces a wobbly photographer, and frees the photographer’s hands. But, I never found one tripod that was sturdy enough and was compatible with any task.  There are many photographers who think a Vibration Reduction lens replaces a tripod, but a VR lens cannot be used for every situation that a tripod can be, except where prohibited by local rules and regulations.  Until I bought this tripod, I was never satisfied:

Many years ago, I bought a pre-owned basic Manfrotto 190D tripod, with its #029 MK2 head, as I was walking past and I saw it in the window of a used camping and hiking gear store, in downtown Hobart. I paid $99 for it and there was no room for negotiating. I have never regretted buying this tripod. The head was frozen in place, but I disassembled it, cleaned it up, polished the internal surfaces with 000 grit sand paper and fine steel wool and applied a light lubricant, then reassembled it. It looks and works like new. I would not trade it for any other tripod on the market. “You get what you pay for” does not always apply.

***

Another Australia Day has come and gone

Australia Day is January 26th, a day we should celebrate being Australian and be united as one people, regardless of race, religion or creed.  I am proud to be an Australian citizen.

Personally, I am weary of a vocal minority with a political agenda constantly ramming it down our throats, that January 26th is “Invasion Day”. Colonisation was not an invasion, like D-Day. There was no naval bombardment, no soldiers storming the beachhead with fixed bayonets, not a single shot fired, as the settlers rowed ashore and stepped onto dry land after an arduous voyage of 15,000 miles from Portsmouth, to Rio de Janeiro, Portuguese Brazil, then on to Cape Town, South Africa to replenish food supplies. Then, finally to Port Jackson. About 48 died en route. Many who survived did not want to be here. The 700 convicts were given no choice.

It is quite possible the First Nations People who claim to have inhabited Australia for more than 50,000 years and Tasmania for less, were actually colonisers and invaders, themselves. And, probably the second arrivals who displaced and interbred with the first who arrived.  Shock and gasp!

In Warrnambool, southwest Victoria, there is the Moyjil archaeological site and suspected shell midden and stone hearth with blackend rocks dating back 120,000 years. The Moyjil archaeological site has long been of interest to scientists, and has been the subject of a study by Professor McNiven, Deakin University’s Dr John Sherwood, Federation University’s Dr Stephen Carey, and Dr Bowler, who is a professorial fellow with the University of Melbourne. Geologist Jim Bowler, known for his work at Lake Mungo, believes Moyjil may be one of the most significant archaeological sites in Australia. But they are afraid to state for a fact there has been human occupation for 120,000 years, because it would offend many and goes against conventional wisdom.  Professor McNiven said, “It’s a huge responsibility because if it is a human site … that is a game-changer in terms of our understanding of the human history of Australia and in terms of the whole out-of-Africa theory of modern human origins and the spread of modern humans across the globe”. According to National Geographic, “Herto man” of Herto Bouri, Ethiopia is the location of the 160,000-year-old Herto man fossil. Herto man is thought by many scientists to be the oldest fully recognisable, modern human ever found.  It is proof that modern humans (Homo sapiens) lived in Africa at least 160,000 years ago. And, they seem to have stayed there for a long time. Though it is unclear when some modern humans first left Africa, evidence shows that these modern humans did not leave Africa until between 60,000 and 90,000 years ago. This is an argument almost complex as, “Are we alone in the universe?”  There is a helluva lot of coincidntal evidence we are not alone, but we have not received even the most cryptic “Hello” from alien life.  What would you think if someone told you they saw a UFO land in a paddock?  Would the scientists investigating the Moyjil archaeological site be treated with equal skepticism and ridicule if they declared the site has been occupied for the past 125,000 years?

According to Australian Museum, modern humans had reached Asia by 70,000 years ago before moving down through South-east Asia and into Australia. However, Homo sapiens were not the first people to inhabit this region. There has always been an ocean separating Asia and Australia. At times this distance was reduced, but the earliest travellers still had to navigate across large stretches of water.

For much of its history Australia was joined to New Guinea, forming a landmass called Sahul. These countries were finally separated by rising sea levels about 8,000 years ago. Genetic evidence supports the close ties between these two countries – the Indigenous peoples from these regions are more closely related to each other than to anyone else in the world, suggesting a recent common ancestry.

The earliest dates for human occupation of Australia come from sites in the Northern Territory. The Madjedbebe (previously called Malakunanja II) rock shelter in Arnhem Land has a widely accepted date of about 50,000 years old. Reports of a date close to around 65,000 years old (Nature, 2017), which was contentious at the time, have been rebutted by Allen & O’Connell in 2020. Molecular clock estimates, genetic studies and archaeological data all suggest the initial colonisation of Sahul and Australia by modern humans occurred around 48,000–50,000 years ago.

https://library.museum.wa.gov.au/attachments/83930/arco.5207.pdf

https://www.publish.csiro.au/rs/issue/9309/

It might make the whole colonisation or “Invasion Day” argument mute, especially if it turns out the First Nations People “invaded” Australia long before Europeans arrived.

***

Can you trust someone else to “Fix it” and do the job right?

Replacement of Mercedes-Benz Coil Pack Plug Connector, Part Number A 203 545 30 28

2003 Mercedes-Benz E500
W211.070
113.967 5.0L V-8 Motor
Ignition Sequence 1 – 5 – 4 – 2 – 6 – 3 – 7 – 8

After approximately 20 years on the road and multiple visits to the Mercedes-Benz dealerships and Mercedes-Benz specialist shops, parts, just get broken and not replaced by careless auto mechanics. And to think, there was a time I would just throw wads of cash at these pricks and say, “Fix it.” The plastic parts can become perished due to repeated heating and cooling cycles and fumes containing hydrocarbons, but it is more often the case, than not, that plastic connectors are simply broken during hasty servicing by supposedly experienced and trained mechanics. Ignition System connectors and plugs are very important to allow an engine to start, idle smoothly, and accelerate without hesitation. So, I decided to replace them. For some odd reason, only 7 out of the 8 connectors needed to be replaced. Number 8, all the way in the back and on the left side, was perfect and would securely clip into place.

• Have available 8 to 10 Mercedes-Benz Coil Pack Plug Connectors, Part Number A 203 545 30 28 available. Eight of them cost me $95.20
• Have available 8 to 10 UV Resistant black 140mm X 3mm Cable Ties, which are probably best purchased from an electrical parts shop.
• Have available a dental pick.
• Have available a pair of small long nose pliers.
• Have available a Craftsman 3-blade Utility Knife. I prefer the type that does not retract.
• Have available a small ½” × ¾” × 3″ bit of wood to use as a cutting surface.
• Have available a small pair of electrical wire cutters, to trim or remove the excess Cable Tie leader.

Work slowly. It is an easy job, though tedious.

Sequence:
1 ) Remove the Oil Dip Stick Tube Black Cover, as it is easy to dislodge and drop down to the bottom aerodynamic engine tray.

2) Remove the entire Air Filter Assembly, as a whole unit, starting from the rear, by lifting in either corner, then lift the front Cover, at the front. This will expose the Coil Packs bolted to the Valve Covers, on either side.

3) Carefully cut the old Cable Tie, at the head. That will allow the old Plug Connector Latch to release, if it is still attached.

4) It would be a good idea to clean and then photograph the Plug Connector and Wires. Pay attention to the color of the wires. You do not want to risk mixing up placement or re-installation of the wires, into the back of the new connector. I oriented the Plug Connector with the numbers on the connector facing me.

5) Next, use the Dental Pick to remove the small plastic tabs holding the 3 plugs in place on the top side. Use the small long nose pliers to pull away the broken tabs.

6) Next, use the Craftsman Utility Knife and small ½” X ¾” X 3″ bit of wood. You will need to carefully cut the side plastic parallel to the outer plugs. Pry upward as you do and it will break off, on either side, but the 3 plugs will be exposed full length.

7) Next, use the Dental Pick to lift the bottom of each metal plug from its recess, where it clips into the recess.

8) Next, use the small long nose pliers closed and carefully push on the end of each plug so it backs out of the Plug Connector, exposing a blue seal. DO NOT push all the way out, because you might mix up the wires. NOTE the numbers on the Plug Connector are still facing you. Hold the 3 wires, between your thumb and forefinger and carefully pull the old Plug Connector away. With those 3 wires side-by-side still between your thumb and forefinger position them into the backside of the new Plug Connector with its numbers facing you. Carefully push the 3 wires in until they “click”. You may hear 3 individual clicks. That is the only way you will know the individual plugs are properly seated in the new Plug Connector.

9) Next, plug the new Plug Connector into the Coil Pack from which it came.

10) Next, install a new UV Resistant black 140mm X 3mm Cable Tie around the base of the Plug Connector into the recess designed to capture it. Trim the excess Cable Tie Leader with the small pair of electrical wire cutters.

11) Do the next Coil Pack Plug Connector, as described above.

12) Check for any tools, rags, or repair materials have been removed from the engine.

13) Replace the Air Filter, Front Cover, and Air Supply Ducting.

14) Replace the Oil Dip Stick Tube Black Cover.

15) Start and idle the engine.

When all the old, damaged, or perished Plug Connectors have been replaced, whether it is simply one or all eight, start the engine and let it idle to operating temperature.

***

Caveat Emptor

MOWER REVIEW: I bought a Rover High Wheeler Utility Mower, 31 October 2022, I paid $729.00 for it. You do not get much for $729.00 and nomenclature can be misleading. When I got the red colored Rover High Wheeler Utility Mower home, the first thing I did was fetch the “Operator’s Manual”. Right out of the packaging, the Operator’s Manual and Warranty Manual were water stained and faded. That was a sign of things to come. I started the mower and discovered the top red engine cover began to shake and vibrate. I discovered one of the attachments was sheared off, probably during shipping. Tough it was replaced under warranty, the new cover just would not stay in place. The thinnest tree branch would flick it off. The Side-Throw Mulching Chute, is made of plastic and it would not stay in place, requiring constant stopping and starting. The Rear Skirt made of plastic constantly folded under when I pulled it backward. The Throttle Lever would cut off, as it hooked a tree branch. There are too many plastic parts. The Zongshen XP200 196cc engine is Made-in-China. The engine seemed to have plenty of power, though I live at 1,161 feet (354 meters). It started easily. Though I do not support Communist China, politics aside, the engine was actually the strong point of the Rover High Wheeler Utility Mower. The rest was just poorly designed and cheap. I used it twice and only mowed ? of an acre. I got a refund.

The mower on the LEFT is a Masport Utility 530 Professional, with a Briggs & Stratton 850 190cc engine, is Made-in-USA. It cost $999.00 This is a genuine utility lawn mower, made of mostly metal. It is truly heavy duty and ergonomic, versus the red Rover.

***

It Doesn’t Pass The “Sniff Test”

A new, purpose-built, covered stadium in Hobart, for $750,000 does not pass the “sniff test”. There is no business case for it. In reality, paying for the stadium and an AFL team would cost nearly $1 billion.

Imagine this. The are per person adult and concession ticket prices.
CATEGORY          Adult     Concession
CATEGORY 1     $435.00    $370.00
CATEGORY 2    $424.00    $360.00
CATEGORY 3    $392.00    $333.00
CATEGORY 4    $361.00    $307.00

Imagine driving nearly 10 hours round trip from Smithton in northern Tasmania to Hobart to watch an AFL game, plus paying $157.52 for fuel, plus food at the game and probably a meal en route. So, two adults and two teenage children for a Category 4 (cheap seats) would set a family back well over $1,500.

So, who does the Tasmanian government expect to fill the stadium with? Cashed up folks from interstate and well off locals who maybe would not have to drive further than an hour. The government expects us taxpayers to fund this nonsense.

IF the business case was so great and AFL CEO Gillan McLachlan’s claims about returns were truthful, then why doesn’t the AFL fund it? Why doesn’t the private sector/investors jump on board to fund it, yesterday? Why? Because it is all complete bullshit!

IF “a meeting of around 300 people at Hobart Town Hall on Wednesday unanimously expressed their opposition to the project”, doesn’t send a clear message, including Liberal and Independent Senator, then nothing will.

A majority of Tasmanians are doing it financially tough, the cost of living and petrol, diesel and gas keep going up, wages increases are just not keeping up, and you want to tax us for someone else’s dream?

There are other priorities. The PHS needs fixing, urgently. The hospitals are a mess. The nurses are over-worked, short-staffed. There not enough GPs. The roads are potholed and some have needed sealing for decades, but the State government wants to waste hard-to-come-by money (nearly a billion of it) on building a stadium and securing an AFL team. Let’s put it into perspective, if I sold one of my books for $54.95 every day, it would take me nearly 50,000 years to make $1 billion in sales.

Think of all the other ways Tasmania could be improved, if that money was spent on the PHS, social housing, roads that need to be sealed, like the B11 Marlborough Highway between Miena and Bronte Park . . . Imagine a washboard dirt road called a “highway”. It is dangerous. The single lane bridge just our side Miena is dangerous and needs to be widened. We need a telephone tower on Table Mountain, north of Bothwell, so telephone coverage can be extended line-of-sight toward Arthurs Lake, Saint Patrick Plains, and Hollow Tree Road. Each Telstra tower costs $1 million. There is so much that Tasmania and Tasmanians needs that would improve everyone’s lives.

How will a stadium improve my life and my fellow Tasmanians, in the immediate future?

***

What is sentience?

Rocco, my beautiful black Labrador is genuinely eager for me to take him for a walk past these lambs, every day. He is genuinely disappointed and sulky when the lambs are not in the paddock or I cannot take for a walk him due to poor weather. Is this evidence of sentience? I believe it is. This lamb almost always comes up to the fence and doesn’t seem afraid. So, there must be some form of communication between them.

Another peculiar observation, he will bark at other dogs and run along the fence, when they walk past, but he exhibits none of that behavior, when he visits the “baby sheep”. I walk him to the edge of the fence and say, “Sit” and he immediately obeys, which might be the only time . . . So, I really want to know what he sees in this lamb and what he thinks. He sniffs the side and hind quarter of the lamb.  Dogs have 100 to 300 million olfactory receptors compared to 6 million for humans. Consider, according to American Kennel Club, that dogs ears can hear sounds between 3,000 and 12,000Hz frequency and when sounds are between 3,000 and 12,000 Hz in frequency, dogs’ ears are far more sensitive than ours. They can hear those sounds when they are between -5 dB and -15 dB on average. The average adult human cannot hear sounds above 20,000 Hertz (Hz), by comparison. Dogs can hear sounds as high as 47,000 to 65,000 Hz. And, dogs can change the direction and shape of their ears independently, to better focus a sound and the direction it is coming from. We humans underestimate the cerebral activity and sentience of animals. A lead researcher places a dog’s intelligence at the same level as a 2 year old child, but from my observation of both, I believe that dogs are mcuh smarter.

Sadly, just down the street, a shaggy dog is on a short chain beside his doghouse 365 days a year. The owners never give him such an opportunity to know what is beyond his line of sight from the end of the chain he is tethered to. Why have the dog, unless he is merely a hillbilly doorbell!

***

Hobart City Council voted, on Monday, August 15, 2022, to remove the statue of Doctor William Lodewyk Crowther FRCS.

So, I celebrate a man who was simply curious about human evolution or lack there of, with my photograph.

Revisionists and those who attempt to create an alternative history should be aware that you cannot erase history or make it more palatable or fit a political agenda, as hard as you might try, but we all should learn from it. Should we judge unpleasant aspects of or characters in history, based on our current mores and values? Or, should we acknowledge, ‘times were different’ and society and laws were still evolving. There are those among us who have sought to preserve history as it actually happened. Should we feel a collective guilt for something that happened 153 years ago?

***

https://au.news.yahoo.com/chinas-four-demands-to-australia-to-fix-damaged-relationship-221724947.html

“China’s Foreign Affairs Minister Wang Yi met with his Australian counterpart Minister Penny Wong late on Friday in what was a significant meeting after a lengthy diplomatic freeze amid a torrid two-year period for Sino-Australian relations.

“China hopes that Australia will seize the current opportunity, take concrete actions, reshape a correct perception of China, and reduce negative assets and accumulate positive energy for improving China-Australia relations,” he said.

He gave four actions Australia could take to improve relations:

First, stick to regarding China as a partner rather than a rival.
The only partnership we have is filling Australian universities with students from China who will be protesting and telling us what we should be teaching about China. And in exchange, Australian universities earn millions of dollars from this cohort of foreign students.

Second, stick to the way we get along with each other, which features seeking common ground while reserving differences.
Common ground? Do you mean that we both like crispy fried duck and on rice, for example?

Third, stick to not targeting any third party or being controlled by any third party.
Do you mean that Australia should not be controlled by China?

Fourth, stick to building positive and pragmatic social foundations and public support.
Do you mean we should hang Mao posters on the walls of every shop, like is the practice in China? Or, repeatedly regurgitate the “One China” lie, to keep Beijing happy?

Australia’s Foreign Minister Penny Wong elbows with China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi during their bilateral meeting on the sidelines of G20 Foreign Ministers Meeting in Nusa Dua on Indonesia’s resort island of Bali on July 8, 2022.”

She should have aimed a little higher and elbowed him in the eye! And, retorted with, “Who the fuck is China to demand anything from Australia or any sovereign country?” That would be the only diplomacy he would understand. Diplomacy without equivocation.

Apologists for communist China and those whom would ingratiate themselves with the CCP in Beijing are not helping to project democracy around the world or protect sovereign nations.

***

Just don’t blindly accept China’s version of history or the “One China” mantra!

The true history of the beautiful island “Formosa” or Taiwan, since 1642 follows. During and previous to that year, Formosa was not on the lips nor in the consciousness of average Chinese, except for fishermen, traders, and Chinese armies and navies fleeing to her safe harbors.

The islands have been wrangled over and ruled or administered and exploited by many. Formosa did not even have a common language, as it was inhabited by 14 Austronesian indigenous tribes. They were not Han Chinese. Anthonius van Diemen and the Dutch defeated the Spanish in Formosa (aka Taiwan), in 1642, and took control of the whole of the island. It is ridiculous to accept Beijing’s version of history, rather than independently studying the history of Formosa that featured the 17th century war between the Ming and Qing dynasties and factional fighting and defections within each that forced Zheng Chenggong (“Koxinga”) to flee with his navy to the the southwestern part of Formosa and the Penghu Islands, who then defeated the Dutch (East India Company) who ruled Formosa, as Taiwan was known, in April 1661. But, the fleeing Ming forces, did not control the whole of the island. Kongxia died in 1681, with no heir to his thrown, which gave the Qing Dynasty an opportunity to attack and defeat Kongxia’s navy, in the southwestern portion of Formosa and the Penghu islands (Battle of Penghu 1683). The Qing and Dutch East India Company entered an alliance to jointly operate out of Formosa, but were suspicious of each other. The Qing prevailed. But, their rule was tenuous, at best. There were uprisings and more than 100 rebellions. The Manchu (Qing dynasty) rulers in Beijing, merely to thwart expansion of French and Japanese interests to colonise Formosa, elevated the status of Formosa from being merely a part of Fukien Province to a Province of China, in 1887, but that lasted eight years. The Japanese defeated the Qing dynasty, which ended the First Sino-Japanese War July 1894 to April 1895. The Treaty of Shimonoseki was signed with Japan on April 17, 1895, ceding “the whole of Taiwan and all its appurtenant islands” to Japan. Thus, ended China’s claim to Formosa. Briefly, for 5 months, Formosa was known as Republic of Formosa, May 1985, Tang Ching-sung, the Governor General of Taiwan, became the fledgling nation’s first president. But, Japan ruled Formosa and the outlying islands for the next 50 years, until it was defeated by the United States and its allies, in 1945. As an ally of the the United States in the war with Japan, Formosa or Taiwan signed a Peace Treaty with Japan on 28 April 1952 and essentially, the Republic of China was born. This summary of Taiwan’s history since 1642, can demonstrate China’s tenuous lease for 8 years, at best, and before that its interests were limited to the southwest, the Penghu islands, west coast. Shall we continue to be deliberately misled by Beijing demanding we accept events throughout China’s history as they tell them or should we think for ourselves and do our own homework? Taiwan has both history and international law on its side for its claim to independence. If we accept Beijing’s version of history and its claims to Taiwan, what other concessions will Beijing demand from Australia. To date, it has list of fourteen grievances. If Australians give in, because it is politically convenient or the easier path or might avoid war, then expect the list of demands to grow longer, if Australia gives one inch. If we give in, Australians will forever be kowtowing to Beijing. Perhaps, one day Australia will be claimed as a “Province of China”.

Published in the “Mercury” newspaper, on December 1, 2021, pages 20 and 21

I wrote the above in response to this nonsense-

There is “One China”, just as there is “One Taiwan”.

***

Exaggeration, Fabrication of Events, Selective Accounts and Memory Renders A Distortion of Australian History

Another Australia Day has come and gone charged with emotive language and hyperbole about “invasion” and “massacre”. Nala Mansell was on television news, again, at Risdon Cove broadcasting bullshit about a massacre at this site, without a shred of evidence.

Take this photo as a bit of evidence of “common sense”. That is a 37° incline through thick brush of “Aboriginal Land Care” . . . From Bowen Monument uphill toward where Lieutenant William Moore was encamped.

On 2 May 1804, “it rained all day”. So, ground was soggy and slippery. Can you imagine yourself running up and down or along this patch of ground with a heavy Brown Bess musket, weighing 10.5 pounds (4.8kg) that was 58.5 inches (1,490mm) long, in uniform and boots chasing after Aboriginals or taking aim and firing at them, on the run.

I was exhausted just carrying my camera case, tripod, and camera on my shoulder.

The only stretch of reasonably flat ground is from the flagpole toward Birt’s or Burke’s half acre. Still the ground was muddy the day I took this photo. Imagine if you will manoeuvering a 12-pounder carronade (small canon) weighing about 400kg across that ground. Only one shot was heard in Hobart, across the Derwent River. That means it was either a lucky shot or merely a shot to scare the Aboriginals away. Because a second shot would be required using such artillery to adjust for elevation and windage, BUT, there was one shot heard.

The left-wing academic dickheads cite this as evidence of a massacre, but they never served a day in the Army or around artillery.

The true history of Risdon Cove needs to come out. If you believe there was a massacre of Aboriginals, on 3 May 1804, then I encourage you to read this, before wedding yourself to this lie.

I am strongly encouraging readers to watch this video that was aired on Channel 9 television in 2003.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7wciNL6Ksuo

I have lived in Tasmania, since 2009. I am genuinely interested in the history of this island state. I have discovered gross inconsistencies in recorded and oral history. I am genuinely concerned about the distortion and revision of history out of conflict of interest and maybe even pecuniary interest to serve some politically-motivated agenda. Chiefly, the often repeated lie and deliberate fabrication of history that there was a massacre at Risdon Cove, though there is no evidence supporting it.

Authors, like “Professor” Lyndall Ryan, based that upon vague and suspect testimony of Irish convict Edward White, before the Broughton Committee of inquiry for the Affairs of the Aborigines, March 1830.

I have come across a document #242 (September 1804) of male and female prisoners transferred from Risdon Cove to Hobart and Edward White’s name is not on that list. If he was an Irish convict claimed by Lyndall Ryan and others before her to be at Risdon Cove, then his name would have been on the document. (See below)

The only Irish convict who was available to be at Risdon Cove, named Edward White, boarded the ship Atlas (1) under command of Captain Richard Brooks, 29 November 1801, in Cork, Ireland. During the 222 days voyage, 64 people died. There is no record that Edward White disembarked at Port Jackson, 6 or 7 July 1802.  There is no record of Edward White, Irish convict, being transported to Van Diemen’s Land, prior to 3 May 1804.  It is not definitive proof he was not there, but we do know was at Risdon Cove.

RISDON COVE CONVICTS, SETTLERS AND MILITARY PERSONNEL:

The party included a surgeon DrJacob Mountgarrett, a storekeeper, botanist, assistant surveyor and a gardener, 5 free settlers, 22 soldiers, 3 female convicts and 29male convicts(NB. the HT First Settlers Assoc. names 29 male convicts, other sources say 21).

A further 42 prisoners were dispatched on the Dart, in October, twenty of whom were volunteers, and these latter were told that, if their behaviour was good, they should be allowed at the end of two years to choose between settling at the Derwent and returning to Sydney.

CIVIL ESTABLISHMENT (6)

Lieutenant John BOWEN, R.N. – Commandant
Jacob MONTGARRET – surgeon
Thomas WILSON (WILLIAMS) – storekeeper
Robert BROWN – botanist on temporary duty
James MEEHAN – assistant surveyor
Thomas SMITH – gardener

NEW SOUTH WALES CORPS (22 Soldiers)

Lieutenant William MOORE
Sergeant Thomas PRENTICE
Sergeant Edward JOHNSTON
Corporal John LAMB
Corporal (not identified)
Corporal John WIXSTEAD
Private James BAKER
Private – – -BROOKS
Private Thomas BROWNE
Private John CARR
Private John CURRY (CURRIE)
Private George HAZLER (HAZLAR)
Private Samuel JAMIESON
Private John LAWRENCE
Private John McGUIRE
Private William MEADOWS (MEADUM)
Private George MORRISON
Private John, NEVILLE (NEVILL)
Private William PAGE
Private James PICKETT
Private Jeremiah SMITH
Private James (Joseph) STAIKES (STACKERS)

WIVES AND CHILDREN OF NEW SOUTH WALES CORPS (3)

3 Unidentified wives and 2 children

SETTLERS (7)

William BURT
Wife Mrs BURT
William (Richard) CLARK
Wife Maria CLARK
1 unidentified settler and 2 unidentified children

CONVICTS (29)

BARNES, Edward
CAVANAGH, James
CLARK, George
COLE, Thomas (COLES, William)
COOLMAN, John
DAVIS Robert
DAWNS, Michael (Downes)
DENNISON, William
DUCE, John
ESUM, William
FLYNN, Charles
GARRETT, William
HARDWICKE, Joseph
HARRIS, John
HOLLOUGHAN, Richard
JACKSON, John
JONES, John
LEE, Matthew
McCARTY, Dennis
MONDAY, Edward
MULLENS, Thomas
PARNELL, Joseph
PRIVET, William
RICHARD, Edward
SHIELDS, Russell
SMITH, James
WILSON, William
WRIGHT, Richard
WRIGHT, William

FEMALE CONVICTS AND CHILDREN (4)

KALE, Mary
LAWLER, Mary
WARE, Elizabeth
WARE child

FREE FEMALES (1)

Martha HAYES, mistress of Lieutenant John Bowen.

Historical records cite the following, “Atlas’s 222-day voyage was one of the worst in the history of transportation to Australia. During the voyage 64 people died; another four dying shortly after disembarkation. The remainder were “in a dreadfully emaciated and dying state” (Governor King). Governor King asked a committee of enquiry whether Captain Brooks’ private trade goods which took up space in the hospital and prison and the unnecessary stops en route to Australia contributed to the deaths. The committee stated that mortality had been caused by “the want of proper attention to cleanliness, the want of free circulation of air, and the lumbered state of the prison and hospital”.“

The other Edward Whites:

• Edward White, one of 175 convicts transported on the Morley, November (1816)
• Edward White, one of 10 convicts transported on the Seppings, (01 December 1839)
• Edward White, one of 230 convicts transported on the Elphinstone, (06 April 1842), who arrived in Van Diemen’s Land
• Edward White, one of 389 convicts transported on the Moffatt, (10 August 1842), who arrived in Van Diemen’s Land
• Edward White, one of 204 convicts transported on the Bangalore, (28 March 1848), who arrived in Van Diemen’s Land
• Edward White, one of 300 convicts transported on the Randolph, (24 April 1849)
• Edward White transported on the London, (December 1850)
• Edward White, one of 270 convicts transported on the Lord Raglan, (03 March 1858)
• Edward White, one of 210 convicts transported on the Adelaide, (13 May 1863)

It should be obvious, that none of the other nine Edward Whites could have been at Risdon Cove, 3 May 1804.

So, who was the “real” Edward White or person identifying himself as “Edward White” who gave perjurious eyewitness testimony, before the Broughton Committee, if not the one who was aboard the Atlas (1)?

Lyndall Ryan bases her claims of “massacre” on five people who gave evidence before the Broughton Committee. One was this dubious Edward White, whose testimony is highly suspect, especially considering how vague it is of a supposedly horrific event. One not likely easily forgotten 26 years later. The other four were in Hobart. One was a very young and impressionable 12 years old boy, at the time. The other was Reverend Robert Knopwood, who stated he heard “roar of the cannon at Risdon at 2 p.m”. That was one shot.  Which leads me to consider the Naval 12-pounder carronade, pictured, below.

From Wikipedia, “A carronade is a short, smoothbore, cast-iron cannon which was used by the Royal Navy. It was first produced by the Carron Company, an ironworks in Falkirk, Scotland, and was used from the mid-18th century to the mid-19th century. Its main function was to serve as a powerful, short-range, anti-ship and anti-crew weapon.”

Carronades were rather short, light, and had large bores in relation to their weight (Lavery 1987: 104-109; McConnell 1988: 103-111). Carronades were used mainly to fire solid shot on a horizontal trajectory, and their specialized powder chambers allowed for thinner barrel walls. Because of their shorter barrels, they also had a short range, but their advantage laid in the fact that, due to their reduction in weight, they could fire a ball four times heavier than that of a cannon of equal weight. This highly successful naval weapon was introduced by the Carron Iron Company in Scotland in 1778, and was rapidly adapted as a standard ordnance by the Royal Navy. The Royal Navy’s 12-pounder carronade was 2 ft 8 in (0.8 m) and weighed 6.5 cwt (728 lb (330.2 kg)).

In The History of English Sea Ordnance, by Adrian Caruana, Volume II, he reproduces trials data from experiments carried out in 1790, using different sizes of charge for different cannon. He also states that it became standard that the charge should be one third the weight of the shot – i.e., a 12-pounder carronade would normally use a 4 pound charge.

The effective range of Napoleonic smooth bore field artillery (12-pounders) on land was 800–1200 yards. (Nosworthy 359ff) and Wilhelm Muller (II:195) reported that circa 1811 a 12-pounder achieved 45% hits on an embrasure 2.5 feet high and 8 wide at a range of 575 paces, and 18% at 1300.  I have found various references about range, however.

So, the reader should wonder as do I, how was a cast iron 12-pounder carronade weighing 728 pounds 330 kg “unmounted” carronades positioned. How many NSW Corps soldiers availed themselves to lift and move the carronade? There were 22 NSW Corps soldiers, none of them trained artillery men. Some were guarding the convicts, a couple guarding the stores, one guarding/watching over Martha Hayes, two went to the aid of Birt/Burt/Burke and his wife. How many went for powder and cannon balls, down the steep hillside and back up it to the carronade(s)? Considering Governor King ordered two “unmounted” carronades removed from the (ship) HMS Investigator to be issued to Lieutenant John Bowen to be installed at Risdon Cove and that Risdon Cove was quite literally a “one horse town”, between September 1803 and 4 May 1804, did the inhabitants of Risdon Cove settlement design and craft a gun carriage with large enough wheels not to bog down?  What mechanism was used as a design feature to adjust elevation of the carronade? A simple wedge or a more complex screw? As one shot was heard by Reverend Robert Knopwood, typically, when firing artillery, after the first shot, elevation must be adjusted up or down, so the next shot lands nearer or on target. Which direction did they fire the carronade, if they managed to get it into firing position? Considering during the month of May, wind is typically from the NNW at an average wind speed of 42 km/h, how did they adjust windage, before the shot was fired. My point is that at least two shots would be necessary to adjust Elevation and Windage, to correct where the shot landed. But, Reverend Robert Knopwood heard the “roar of the cannon at Risdon at 2 p.m”.  One shot means no “adjusting fire”.

How many soldiers with muskets were available on 3 May 1804? There were 22 New South Wales Corps soldiers, not all were available to engage with the 300 to 600 Aboriginals. Perhaps a couple were guarding the Stores, one attending to Martha Hayes, some number guarding the convicts, some would have been running downhill and back uphill fetching powder for the carronade to be fired. Two went to the aid of Burt/Birt/Burke and his wife. So, how many of the 22 were actually shooting their muskets? Maybe 15 to 17. The engagement with the Aborigines lasted 3 hours.  So, the simple mathematics of it is 60 seconds/minute and a Rate of Fire every 20 seconds equals 3 shots fired per minute or 180 shots per hour and from 11:00 to 2:00 p.m. equals 3 hours times 180 shots equals 540 shots fired by one soldier multiplied times 15 equals 8,100 musket balls. And, if all 22soldiers were shooting then there would be 11,880 musket balls. There would be thousands of musket balls still embedded in trees, just beneath the surface and on the surface, exposed when soil was washed away by the rains over the past 217 years. Where are they?

In the 1814 To All Sportsmen, Colonel George Hanger wrote, “A soldier’s musket, if not exceedingly ill-bored (as many are), will strike a figure of a man at 80 yards; it may even at a hundred; but a soldier must be very unfortunate indeed who shall be wounded by a common musket at 150 yards, providing his antagonist aims at him; and as to firing at a man at 200 yards with a common musket, you may as well fire at the moon and have the same hope of hitting him. I do maintain and will prove that no man was ever killed at 200 yards, by a common musket, by the person who aimed at him.”

I should note that it took me 8 minutes to walk from Burt’s 1/2 acre to a large tree south of the flagstaff . . . That is about 3/4 of a kilometre distance. Knowing that, consider the effective range and accuracy claims above. Looking east from that tree toward Burt’s half acre that would be the only reasonably level terrain at Risdon Cove. Refer to the photos below.

So, was there a massacre at Risdon Cove, on 3 May 1804, at all?

No!

***

iFlunk or Apple Crapple

“Flunk” is informal North American English, meaning “Fail”, a term that Apple CEO, Tim Cook, can appreciate. And, I deem the Apple iPhone a failure.  Read why, in the following.

My lovely wife gifted me a new Apple iPhone XR to replace my obsolete iPhone 4, when she bought one for herself. She decided to upgrade due to increasing requirements to perform COVID Tracing, using Check-in QR Codes. When I opened the box, it was neatly packed, but there were no instructions -and, even though I am an experienced Apple technology user, this mobile (cell) phone requires operating instructions. I lifted the iPhone out of the box and discovered a nicely coiled “Lightning” cable. Next, I wondered where is the Power Supply to recharge the iPhone XR. There was nothing more inside the box.  I live more than 1 hour from town. The phone needed to be charged to set it up. Next, I discovered the Lightning cable did not fit any connection on my Apple Mac-Mini computer or USB hub, so that meant I needed to drive to town to buy Power Supplies for both my wife’s iPhone and mine. This saga just gets better. My wife asked me to install her SIM card from her iPhone 4 into her iPhone XR. Once I retrieved the SIM card, I unlocked the SIM card tray for the iPhone XR, I discovered that Apple by design to frustrate its customers, changed to a smaller SIM card referred to as a Nano SIM card. The iPhone 4 used a larger one referred to as a Micro. Of course, if there was a basic set of instructions inside the box explaining this or maybe on the outside of the box, I would have been forewarned. We had to order new SIM Cards for both iPhone XRs, which took a week to arrive. Then, I needed to call my telecommunications provider to separately activate each  SIM card. Then, the ordeal began to set up each iPhone XR. I spent 2 hours on the phone with Apple Technical Support to figure out a way to transfer all my contacts and SMS Text Messages to my new iPhone XR from my obsolete iPhone 4. I returned to town to purchase an Apple Lightning to USB-A cable, so I could plug it into my Mac-Mini or USB hub to alternatively charge the phone, but more importantly up load and or download photos. I spent two hours on the phone talking with two different Apple Technical Support representatives only to realize there is no way using Bluetooth, WiFi, or Apple Lightning to USB-A cable to transfer a photo to my new, state-of-the-art Apple iPhone XR, though it was never a problem with my obsolete technology iPhone 4. Who at Apple designs deliberately frustrating the shit out of customers, wasting their time and money. Could you imagine buying a Mercedes-Benz, but the car’s battery or battery cables are “Optional Extras” or it comes without a spare tire? By comparison, a truly forward thinking corporation, like Nikon, by design, engineers their latest and greatest, state-of-the-art DSLR cameras backward compatible, so that lenses that are 50 years old can still be used.  I own a Nikon 45mm f/2.8P lens, that was first developed and introduced by Nikon as a Nikkor-GN 45mm f/2.8 lens, in 1969. One of my most prized Nikon lenses is the Noct-Nikkor 58mm f/1.2AiS lens, that was released, in 1977, five years after I graduated high school. Apple never fails to disappoint me. It is ridiculously expensive crap and a genuine pain in the ass to use and not compatible with any other Apple product I own!

Well, trying to set up my wife’s iPhone XR was a nightmare. I had five telephone conversations with Apple Technical Support and my case had to be escalated to someone with a higher level of technical expertise, which turned out to be a waste of time, words, and effort. Each phone call was 2 hours in length, or longer. My Apple Case: 101499810299

There was no way on Earth to get my wife’s email address used as an Apple ID to be Verified. Passwords were reset multiple times, variations of her Apple ID were used, etc. Nothing worked. Yesterday I worked on this problem from 15:48 to 18:07, when the Apple Support person finally gave up and hung up, without a word he would do so or had run out of ideas.

Pay a lot of money for cute Apple products in slick packaging, with no instructions in the box and left to figure it out on your own or rely on Apple Technical Support. Going from an Apple iPhone 4 to an Apple iPhone XR was a big leap in technology, but a GIANT STEP BACKWARD in functionality and interoperability with my Apple Mac Mini computer, my iPad, etc. Scroll down, if you would like to read my experience with my  Apple 27″ iMac.

***

Do-It-Yourself or Pay To Be Disappointed

The above photo on the left was meticulously created using a 1967 Nikon F 35mm film camera with a Nikkor-S.C. Auto 55mm 1:1.2 lens, mounted on a Manfrotto 190D tripod and Nikon AR-2 Cable Shutter Release .  I wanted to make a a permanent record of my 5 year old black Labrador.  Of course, I have plenty of digital images, but film seems to provide a quality that a digital image does not, including a richness, a sense of three dimensional depth, and a quality I cannot put into words.  That said, I found the contrast to be a bit soft.  I used a Nikon D3x, and AF Micro-Nikkor 200mm 1:4.0D lens, mounted on a Manfrotto studio tripod and 131 DDB Arm, as in the below photo.  The negative strip was mounted on a Light Box, that has a White Light emission of 5,000° Kelvin.  The lens was carefully focused and checked in Live View.  I raised and-or lowered the elevation of the center column and re-focused the lens and shifted the Light Box, as needed, until the negative filled the frame of the Nikon D3x.  Then, after I imported the photo to my computer, I set the reciprocal of the Negative using Curves to set Input to 0 (Black) and Output to 255 White.  Then, I moved the Left (Black) Index to the left edge of the histogram and then, I moved the Right (White) Index to the right edge of the histogram.  Then, I pressed on OK.  I selected Hue/Saturation and moved the Master Slider for Saturation to the left, to render monochrome.  That is the basics of it.  There are other tweaks I did.  I was able to create a 146.3mb .TIF image of 4,032 × 6,048 pixels.

***

Do-It-Yourself or Get Ripped Off At The Dealership

Spark Plug change is planned for my Mercedes-Benz, E500 (W211.070 with 113.967 engine type) . . . Of course, I could pay the dealership to do the job, but the dealership quoted $661 or $567 with Trade Discount Trade for 16 Mercedes-Benz Spark Plugs, but I had them imported for $398.34 which is priced between sourcing from the dealership or buying inferior quality aftermarket Spark Plugs. That is one hell of a markup! That is just for the Spark Plugs. And, to install them would not be cheap. The Bosch Spark Plugs would have cost me $210.56 for 16 of them. I will do the job myself. It was an easy choice for me. I prefer to use OEM parts, when available. Part of the reason I imported the Spark Plugs was I could not find them in Australia at the price it would cost me to import them, including postage and import duty.

The reason so many owners opt for aftermarket parts is they just get tired of being ripped off. But, looking at the difference between the Mercedes-Benz Spark Plug versus the Bosch Spark Plug you can see the Original Equipment appears a little more robust and, should theoretically last longer. Yes, I accept the Bosch has been used, but I doubt the center electrode would wear so significantly.

I had read a Mercedes-Benz booklet about “Spark Plug Indexing”, that manufacturers other than Mercedes-Benz Spark Plugs may not have the correct thread length or location of the welded-on Ground Strap and that after the Seal Washer is compressed and set to the proper Torque 18.5 to 22 ft-ln or 25 to 30 Nm, in the case for my engine. When properly installed the Spark Plug Ground Strap Electrode will be at the correct depth and direction, for consistent ignition.

The Center Electrode with a preset 1.0mm (0.039″) Air gap from the Ground Strap is the business end of the Spark Plug.

The tool on the left is a Spark Plug Wire Socket Puller, manufactured by Hazet – Germany, Part Number for my car is 1849-1

The tool on the right is an articulating Spark Plug Wrench, manufactured by Hazet – Germany, Part Number is 4766, 16 X 5/8″

Note: It was a pain in the ass to dig out all the gear for these shots, assemble it, trialed four or five different lenses (for the spark plug comparison photo, until I landed on the one that would fill the frame, set up four Nikon SB R200 lights for the Nikon Close-up Speedlight Commander Kit R1C1

www.nikon.com.au/en_AU/product/flashes-speedlights/nikon-…

Photos used:
_RC3301 Mercedes-Benz vs Bosch Spark Plug
_RC3312 Right Tools

***

Freedom versus Security

Or, perhaps the title would be more appropriate as, Democracy versus Communism

I was in East Berlin, when I was in the U.S. Army, in 1975. Later, I spent nearly five years in China. My impression of life under communism is, it is gray and dismal. The populace are controlled like sheep, under communism.  Hope is a myth and death is the only mercy. For those who are subjected to brainwashing, government surveillance and control, the world beyond what they know is obscure and a place to be feared.

***

Where the Rubber Meets the Road

The tire on the left has 83,866 kms (52,111 miles) wear on it.

Notice there is about 2 to 3mm rubber still above the Wear Bar.  Notice the overall diameter of the tire (tyre for Brits) is smaller, too.

The tire was only guaranteed for 50,000 kms.

I achieved exceeding this more than 30,000km by simply checking tire pressure monthly and rotating the tires at regular intervals.  These tires can be cross-rotated and will allow more even wear, due to tread design.

The tire brand is Bridgestone Turanza Serenity Plus, if you are interested. Part Number is BR2156016VEL64

Bridgestone Product Support Manager told me that he would strongly recommend only inflating the tires to the vehicle manufacturer’s placard and to achieve even wear, it is better to cross-rotate the tires (if the tires are not directional or specify a direction of rotation, every 7,500 kms, at most.

If tires are over-inflated for the load the center of the tire will wear faster. If under-inflated, the tires will wear more rapidly on the edges and unnecessarily heat up, due to friction. For optimum performance, the tries footprint should be even across the width of the tire.

How many wood hookers do you see on the road, with the rear of their truck barely above the rear tires and the front wheel arches exposed to sunshine? Or, those towing a loaded trailer or boat with the rear of the vehicle barely above the rear tires and the front wheel arches exposed to sunshine? It is another reason the vehicle’s headlights are pointing upward into the eyes of an oncoming driver. The driver of a heavily loaded vehicle should increase inflation to accommodate the load or upgrade the suspension and increase tire inflation. Most of the aforementioned drivers are poorly trained operators of their vehicles, unaware of the unsafe condition, or are merely indifferent dimwits. I am betting on the latter.

***

“You Want The Truth? You Can’t Handle The Truth!”

Or, this post should be titled, “Rip off Alert”.
I brought my car in to the Mercedes-Benz dealership to confirm the Check Engine Light was caused by the Mass Air Flow Sensor, which is part of an electronic system to assure an optimum air to fuel ratio. The Fault Code was P2004. I was charged $270.27 to tell me what I already suspected, but no attempt to repair or correct the problem. When returned to the dealership to pick up my car, I was quoted the cost for the Mercedes-Benz dealership to do the job $1,082.83 ! And, was quoted 1.5 hours labour. During our discussion, the service advisor told me he would recommend only installing a genuine Mercedes-Benz Mass Air Flow Sensor and further, “I have checked with technician and we can not advise or guarantee you that aftermarket part will work or not . . .”  He told me the Mercedes-Benz dealership price for the part is $812.80

I purchased the part from a Bosch recommended parts supplier for $356.50 and installed it in 30 minutes.

That was a whopping $726.53 savings!

Bosch manufactures the Mass Air Flow Sensor for Mercedes-Benz and BMW . . . The Bosch Part Number 0 280 217 810 is exactly the same as on the part I removed from my car.

So, what justifies a $456.30 mark-up on the parts price?

I hate being fed bullshit and being ripped off. The Bosch Product Manager told me the Mass Air Flow Sensor is completely “plug and play”. The service advisor waffled, as above.

After I reconnected both batteries, the car started right up and idled normally and was smooth, as it warmed up. During my test drive, the engine accelerated smoothly, without any hesitation. The engine runs like new. And, there was no Check Engine Light.

And, it is.  The engine runs like new.

Do not trust the dealership to protect your interests.

***

False Economy

The bottom spark plug is two years and three months old and has been in service for 72,860 km (45,273.1 miles). Periodically, I would merely clean and re-gap the spark plugs, typically, when I changed engine oil and oil filter.

Notice the new spark plug has sharp, clearly defined edges. The air gap is 0.040 inches wide, per specification.  I did check each one, just in case, but they were correctly preset, right out of the box.

By comparison, the well worn spark plug gap would become wider over time, the sharp edges became well rounded, and the center electrode became smaller. Also, the Negative or Ground electrode strap developed a noticeable groove on the top.

Regardless that the color of the worn spark plug looks like it was functioning normally, it would be my guess that it was not optimum or igniting the 14:1 Air to Gasoline (petrol) mixture as efficiently as a new spark plug would. If ignition efficiency suffers, so does fuel economy. Noxious and polluting gases would increase, as a by-product of combustion.

The spark plugs should be replaced every 12 months, 25000 km or 15000 miles, according to the shop service manual. Trying to extend their life, may be false economy and cause an engine to have difficulty starting, idle poorly, not accelerate proportionally to application of the accelerator pedal, and other issues.
Refer to this bit of information from the NGK spark plug manufacturer-

ngksparkplugs.com/en/resources/read-spark-plug

***

Photographic Processing Workflow

Prior to Step 1, I did a bit of “Mission Planning” and was thinking about what camera, lenses and accessories I would pack to take with me to amuse myself, while my wife participated in a dance competition spanning four hours.

I would go mad listening to repetitive music for each contestant, and could watch and listen for 5 minutes, at most. OK, so 4 hours is not a lot of time, really . . . I would still need to drive to some planned destination for up to an hour and take photos for a couple hours and drive back to pick her up to return home. So, the more lenses and accessories and stuffing around, to get one photo, subtracts from the time needed to actually take photos. So, I limited myself to three lenses that I would most likely use and have time for. Nikon 50mm f/1.4D, a Nikon 28-70mm f/2.8D, and a Nikon 80-200mm f/2.8D, tripod, remote release, color temperature meter, bulb blower, paper and pen to make some notes. That was my thinking and planning process.

Step 1. At that time of day, the Sun was high in the sky and there was a lot of brilliance and strong shadows due to the clouds and reflections off the water. Add to that, typical haze near open water. Also, there was a bit of a breeze, so there was some atmospheric dust in the mix, too.

I measured Color Temperature and set that, in my camera. It was 6,020°K. I typically use Spot Metering . . . and only one focusing [ } in my view finder. I have disabled the 52 AF Points via the Menu, because I find them distracting and not very useful, even when I shoot fast-moving Sports action shots. So, I placed the single AF [ ] on the the distant mountain ridgeline with clouds behind it for contrast. For landscape shots, like this, Depth-of-Field is no big deal, and I do not subscribe to Hyper Focal Distance. I simply decided to use f/11.0 and ISO 100, then setting a Shutter Speed to compensate for my natural wobbliness and to get the sky properly exposed while not drastically under-exposing the (fore)ground and surrounds. Too over-exposed and details would be lost in the beautiful clouds. Too under-exposed and details would be lost in the shadows and darker vegetation. And, because I only shoot using a Raw .NEF image file, I would have latitude later when processing the photo.

Step 2. I converted the Raw .NEF Adobe RGB file to a .TIF Adobe RGB Color Space and improved exposure, slightly.

Step 3. I adjusted tonality and afterward with the spots more apparent, I removed spots. I also checked the clouds are not yellowed or blued. They should look white with shades of gray.

Step 4. I selectively improved Contrast on the water and selectively improved Exposure/Brightness in the trees and vegetation along the northern and eastern shorelines. Then, I added a slight amount of Vibrance.

***

Should Capitalist Greed Prevail Over Democracy?

NYULawReview-75-2-Carolan

According to International Law, Taiwan is a sovereign country. Please refer to the PDF titled, “The “Republic of Taiwan”: Legal-Historical Justification for a Taiwanese Declaration of Independence“, by Christopher J. Carolan. Consider that Taiwan is a democracy. Taiwan’s government is democratically elected.

“Taiwan (excluding Penghu) was first populated by Austronesian people and was partially colonized by the Dutch, who had arrived in 1623. The Kingdom of Tungning, lasting from 1661 to 1683, was the first Han Chinese government to rule part of Taiwan. From 1683, the Qing Dynasty ruled much of the eastern plains of Taiwan as a prefecture and in 1875 divided the island into two prefectures. In 1885 the island was made into a separate Chinese province to speed up development in this region. In the aftermath of the First Sino-Japanese War, Taiwan and Penghu were ceded by the Qing Dynasty to Japan in 1895.

Taiwan (Formosa) including the Pescadores were permanently ceded by Qing Dynasty China to Imperial Japan via Articles 2b and 2c of the Treaty of Shimonoseki on 8 May 1895 in one of what the Chinese term as an unequal treaty. Kinmen and Matsu Islands on the coast of Fukien, and the islands in the South China Sea currently administered by the Republic of China on Taiwan were not part of the cession.

In 1895, subsequent to the Treaty of Shimonoseki, officials in Taiwan declared independence in the hope of returning the island to Qing rule. The Republic of Taiwan (1895) collapsed after 12 days due to political infighting, but local leaders continued resistance in the hope of achieving self-rule. The incoming Japanese crushed the island’s independence bid in a five-month campaign.

The Chinese Qing Dynasty was subsequently overthrown and replaced by the Republic of China (ROC). Upon the outbreak of the Second Sino-Japanese War, the ROC declared the Treaty of Shimonoseki void in its declaration of war on Japan.”

Consider that Japan occupied Taiwan from 1895 to 1945. The Republic of China (Taiwan), U.K. and U.S. jointly issue the Potsdam Declaration, calling for Japan’s unconditional surrender and the carrying-out of the Cairo Declaration. When the Japanese envoys Foreign Minister Mamoru Shigemitsu and Gen. Yoshijiro Umezu signed their names on the Instrument of Surrender, aboard the USS Missouri, 2 September 1945, it ceded governance of Taiwan, also, but did not return it to Communist China. After World War II, Taiwan’s government representatives accepted the surrender of Japanese forces in Taiwan. The Chief Executive of Taiwan Province Chen Yi sends a memorandum to the Japanese governor-general of Taiwan, stating that As the Chief Executive of Taiwan Province of the Republic of China, I restore all legal territory, people, administration, political, economic, and cultural facilities and assets of Taiwan [including the Penghu Islands].”

Next consider that Japan signed the San Francisco Peace Treaty, on September 8, 1951, and officially renounced all right, title and claim to Formosa and the Pescadores. Treaty of Peace with Japan, art. 2(b), Sept. 8, 1951, 3 U.S.T. 3169, 136 U.N.T.S. 45. The SFPT does not declare which government exercises sovereignty over Taiwan. Identifying the United States as the principal occupying Power. The United States retains temporary de jure sovereignty over Taiwan, but the Executive has deliberately remained silent on the issue. The U.S. goods and services trade with China totaled an estimated $737.1 billion in 2018. Exports were $179.3 billion; imports were $557.9 billion. The U.S. goods and services trade deficit with China was $378.6 billion in 2018. Money talks. No wonder the Executive remains silent. Regardless, ask yourself, at this point, “What the fuck?!” How does Beijing even have a claim that Taiwan is a breakaway Province or is part of China? Isn’t it time to sort out this issue?

Also, consider Taiwan’s 15,000 years old history and 14 Indigenous Tribes.

The geopolitics of the Democratic Republic of China is the fact that it lost its United Nations seat as “China”, in 1971, replaced by Communist People’s Republic of China, most sovereign states have switched their diplomatic recognition to the PRC, recognizing the PRC as the representative of all China, though the majority of countries avoid clarifying (serves them best to be ambiguous) what territories are meant by “China” in order to associate with both the PRC and ROC.

Lastly, consider that Taiwan has a separate passport to China and a Visa is required to enter Taiwan.

I have lived and worked in Taiwan, about two years, Hong Kong after that, then China for nearly five years. There are stark differences. You would not appreciate that unless you have lived and worked in there.

Should capitalist greed, Free Trade Agreements, Chinese Communist Party’s strategic investment in infrastructure, and weaving itself snugly into the economies of Western countries prevail of democracy? Should it prevail over the sovereignty and way of life of countries like Australia? Recently the global COVID-19 pandemic exposed the true averice and vindictive nature of China, when its Ambassador to Australia, Cheng Jingye, threatened economic war against Australia, if Prime Minister Scott Morrison persists demanding an investigation into the source of the Coronavirus. Immediately, all those Australian businesses making huge profits from China began complaining, in chorus, that democracy and Australia’s sovereignty is not worth angering China or put more accurately cutting into their huge profits is not worth angering China. Damned little of their wealth trickles down to the average Australian. And, for all those greedy bastards, how much is enough. Once you are dead and buried in your golden sarcophagus, will you line your tomb with all your wealth and take it with you because that is what it will be worth to the rest of us. You would kowtow to appease the Chinese Communist Party sacrificing democracy and Australia’s sovereignty to purely to your protect your wealth!

Consider the Reserve Bank of Australia did a study and realized a 5.0% contraction in China’s Gross Domestic Product would result in a 2.5% contraction of Australia’s, suggesting we have allowed our economy to become too dependent upon the whims and benevolence of Beijing. Wouldn’t a diverse economy be a more resilient economy? Do not let Beijing dictate terms to Australia.

***

Shoot out between Nikon D3x and Hasselblad

There is no comparison.

Let’s see a global show of hands how many photographers have wondered or asked the question, “What Medium Format 6cm×6cm lens is equivalent to a 35mm lens?”

I mean there is enough complete nonsense and thousands upon thousands of words written about it, but here is the proof. Refer to the above photo and continue reading.

And, the debate and photography forum trolling and those who come across like real photography professors offering up mathematical formula and conversion factors, to push their particular point of view.

No?!

One photography website refers to diagonal Field of View equivalent to a 43mm lens. Yeah, well I did that, or as close as I could to it, first taking a photo with a Hasselblad 503CWD with a Carl Zeiss Planar 2,8/80mm T* CFE normal lens mounted on a tripod, and didn’t even come close.

Then, there are proponents of the Horizontal and Vertical Fields of View school of thought, when comparing Medium Format to 35mm format and will come up with different 35mm lens equivalents.

And, there are those who merely spout the 80mm is normal for Medium Format and 50mm is normal for 35mm and come up with some factor to apply across the board.

Who is correct? None of them!

Hasselblad/Carl Zeiss advertise the Angle of View is 52° for the 80mm lens, while Nikon advertise the Nikon 50mm lens has a 51.3° Angle of View. Close enough, right? At 32 inches between the film plane and the subject, I found no comparison to be made.

The Hasselblad 503CWD has a sensor size that is 4048×4048 pixels with a “Crop Factor” of 1.5, according to Hasselblad literature, meaning it could be equivalent to using a 120mm lens for medium format. But wait, sensor dimensions are 36.7mm×36.7mm . . . and 120 film image area is actually 56mm×56mm, so that is actually a Crop factor of 1.52588555858311 or 122mm focal length equivalent.

I started out photographing a defined area of small yellow flowers, with the two camera systems mounted on a weighted tripod, one after the other, without moving the tripod.

Typical of my ten years worth of photography experience in Tasmania, every time I take my cameras outdoors, it becomes overcast and the wind starts to blow. We can get four seasons in a week, here.

So, I took photographs using a Nikon 45mm lens and then a 50mm normal lens. You know, compare “apples to apples”. I mean this is the rational that internet professors of photography espouse. I found the individual flowers were much smaller than with the Hasselblad 80mm lens. I cannot say that either of the “Fields of View” or “Angles of View” were the same or comparable, in either. That myth was busted, in my mind. So, the Hasselblad’s normal lens definitely does not compare to the Nikon’s normal lens.

Frustrated that I could not continue in the wind, I relocated to photograph the side of a stable.

This time I used a Nikon Micro-Nikkor 60mm 1:2.8D lens. If you could compare the nail heads and a couple knots in the wooden planks, they are very close in size. Not perfect, but closer than either the 45mm or 50mm.

What I did not account for was the vertical shift. The Nikon D3 sits taller on the Manfrotto 190D tripod than the Hasselblad. How much taller, I did not measure. I wanted to change as little as possible, so leaving the tripod set was necessary. Also, do you have any idea just how difficult it is to get the film plane absolutely parallel to a flat subject, such as the side of the stable? I actually used a tape measure to measure either side of the lens hood, to be sure. Not perfect, but should be very close.

One last point, the Hasselblad 503CWD is a 16 megapixel camera versus the Nikon D3 12.0 megapixel and the Nikon D3x 24.0 megapixel camera. So, what to do to make this a more fair comparison. I did an up-res (increasing resolution) of the Nikon D3 (35mm) image to be the same as the Medium Format, but it made no difference. As one final attempt to make everything equal, I increased the Height of the 35mm image from 2832 pixels to 4080 pixels, same as the Hasselblad, which then increased the Width of the 35mm image to 6132 pixels, then, and only then did the individual flowers begin to approach the size of the image taken with the Hasselblad. But, what Sensor size or focal length would that have to be to approach equivalent values, but still not Field of View or Angle of View? Some bits overlay nicely, but others don’t. So, no solution.

Outside of laboratory conditions, this is not a bad result and a reasonably fair test.

So, for those who want to compare Medium Format to 35mm, don’t waste your time and further, don’t give too much credit to those charts and mathematical equations offered to prove how smart the internet photography professors are.

In conclusion, there is no comparison to be made between Medium Format cameras and lens combinations to 35mm full frame cameras and lens combinations.

In fact, I set the exact same measured exposure settings and color temperature settings, and each camera rendered a different image. I had to change color temperature, tint and exposure to make one photo look similar, to the other, but not exact. So, even that cannot be compared.

Medium Format camera systems and 35mm Format camera systems are as different as individual photographers, standing side-by-side attempting to take the same photo.

I may attempt to continue lens comparisons, just to see how close I can come, but I may need to use a zoom lens.

To that end, I made a New Year’s resolution to prove myself wrong or that I don’t know as much as I think I know. But, I discovered I was wrong about being wrong . . . And, I know more than I think I know.

So, in the next attempt, I decided to use a Nikon D3x (6048×4032 pixels or 35.9mm×24mm Sensor Size) with a 50mm normal lens compared to a Hasselblad 503CWD with 80mm normal lens, this time I tried to be as accurate and as measured/methodical as I could be. Refer to the photo above. Same result as before . . . No way could I perfectly match various points, and I found the 80mm Red Dot was slightly larger than the 50mm Red Dot, only slightly, but still did not account for being unable to overlay the nail heads precisely. Each lens centre was measured to be 107cm above the ground. Each forward leg of the tripod was 104cm from the base. I put the Red Dot right in the centre of the View Finder. Results were essentially the same as yesterday’s test with the D3. I assumed using a 24 megapixel camera versus a 12 megapixel camera would make a significant difference. The Field of View or the Angle of View or expected coverage, for nearly the same subject image size was just not the same. So, the normal lens fanatics and the horizontal Angle of View cohort . . . Keep guessing.

Next, trying a Nikon ED AF-S Nikkor 28-70mm 1:2.8D lens, with focal lengths tested 45, 65, and 70mm, considering what I surmised yesterday about using a focal length between 60 and 70mm, but that test also failed.

Again, I must conclude, there is no real viable comparison to be made between a Medium Format camera and a 35mm full frame camera lens. What I found particularly astounding was that setting the same Color Temperature in both cameras, with the same Exposure rendered a different color picture, different tone. Comparing Medium Format to 35mm is like comparing apples to oranges.

The proof is above. For the doubting Thomases, as a final test, I introduced lens corrections and straightening. And, still it made nil difference.

***

Realities of Digital Image Processing

Image #1 is the .NEF (Raw) image

Image #2 was converted from .NEF to .TIF, only spots had been removed and 5,410°K Color Temperature assigned, with the Adobe Camera raw Nikon D3 Profile and the Nikon 500mm lens Profile . . . No other changes were made.

Image #3 is the final processed rendering, explained below, as to how I arrived at it and why.

It is impossible to create a true-to-life representation without processing the Raw (.NEF) straight-out-of-the-camera image, regardless how perfectly a photographer focuses and exposes his subject.

In this very simple demonstration, I set the Nikon D3 camera with a huge 3.35kg Nikon ED Nikkor 500mm 1:4P lens mounted onto my Manfrotto 190D tripod, using a Remote Shutter Release, Mirror-Up Mode, carefully focusing, sing the View Finder and then Live View at maximum magnification, discovered a slight amount of motion blur, which softened the focus, then switched to a much more robust and sturdy Manfrotto 161Mk2B tripod, while using a Remote Shutter Release, Mirror-Up Mode, carefully focusing, using the View Finder and then Live View at maximum magnification, as before. I took 6 photos. Between set-ups, I ran the CF Card in to view on my Eizo Monitor, at 100% to 400% magnification to check sharpness. I wanted to see individual pine needles and details of the pine cones.

In the finished product, I wanted to see correct sky and cloud color, first and foremost. Any “off color” or color cast is easily discernible in the sky or cloud. It was the second set-up on the larger Manfrotto tripod, I decided to set the Color Temperature of 5,410°K as closely as I could to the measured 5,340°K to remove any doubt. I used Mid-Tone Contrast versus global contrast, because darks, especially in shadows get darker and highlights become whiter.

When I sharpened the image, I increased magnification to 400% and set my usual, but then reduced/adjusted the individual Unsharp Mask (USM) settings so there was no halo or so the white halo became blended with the original background colors. The human eyes do not put any halo around a subject to make it sharper, so why do it artificially? The image either becomes sharp to a person with 20/20 vision or it doesn’t. If it doesn’t, then the image become a reject, in my opinion.

Oftentimes, merely adjusting Mid-Tone Contrast will bring out the sharpness and detail more naturally, without a sharpening step. I won;’t get into the debate about sharpening for different viewing media, i.e. computer display versus a large photo on a wall. When I print photos, I usually do not apply any additional sharpening.

***

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Playing Chicken

This is the first chicken I have owned.  I truly treasured and enjoyed seeing this beautiful bird, every day for four years.  She disappeared just as suddenly and unexpectedly as she first appeared.

***

Aerial Photography and Photo processing

Once upon a time, I used to own and run an Aerial Photography business, replete with an aeroplane and photographic equipment. I strictly used 35mm and 120 medium format film, back in those days. I was the Owner, Operator, Chief Pilot, Aircraft Mechanic and the Photographer.

***

Flying Tigers Kunming, People’s Republic of China

For those who appreciate history and dream of travelling to remote parts of the world to give context and meaning to what you read in history books, I lived my dream.

When I was a boy of 10 years of age, in 1964, I read John Toland’s, “The Flying Tigers” , about Retired USAAF Captain Claire Lee Chennault and his American Volunteer Group (AVG), who the Chinese peasantry called “Flying Tigers” (Fei Hu Dui).

Captain Chennault was invited by China’s Nationalist President, Chiang Kai Shek, and head of Japanese resistance, to assess and train a Chinese Air Force, that was inadequately equipped and prepared to defend China, from Japanese invasion.

Captain Chennault made his case to the War Department in Washington, D.C. for using pursuit aeroplanes to stop bombing raids. America was not at war. President Franklin Roosevelt signed an unpublicised Executive Order, 15 April 1941, eight months before Japan bombed Pearl Harbor, to allow reserve officers and enlisted men to resign from the Army, Navy, and Marines, to join the American Volunteer Group. Chennault’s tactics were discredited by those who believed air superiority was won and held by bombers. Chennault’s “Flying Circus”, demonstrated that pursuit aircraft could be flown in formation, when he tied rope between three aeroplanes, performed close formation aerobatic routine, and landed with all three aeroplanes still tied together. Of course, the war against the Japanese was won, in China, with credit attributed to Claire Lee Chennault and his Flying Tigers.

China apologists, Beijing and those who attempt to re-write history attribute victory to the Communist Chinese, BUT where were they? It was Chiang Kai Shek and Nationalist (Kuomintang) Chinese in cooperation with the Americans and its allies + two atom bombs that defeated the Japanese.

When I was a boy, I wanted to be like Chennault or his AVG Pilots. I daydreamed all the time about flying those Curtiss P-40 Kittyhawks and Warhawks, with their shark’s-mouth paint scheme. It might amaze you where dreams can lead a boy.

Imagine my absolute shock and disappointment that Chinese Communists, who later routed Chiang Kai Shek’s Nationalist Army, especially during the “Cultural Revolution” had desecrated the graves, kicked over headstones and grave markings, dug up the graves, exposing the bones of national heroes -just to prove what good Commies they were. Assholes, in my opinion and bigger assholes to encourage that level of disrespect for National Heroes! A very old Chinese man, perhaps in his 90s, pointed out the location and told me about these graves. I had contacted many people, including government officials in Kunming and the USAF and Flying Tigers associations and friends of . . . to show them my photos. I have just today (7 May 2019) learned that the cemetery and graves have been restored.

As you may know, Chiang Kai Shek and those closest to him and loyal to him fled to Taiwan (Formosa) . . . and Republic of China was subsequently established. Prior to that, it had been occupied by Japan, and a Japanese colony. Japan ceded governance when it surrendered to General MacArthur, aboard the USS Missouri, 2 September 1945. Prior to that, it was governed by other countries, but never by Communist China.

Thus, for Communist China to espouse and foist its “One China Policy” upon the West and neighboring countries, is complete bullshit and bullying. Historically, the main island of Taiwan or Formosa was never a break away province. The islands south of Taiwan, named Kinmen were part of Fujian Province, however.

In fact, Taiwan is a little island of democracy standing up for its right to exist. It has a separate government, a separate economy, a separate passport.

There endth the lesson. Don’t let anyone tell you any different, especially if they are sympathizers, Communist Chinese, or have a pecuniary interest in doing business with Communist China. https://flyingtigersavg.com/

***

Planned Obsolescence – By Design

Food for thought-

Was it merely my bad luck to own three Apple iMac desktop computers that all had bad displays/graphics card failures, since my first purchase a 24″, in 2009? Or, are they truly destined for the garbage, the day one opens the box?

I have an IBM XT clone, that I built, in about 2002, from sourcing various components, in a box, in my closet that still works, 100%. I do not use it merely because the Windows Operating System is too old and vulnerable to virus attack. Once in a while, I will remove it from the box and stoke the boiler to get up a head of steam before firing it up to retrieve data still on floppy disks. I have an ol’ HP laptop, from 2005, that still looks new and shiny, with Windows XP Sp3 Operating System that still works 100%. My wife has a 2008 Macbook she uses everyday at university.

Each of the aforementioned cost less than half of what I paid for the Apple iMac, yet have lasted almost twice as long.

The old adage, “You get what you pay for”, definitely does not apply in the case of the Apple iMac.

And, Apple’s attitude is all wrong . . . One Apple Advisor, named Ben, told me that my iMac “has worked for a reasonable amount of time”. Ben offered me $150 compensation. I told him it was insulting, considering the cost of a new iMac can be more than $7,000. I have endured long discussions and arguments with Sharon, another unsympathetic Apple Advisor. How about them apples!

So, Buyer Beware planned obsolescence is built into each Apple iMac and very likely other Apple products, such as iPads and iPhones. Why should it be necessary to purchase the latest and greatest? Why should the consumer be forced to upgrade the Operating System to one that no longer supports your software suite. For example, the last iteration of the Mac OS X Operating system that Nikon? Capture NX 2 (version 2.4.7, the last update offered) that it was compatible with was Mac OS X 10.9.5 Mavericks. That digital photo processing software was generously offered, by Nikon, as part of the package for my Nikon D3 and D3x professional cameras. It is the only software that I have used, so far, that accurately reads the Color Temperature of a photo captured as a raw image file (.NEF). Just because Apple has upgraded to MacOS X 10.14 Mojave, should I also rush out and buy a new Nikon camera, or purchase an inferior photo processing software, just because Apple says so?

Furthermore, why should basic peripheral devices, such as an Apple bluetooth keyboard and not-so-magic mouse be compatible with the latest Operating System. You would need a keyboard and mouse just to have basic access and functionality of your computer. Are we just suppose to throw out our computer, just because the keyboard and mouse are no longer compatible?

If none of this were not true, then why does Apple source inferior grade or “lowest bidder” components, not of their own design or manufacture to install in the iMac? If this were not true, why must Apple continually upgrade Operating Systems so that one’s current suite of software and peripheral devices (bluetooth keyboards and “Magic Mouse”) becomes obsolete and compatible with later versions of the Operating System, such as “10.11 or later”. Why would they force a person to buy a new keyboard and mouse, just because they upgrade Operating System? Apple traps its customers into a cycle of spend, spend, spend. How is it possible my keyboard and mouse from that IBM XT clone still function perfectly, after almost two decades?

Fuck Apple!

www.businessinsider.com.au/why-im-never-buying-an-apple-c…

***

If It Ain’t Broke, Don’t Fix It

Woolworths Espresso Select Coffee, is the best I have ever tasted. I have tried brands more costing than twice as much, with luxury-sounding fancy names or from exotic locations.

Woolworths simply updated its packaging. But, it is a different product. The Bar Code is the same, 9 300633 969547 .

As you can see the Original version of the coffee beans, from the brown bag are dark and oily and make a very nice cup of coffee. It is labeled “Strong“. The new Euro-styled black bag is labeled “Dark Roast”, whatever that means. Strong or piss weak, who knows. A huge caffeine hit or requires two cups to have the same effect as “Decaf”, who knows?

Even when ground you can see the richness of the Original coffee versus the New. The Original is dark and rich. The New is saw dust.

Worst part, the price is the same for a lesser quality product.

Why would Woolworths make such a change?

I suppose management didn’t think consumers would notice.

I contacted Woolworths to express my displeasure with this packaged trickery and misrepresentation.

***

Clean and Green State of Litter Everywhere

Does anyone care about the environment or Tasmania’s clean, green image we are selling to tourists, worldwide?

Here is evidence of the behind-the-scene truth about the glossy, eye-watering tourism ads and sensational headlines about clean, green, pristine Tasmania, the “Holiday Island”, tourism destination. What if bus loads of Chinese tourists, whose tourism dollars our State so desperately depends upon, saw this waterfront rubbish, instead of the wafting fields of lavender, Cradle Mountain, Freycinet, and other over-sold and over-priced destinations? Might remind them of the banks of the Yangtze River, in China.

The amount of litter, just in this one location, along the River Derwent, is mind-boggling.

Add “trade waste” to this litter and jetsam in Tasmania’s drinking water sources, and I just do not believe the State would be able to do a better job than TasWater.

Photographs above were taken: 18 August 2017 and an email was sent to the Office of the Premier.

Note: Received a letter from MP Matthew Groom, dated 6 Sep 2017, regarding litter.
“. . . It is disappointing to see evidence of littering such as that shown in your photographs.

Littering of this nature is a complex issue that needs to be addressed through a range of measures and by working with a variety of stakeholders . . . “

I could have written that response myself. In other words, this issue is put into the “Too Hard basket”, because there is almost no cooperation or coordinated effort between the “variety of stakeholders”.

A year from now, the litter will still be there, if not washed out to sea.

All wasted words from a politician, who has since left office, presumably for greener pastures.

***

Difference between a photo taken with a real camera and an iPhone

***

Other than pretty pictures

I handheld the 3.0kg Nikon 500mm f/4.0P lens, to take this shot.

Imagine trying to find a target, with a 4.94° Diagonal Field of View, get the focus and exposure right, just in the very small amount of time the target has been acquired. Challenging, to say the least.

I originally had the lens mounted on a tripod, but just could not change it fast enough along a horizontal and vertical axis.

So, I do not know the angular inclination of the lens above the horizon.

If the aircraft was straight overhead, it might be simple mathematics, knowing the physical dimensions of the aircraft, comparing the number of pixels the wing or fuselage length occupy to the dimensions of the Sensor.

The Wings are nearly parallel to the Hypotenuse formed by the diagonal line on the sensor. and in reality that rectangular area would be perpendicular to the axis from the Circle of Confusion on the Sensor to the middle underside of the aircraft’s fuselage. I depicted it in this way merely to give you some idea what I have been up to for the past couple days or so.

Because the aircraft is flying away at some angle and the wings is not precisely aligned with the Hypotenuse, actual pixel count seems more of a guess.

For example, knowing the wing from tip-to-tip is 36 feet (10.9728 meters) and the fuselage length is 28.25 feet (8.6106 meters) . . . I have measured between 987.5 pixels for the wing span . . . When comparing that to the length of the fuselage, the pixel count seems incorrect . . . Or, doing a pixel count of the fuselage, taking a ratio and applying that to the wing, the pixel count will be off. Frustrating.

There must be an accurate and predictable method, but I have not played with mathematics on this level in a very, very long time. Believe it or not, I designed a rocket, at university, but that was more than four decades into my past. I was smarter, then, or had many more active brain cells working for me.

What this demonstrates is that photography is more than just pretty pictures.

Possible solution:

Right Triangle

tanTheta = b/a

tan(2.47°) = 0.043136357952622

b = 3,634.45

a × tan(2.47°) = b

a = 84254.9109962412 pixels
(Note: this will be from the Focal Plane to the belly of the aeroplane, between the main landing gear))

                                                             sinTheta = b/c

                                                             sin(2.47°) = 0.043096280984403

                                                             c × sin(2.47°) = b

                                                             c = 84333.2630329656

Taking a piece of paper, hold it parallel to the Span of the Wing, that is taken from a point in the middle of each wingtip and one gets 987.5 pixels. We know the Wing Span of this NACA 2412 type of wing on a Cessna U206G is 35 feet 10 inches (+/- 2 inches, depending on references) and is 987.5 pixels. The Wing Tip uses a NACA 0012 type of aerofoil and measures 3 feet, 8.5 inches.

The Wing Span is a known number.

So, I would want to know the number of pixels/foot of wing span.

If 987.5 pixels ÷ 35.83333 feet, then I would have 27.5581395348837 pixels/foot

Taking excerpts from the above:
a = 84254.9109962412 pixels ÷ 27.5581395348837 pixels/foot = 3,057.3512007072 feet from the Focal Plane to the belly of the Cessna, between the Main Landing Gear.

This is plausible. That still does not give me the height above the ground.

This may not be correct, though.

Why?

In the photo of the aeroplane, the Fuselage length appears longer than the Wing Span, but we know this is not true, as the Fuselage Length is 28.25 feet, as compared to the Wing Span of 35.83333 feet.

Measuring the Fuselage Length, I arrive at 865 pixels.

865 pixels ÷ 28.25 feet = 30.6194690265487 pixels/foot

35.833333 ÷ 28.25 = 1.26843657699115

How does this ratio compare with the pixels/foot count?

987.5 ÷ 865 = 1.14161849710983

Do you see the difference and the dilemma I have?

This is probably due to a parallax. How do I resolve that?

84254.9109962412 ÷ 30.6194690265487 = 2751.67772906799

3,057.3512007072 – 2751.67772906799 = 305.673471639207

Big difference! Which is correct? Is there a mathematical solution to know for certain?

How about this addition to the confusion? Measuring the Right Wingtip it is found to be 95 pixels and 3.70833333333333 feet or 25.6179775280899 pixels per foot.

Let’s average the three pixels/foot counts. That would equal 27.9318620298408 pixels per foot

So, my best guess for the distance from the Focal Plane to the aircraft belly would be:

84254.9109962412 ÷ 27.9318620298408 = 3016.44447857533 feet

This is more plausible, though still does not give me the height above the ground of the aircraft.

3016.44447857533 feet becomes the new hypotenuse (c) to determine Height of the aircraft above the ground.

It would not be too far fetched to assume 3,000 feet above ground. And, the angle I held the big 500mm lens at could have been as much as 84° above the horizon. Maybe. All a guess, really.

I would guess 2,500 feet, considering the surrounding hilltops are approaching 1,500 feet or 457 meters. Too many variables.

***

Moral Compass

For those whom have lost their way, your moral compass garnishes this defunct religious bastion.

Congregational Church (c. 1883), 47 Davey Street, Hobart

One thing about religion that puzzles me . . . For a period of time a religion and its place of worship seems relevant, well attended and worth killing or dying for. Glorious monuments are built to celebrate it or battered to near total destruction only to be superseded by an equally flimsy and fractious congregation. After a while, both cease to be relevant or well attended or worth defending. Soon afterward, the religious edifice, if it survived bombardment and conflagration or neglect, is sold in preference for the one true omnipotent entity –MONEY.

Should one’s faith be as temporary and purchasable?

***

Quality Control?

This circuit board was within a two-slice toaster, Made-in-China, that stopped working. Toasters are not very durable or reliable, lasting not more than two years, regardless how expensive they are. The above photo shows the most likely reason. Does anything more need to be written?

***

Economics 101

Consider the Cash rate or Exchange Rate:

High Value-
• Great for overseas travel.
• Great for importers.
• Great for shoppers/consumers for foreign-made products, which is almost everything on our store shelves -including food.
• Bad for those whose salary is paid in foreign currency.
• Bad for exporters from Australia, such as wine industry exports.
• Bad for egregious-profit-seeking businesses.
• Bad for wealthy Chinese sending their brats here for an education, to set up small side Daigou ( ?? ) enterprises buying Baby Formula, Vitamins and other products to sell at three times as much, back in China.
• Bad for wealthy Chinese real estate investors snapping up apartment and office buildings and a dairy at bargain basement prices.
• Bad for the Tourism Industry reliant upon visitors from overseas.

• In short, great for the little guy, but bad for the Big end of town •

***

Do not be afraid to challenge yourself. Or, the evolution of my success.

Photographers are a very strange crowd. Most photographs of an Aurora Borealis (Northern Lights) or Aurora Australis (Southern Lights), you will not find any “how to” information or camera settings, as if it is a military secret or as if would compromise their genius and creative skill set to give a clue. My advice is, don’t ask, just go out and do it. My images turned out superior to a “local Hobart expert” who gives “aurora tours and workshops” for about $50.00, believe it, or not!

How I did it:

Just before 8:23 p.m., 07 October, while closing the upstairs bedroom window curtains, I saw an amazing Aurora Australis bloom. I decided to grab a few photos.

I started at 4,350°K 1600ISO, f/4.0, and 25 sec and as it became more visible, I was shooting at 640ISO, f/1.4, and 15 sec.

I decided that is could only get better and packed the car for a drive to a location on South Arm, that I scouted back on 20 September. It would take more than an hour to reach the location.

Everything looks different in the dark. I turned up three different dirt tracks toward the south-facing shoreline that were wrong. Returning to C330, I found the correct track, just prior to midnight.

How disappointing. I talked with a couple other photographers, who left before me. I took five photos, “I was there.” I decided to return home and took a shortcut to a familiar haunt. Glad I did.

The camera was set-up, initially, to what I had set for South Arm, that is 1600ISO, f/2.8, and 15sec. Whoa! Over-exposed.

I backed it off to 400ISO, f/2.8, and 15 sec. At that setting, I changed it to Incandescent (Nikon) or Tungsten (Canon, which coincides with 3,000°K, and 3,800°K (a local, French photographer’s recommendation), 4,440°K, Daylight 5,500°K, 6,450°K (as near to a calibrated computer screen at 6,500°K and 2.2 Gamma), and Auto White Balance.

Oh, what crap! Is all I can say. The sensor seems to become sensitive to different colours or changes the colours from observed. Also, as we have had fires in Tasmania, and at the shoreline and busy farmers, there is a lot of atmospheric haze.

To my untrained eyes, the observed greens closer to a Staedtler yellow highlighter. Supposedly reds are not visible to the naked eyes, but I could perceive reds, other times blues. The Aurora was constantly changing, sometimes making horizontal S-shapes, at other times well-defined radiating lines, and still other times, a combination or variation.

IF, IF possible, when the Aurora Index is at least 6, I would suggest using not more than 400ISO, due to electronic (digital) Noise. After all these years, two areas my photography suffer is treating Noise and Sharpening. I try not to be too aggressive with either, though aware that display sharpening is different from print sharpening.

Another thought, I would try to use a shorter exposure time than 15 sec. Though using a wide angle lens, i.e. 28mm, when viewed on my computer screen at 100 to 400%, stars are slightly elongated. So, I will consider using 10 to 8 seconds, but I will have to use a wider Aperture.

Also, it will take the eyes a bit of time to “dark adapt”, even after using headlights from your vehicle, or a torch (flashlight for Yankees), and believe it or not, viewing the LCD screen on your camera. When your eyes are properly dark adapted, then you can really see. When I was in the military, we allowed 45 minutes to fully dark-adapt our eyes. If you happen to have an oxygen tank available, you can pre-breathe oxygen to facilitate your dark adaptation.

Well, this was my first real attempt to photograph the Aurora Australis. I think it turned out OK. You have got to have a plan. The last photo was published in The Mercury online edition and remained at the top of the page for two days. I was told it was the talk of the office, that day.

***

Setting up a Home Studio:

Typically, I use a “minimalist” two light set up, but the backdrop ends up poorly illuminated and a bit grey. All of this gear stores neatly into trunks and boxes. It will take a fair bit of time to exhume all of it. More to set it up and make adjustments. I will measure each light output for illumination and colour temperature. I am interested in equal lighting and equal colour temperature head-to-toe from each light. I would like the backdrop to be evenly illuminated without blown-out highlights and as near to white as possible. I do not want any strong shadows behind the mannequin, or under the chin or nose, yet have just enough shadow to show facial structure.

Of three different studio light set-ups I tried, this is the one that gives me the most flexibility, even lighting and separation of the subject from the background.

Many photographers use one light with a set of barn doors to illuminate the backdrop, but that causes a semi-circular or half moon halo (highlight) effect to one side of the subject. I prefer continuous even lighting across the backdrop.

I replaced the mannequin with a fully clothed human subject, to verify my planning and set-up, with good results.

Notes:

If I had a larger area to work with, I suppose I could get wild and crazy setting up lights. I have two more 1000 watt-second lights, huge octagonal softboxes, etc., but this set-up suits a limited space of 25 feet (L) X 12.5 (W) feet working area, and a backdrop that covers a floor area of 10.5 feet (L) X 9.5 feet (W).

I find that 400 watt-second lights are good enough. Though 600 watt-seconds are a good alternative, but have to dial them down to Minimum or move them further away. That is right. If a Studio Light is already set at MINIMUM 1/8 Power, then move it further away or change the light-modifier to reduce the amount of illumination.

I tried shoot through and reflective umbrellas, but the set-up in this photo rendered the best result.

I used a snoot with a crosshairs made from wire tie-wraps to aim the lights, accurately, during initial set-up and adjusted as necessary.

Further information:

One photo was done using an in camera set White Balance of 5,000°K, based on measurements taken with a Gossen ColorMaster III. Another photo was taken with AUTO White Balance, set in-camera. In truth, I did not like either. WHAT!

I am really big on colour accuracy. I have spared no expense or effort towards that end result.

In Photoshop, I mixed the two photos, did multi-pass sharpening (not too aggressive, though).

Then, I opened the photos in Nikon’s Capture NX2 at 100%. I always will do that as a final perceptual test. I decided the photo needed a bit of colour correction, still, plus contrast, as the backdrop seemed a bit dull-bluish-grey. So, I sweetened it and selected D-Lighting (Fast) because “Better Quality (HQ)” did nothing for me. Then, I cropped just the head and shoulders and overlaid that onto the studio light set-up image, so you can see the result.

Note how the mannequin form and colour really stands out from the backdrop, almost 3 dimensional and the lighting is very even, nil shadows under the nose, nostrils, and only slightly, under then chin.

The actual photo of the mannequin was taken with a Nikon D3x and Hasselblad 503CWD.

The photo presented here, using the Nikon D80, was for documentary purposes, only.

What got me going down this path was the seemingly deliberate lack of information by a majority of Photographers whom tout themselves “Fashion Photographers” or shoot in a studio environment. They will have all sorts of software-generated diagrams that do not actually yield too much information. Some will cite measuring a light or setting a light at some certain f/stop or ratio to another light, but that does not translate into any usable information, in reality. Just makes them seem like they have magical powers or “true professionals”. Change one thing, in their or my set-up and it will change how the light falls on the subject and how it will be recorded by the camera’s sensor. Move a light forward or aft one foot, will change the light. So, unless they provide exact placement of the lights, angles, distances, type of light (watt-seconds) and its power setting, then it is all useless information.

Throughout my studio set-up, I measured the light, at ISO50, 1/200sec, and it yielded f/8.0, including head-to-toe of the mannequin. I also measured colour temperature throughout the scene, which will change with the output of the studio light, angle, distance. It was all very close to 5,000°K, except the soft box nearest the clock, which yielded 4,800°K, but it turned out OK, anyway.

By the way, I do have Radio Triggers, such as cheap Chinese-manufactured junk (my least favourite, and I have Pocket Wizard IIs, but I prefer the old-fashioned PC-Sync Cord, because it is flawless and actually allows higher Flash Sync Speeds than Radio Triggers. True.

Lastly, so many of these “true professionals” or Model Mayhem website wannabe Fashion Photographers, mysterious guardians of information, and professors of studio lighting have the wildest lighting set-ups, as if it makes them more professional than someone who achieves the same result with one light or using natural light from a window, but, you can see for yourself that lighting set-ups do not have to be complicated and wild. I think the more complicated, the more room for error, a component failure, tripping over wires, dropping the camera, knocking over a light stand, et cetera.

So, there you have the method to my madness, in excruciating detail.

***

Were you born holding a Nikon D4 or Canon EOS 1D X? 

Model: Aimee

Tried a bit of Fashion Photography with the Nikon D80, back in 2009, when this photo was taken. It was not a bad camera, in its day. It was a DX Sensor, of 10.2 million pixels, “effectively”, according to Nikon, whatever the hell “effectively” means. The Sony CCD ICX493AQA 10.14 Sensor size is 23.6 mm x 15.8 mm, with an image area of 3,872 x 2,592 pixels. Truthfully, I did not know then, what I know today about digital photography. Before the Nikon D80, I used a Nikon F4S 35mm film camera, which I still have. I could probably write a book about what I didn’t know, especially about the value of taking photographs in NEF (Raw), to enable me to extract the most out of an image. I didn’t know or appreciate that a computer screen or monitor needed to be color calibrated . . . as I was still using an old Windows laptop that was pretty limited or limiting. I didn’t know half of what I know about processing and post-processing. And, almost every day I am learning a new technique. Well, even the “Photogs” with their noses upraised high in the air, whom would never lower themselves to have a Flickr account, are represented by an Agency, shooting for Vogue or those whom advertise the title “Grand Master of Photography”, by the AIPP, whom I never heard of, until 2011, when I returned from living and working in Shanghai . . . Except for those whom were born with a camera in their hands, we all started somewhere. I was first published in a magazine, in 1992, which paid for my photos, as well, though they were taken with a Minolta 35mm film camera, because I could not afford even a used Nikon. That’s where I got my start. Something to think about.

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Save Your Marginal Digital Images – Here’s why

 

I took this photo at Eaglehawk Neck, on the Tasman Peninsula of Hippolyte Rocks Island, on the horizon, last year, during winter months, in Tasmania, on a gloomy day. Typically, I hibernate when the weather is cold and gloomy. My wife was participating in an Irish dancing competition, which gave me sufficient time to fill the hours, rather than sitting in an auditorium, listening to repetitive Irish jigs and reels. This photo began life as a muted NEF (Nikon Electronic Format) Raw file. It did not impress me. I placed it into my external hard drive into the “blah” bin. I decided to take a second look at the image, as I had thoughts for processing, which might be able to make the viewer seem to be there, sharing the experience, the sound of the waves crashing against the cliff face, the smell of the damp, salty air, feeling the chill, and seeing the Hippolyte Rocks Island and Thumbs in the distance. I tried three programs to process the NEF. Each program, on its own, yielded disappointing results. One, made the image too Sharp, to the point when I viewed it at 200% or 300%, I could see a brightened Halo. I want my image to be sharp enough to see the structure of the rocks and water drops, without the halo. As I would see it in real life. Correct Sharpness is always a challenge for me. There are a lot of words written on the subject . . . And, I must say that I have seen absolutely stunning images out-of-focus. Sharpness is not everything, always. Depends on the subject and what artistic impression a photographer wants to render. I did process this image as a monochrome and what I liked about the black&white is that it rendered the clouds in the background and the sea with form and realistic dimension. Hmmm, got me wondering about a colour version. Tried my usual processing methods, but I was not satisfied, which is the reason I initially rejected the image. I persisted. I processed the NEF using three different Nikon Picture Controls, leaving the Sharpness dialled back to maybe 2. I used a second software to combine the three TIFs, because I just cannot do it using Nikon’s Capture NX2. There does seem to be a bug in the Nikon software, because it will have a smaller version embedded and that will not allow it to be post-processed using other software, until the embedded smaller image is removed. Once the three TIFs were combined, I used a program to reduce the haze, which is common throughout Tasmania. Then I imported the huge 300+mb image back to Nikon Capture NX2 to view it at 200%, darkened it to show any spots clearly, removed them, and then restored the image back to correct Exposure. Next, I selectively modified contrast and saved the file, just in case. Next, I selectively reduced the Exposure Levels & Curves and saved the image. Next, I began to work on Sharpness, bringing the image up to 300%, looking at tree branches and rock crevasses for Halo or the brightness of the Halo and reduced it to the point where it was barely visible, yet Sharp, then viewed the image at 100%. Next I decided to Crop the image, asking my wife’s opinion with each variation, as women see things and use their brains differently from men. She preferred the image in its entirety. I must say I attempted processing this image a few times, already. I gave it a big effort, again, last night, until past 11:00, to my wife’s displeasure, thinking I was ignoring her. I was on a roll. I finished it this morning, which is presented here. I am guessing a film image might have taken just as long to process. Moral of the story. Never delete a marginal digital image. You may learn a new processing or post-processing technique.

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Studio Portrait – Au naturel

In the above photo I removed four spots on the backdrop and a couple pieces of lint on the dress. That was it. That is all I ever want to do with any photo, to minimise the amount of time at the computer processing and post-processing. When a Model is truly beautiful, why would anyone want to make her skin look like plastic? I truly dislike photographs of Models that have their skin Photoshopped to the point of having no pores or looking like a plastic Barbie Doll, the domain and standard of typical downtown photography Studio assembly line “looks” they charge dearly for. No human really looks like that. If a Model’s complexion is that bad, wait for her hormones to subside or photograph a different Model. The Model is 65 inches tall. The camera was mounted on a tripod, 8.5 feet away and 44.5 inches above the floor. Colour Temperature was 5,260°K. When setting up the lights, I used a snoot to aim the lights, accurately, before putting the beauty dishes on. One 600 watt-second light with beauty dish at 30° angle to Model on the right side. Beauty dish with a grid. One 600 watt-second light with beauty dish at 30° angle to Model on the left side. Beauty dish with a grid. One 400 watt-second light illuminating the backdrop. I should have set the Power 1 Stop higher, in retrospect. One 400 watt-second light with snoot pointed at a white ceiling used to discharge other lights. The camera settings were ISO 50, 1/250X, f/11.0, using a PC-Sync Cord 16 feet, 4 inches in length, allowing 1/250sec Flash Sync Speed.

***

Bright Idea

Sitting home with nothing to do, itching to go out to take photos, but the weather is uncooperative? Challenge yourself! Challenge what you can do with a camera. Have you ever seen the tungsten filament of an incandescent light bulb clearly, while it is illuminated? Ever wonder why the filament breaks in an incandescent light bulb? In the above photograph, the point of this photo, is to prove the Tungsten Filament vibrates at very high speed with the 240 Volts 50Hz or 50cps running through it. Not even 1/8000sec Shutter Speed can completely stop it, as is evident in the reflection of the heated-glowing filament, lower in the bulb. The light bulb socket was mounted on a tripod, as was the Micro-Nikkor 200mm f/4 lens and Nikon D3x camera. A remote release was used, as was mirror up mode, to minimise vibration. Yet the two photos I merged were the only two that the Tungsten Filament were closely aligned. One photo was taken with no electricity to the Light Bulb, while focused on the tungsten filament, just so I could expose the socket-mounting. Another photo was taken with electricity running through the bulb and the filament heated-glowing white hot or nearly so, taken at 1/8000sec, the filament support wires are very sharp and clear, and the rest of the bulb and socket are deliberately under-exposed, but in this combined photo, the filament and support wires are slightly blurred from its not-so-apparent vibration. This is one reason that incandescent bulbs do not last and their filaments break, from repeated heating and cooling and stretching and continuous vibration when electricity is passing through the filament, eventually weakening the filament, until it breaks.

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(Sensor) Size Matters

There is a strong argument for the immediacy of photography done with a camera-phone, such as the Apple iPhone and others, for social media websites, such as Facebook. Could you make a high definition wall-size photograph from a camera-phone photograph? Highly doubtful. Why? See the above comparison photographs of a lavender flower, measuring approximately 5mm (3/16″) across. Physics is working against a person capturing an image with a camera-phone. Then, there is just no comparison between a Hasselblad or Nikon lens and the lens found on a camera-phone. To make a fair comparison, I tried to take a photograph of the lavender flower, nine times, to no avail. Sensor size does matter.

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Nikon D3X auction on ebay – Buyer beware!

Regardless how promising an ebay Seller’s auction may seem – Buyer beware! Presently, I am the proud new owner of a “perfect” Nikon D3X, with merely 250 shutter actuations, original box, instruction manual, and accessories, that has been rendered inoperative due to perished Nikon EN-EL4a batteries . . . all three, that were part of the auction! After much correspondence back and forth, the ebay Seller has at last agreed to refund $300.00 to purchase two new Nikon EN-EL4a batteries. What about the third? Should anyone have to go through this? What does “perfect” mean to you?

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Not supporting Australian retailers – Here’s why!

My first stop was at a local photographic retail shop, and then a second, where I was quoted $349.00 Recommended Retail Price or List Price for just one genuine Nikon EN-EL4a Lithium-ion Battery. When I balked, I was told by the sales assistant that he could match the price of a retailer on “the mainland”, looked it up and told me he could do it for $238.00 AUD and the other quoted $228.00 AUD. Wow! What a bargain. And, I intended to buy two batteries. That would have cost me $501.60 AUD. Then, I told the sales assistant the price on the original box was $149.99 USD, thus I will check online. I found the same batteries on ebay for $157.00 AUD each, including FEDEX Shipping. I purchased two, for $314.00 AUD. That was a whopping $187.60 savings! Are such retail mark-ups justified? If it would have cost me $10.00 to $20.00 more, then I would have made an immediate purchase, in the shop, but certainly not for 60% more than what it should righteously have cost me. Australian retailers just don’t get it. They have complained bitterly to the government to impose taxes on all imports, to discourage online purchases, outside Australia. I think you will agree with me, Australian retailers are over-priced and are merely greedy bastards!

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Keep it simple

While Nikon creates some great photographic equipment, don’t you think it would be appropriate to include instructions with accessories, though instructions are buried within their camera instruction manuals? As there are no separate instructions to replace a Focusing Screen, I have created a one page set of instructions how-to replace the standard Type-B Focusing Screen with a Type-E Focusing Screen. Email me here, if you would like a PDF copy of the above.

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Digital versus Film?

Though I create photos using a Nikon D3 or Hasselblad 503CWD, (digital cameras) I truly miss the physical process of loading a roll of film into a camera, the simple choices and camera settings I had to make about capturing a subject or scene on film. I would take that roll of film to someone who specialises in film processing, then wait up to one week to collect the photos and see my results, good or bad. In 21st century photography, I probably spend more time sometimes using up to three photo-processing software applications to process one photo than I do actually taking 12, 24, or 36 photographs, as in the photograph above. The above photo was created using my Nikon D3, along a roadside. EXIF data reveals that I used a 45mm f/2.8 lens, 100ISO, 1/125 second shutter speed, and f/11.0 aperture. What attracted me to this landscape scene were the variety of colours, the clouds obscuring most of the sky, the purity of the blue sky, and of course, the mountain. In retrospect, I should have mounted the camera on a tripod, measured the Colour Temperature, et cetera. However, I was en route to another destination that was still two hours away and made the photograph in haste. If you submit to the postulate that to create great photographs, one should never rush, then all one has to do is look at the numerously published photographs for one of the most famous Manhattan, New York (street) Photographers, William J. Cunningham. He barely puts the camera to his eye.

In the above photo, I first processed the raw image file (on the left) in Nikon’s CaptureNX2 software, converting the NEF image to a TIF image, then migrated the image to Adobe Lightroom 5. I did not like the result. I imported the Nikon raw NEF image file, directly into Adobe Lightroom 5, selected the Nikon D3 camera profile, moved up to Lens Corrections, including Rotation, then Sharpening, removed dust spots, et al, then Exported the image as a TIF file. As I was still not completely satisfied, I imported that image to a Noise reduction program, then into Adobe Photoshop CS5 only using a plug-in to reduce Haze, which modifies contrast, colour, and other parameters. Using that plug-in requires much trial and error. I saved that image and then combined two images and adjusted the mix in Photoshop. As I was still not satisfied, I had imported the image into CaptureNX2, and made final adjustments and corrections. One refinement or correction to a digitally captured image that I most often need to make is levelling. I do not recall having such a problem keeping a film camera level. When I created photographs using film, exclusively, the photo on the left would have been likely dismissed and never seen the light of day. The resulting image on the right was my fourth attempt to salvage the original image on the left, since it was first captured, 20 December 2011. I am reasonably satisfied, with the final result. I truly wish there could be one photo processing software that includes the features of Nikon CaptureNX2, Nik Silver Efex and Dfine, Adobe Photoshop CS5, with the simplicity and ease of use found in Lightroom 5. One improvement that all photo processing software could use is a better or more accurate method to sharpen an image. Adobe Lightroom 5 employs a small loupe. It needs to be much larger to use accurately. Another frustration I suffer from is that various photo processing software strips EXIF data to some degree or completely from an image. When I contemplate the aforementioned discourse, I begin to wonder when a subject captured in a photograph created with a digital camera, then processed, and further corrected or refined using software migrates away from the Photographer’s original concept toward artistic rendering or artistic interpretation. Is it still a photograph created by the process of photography, by definition? What differentiates the image on the right from Computer Generated Imagery (CGI) used in Hollywood? One noted Australian Photographer, Peter Eastway, dared suggest that Ansel Adams certainly would have used Photoshop, if it were available, in his time, as the magic of his images were really created in the darkroom. Blasphemy! -to a photography purist.

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Nikon D3 Digital SLR versus Nikon F4S

Other than convenience and the ability to see the results of the photograph you just took, immediately, considering the process to achieve an image worthy of publishing or printing, is the modern Digital Single Lens Reflex (DSLR) camera, like the Nikon D3 which is already obsolete, truly superior to its venerable older sibling the Nikon F4, for example?

Assuming you have decided to take a simple studio portrait, with the Nikon D3 and Nikon AF Nikkor 85mm f/1.4D Portrait Lens attached, studio lights have been arranged and metered. The backdrop has been set up. Your metering method determined that you will expose the photo at 100ISO, 1/125sec shutter speed and f/11.0 aperture. You will capture the image in NEF or Raw format. Now, the challenges to creating the perfect photo begin.

You want the colours and tone to be perfect. Exactly what you see, that is. Will you use AUTO White Balance, the thoughtless and careless solution or Preset White Balance using a Grey Card or Expodisc (Neutral or Warm versions) or a Datacolor SpyderCube or an X-rite Gretag-Macbeth ColorChecker or maybe the $1,500 option using a professional-grade Colour Temperature Meter to set only an approximate Colour Temperature in the Nikon D3?

Is your computer screen calibrated? Are you using 6,500°Kelvin and 2.2 Gamma or some other setting? Is your post-production software using the same ICC colour profile, either Nikon sRGB 4.0.0.3002 or Nikon Adobe sRGB 4.0.0.3001? Next, consideration on the Shooting Menu list is what Picture Control will you set in the camera? And, what value have you set Sharpening, Contrast, Brightness, Saturation, and Hue? The default Colour space is Nikon sRGB 4.0.0.3002. It should be noted here that some Colour Space aficionados recommend using Nikon Adobe sRGB 4.0.0.3001, while others recommend ProPhoto RGB, before converting the NEF to TIF, in the processing software, such as Capture NX 2, and then converting the saved TIF Colour Profile to Nikon sRGB 4.0.0.3002 and saving it as a JPG file. The aforementioned discussion about achieving what-you-see-is-what-you-get colour and tonality was all previously entrusted to trained specialists in a photo processing lab, who often had years of experience. As modern Photographers, it is incumbent upon us to spend, at least, an equal amount of time and energy learning software idiosyncrasies and methodology, then develop a “workflow” or routine to get that photograph we took from Raw format to an image we would be proud to exhibit. Welcome to the world of digital photography.

By contrast, a Photographer could be completely computer illiterate and still take award winning photographs with the Nikon F4 camera to his eye. Personally, I do not believe any of Nikon’s professional DSLR cameras have nor will live up to the reputation the F4 righteously earned. Our lust for modern convenience and immediate results introduced digital photography to the layman and caused the demise of iconic film companies, like Kodak, that has been in existence since 1889. Scanned images of film are at least equally as good as digitally produced images and often better, in my experience. Can you differentiate between the film and digital images in my portfolios?

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Ever had MSWord crash, just as you typed the last word or about to Save?

Typewriters don’t crash!

Consider modern society’s frustration with software compatibility after upgrading their computer operating system, software viruses, computer crashes, and accidentally deleted or over-written .doc files. There was none of that with the typewriter. Supersede your frustration with something obsolete. Supersede obsolescence.

***

$127.22 Bosch Crankshaft Position Sensor “kaputs” $160,000.00 Mercedes-Benz E500

Crankshaft Position Sensor, manufactured by Bosch for Mercedes-Benz, Part Number A 003 153 27 28 was superseded by Part Number A 003 153 28 28. Price $127.22

This single Crankshaft Position Sensor replaced the conventional mechanical timing method of a reciprocating engine using a Distributor, Rotor, Top-Dead-Center Timing Mark and Points. The Crankshaft Position Sensor sends a signal providing rotational speed of the Crankshaft and Angular Position of the Flywheel to the car’s Engine Management Computer.

This single, small, plastic encased, $127.22 part can cause the engine to quit running, unpredictably, which cannot be restarted, in a luxury automobile costing more than $160,000.00, before optional extras, dealer delivery and preparation costs, tax and license! If you are lucky enough to have the part fail, in front of the Garage, it will cost no more than $205.00 to get you back on the road.

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Telco debacle

Which Telco bright spark telephone installation and repair technician installed the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) Drop Wire Connector Box under the gutter? It has a snap-fit or clip-on plastic cover and is not waterproof. Inside the several wires, including the Earth Wire for the Lightning Arrestor were corroded. Hmmm. I wonder why? Can you imagine the installer was actually trained and licenced to make this installation!

Are you getting your money’s worth? From December 1, 2011 to present, more than one year, by now, I have been trying to get telecommunications service that I pay nearly $180 per month for telephone, mobile (cell) phone, and ADSL2+ Broadband Internet on a combined service plan. My telecommunications provider has “offshored” its Call Centre staff to some developing country, where the cost of labour is cheap. When my call has been answered by frontline Technical Support staff, from one of those developing economies, I find it very difficult to understand their heavily accented English, regardless how polite and helpful they try to be. Without actually listening to my query or complaint about the service, they will merely read from a list of scripted questions. No matter to what degree I explain my troubleshooting steps to the Technical Support staff, they always will ask the same questions I had just provided the answers to, such as, “Do you have green lights on your modem?” or “Do you have an in-line filter connected to every telephone, alarm system, fax in your residence?” and down the script they read, as instructed to do so, during their induction training. It leaves one to wonder whether or not these foreign Technical Support personnel have any technical, telephony, or even basic electrical training. Meanwhile, I feel my face is flush with unspeakable frustration, as I had previously told them all those troubleshooting steps and more, at which point I ask to speak to a representative in my country or their manager. This leads to miscommunication, misunderstanding, and my rising frustration level, like a mercurial thermometer. I am very capable troubleshooting electronics. I built my first radio, when I was ten years old. Though I do not hold a degree in electrical engineering, am not a certified electrician, have received no formal training in the repair of electronics, I can repair almost anything.

It was promised that I would have my ADSL2+ compatible modem (Technicolor brand) delivered within five working days. However, it took nearly two weeks to receive it in the mail from my Internet Service Provider. Once it was received, I attached the telephone line filter C10245M, that was provided, along with Ethernet RJ45 Cat5 Cable, setup the new modem. With the modem switched On and making or receiving a telephone call simultaneously, I would hear a loud hissing noise in the telephone handset. I replaced all the in-line filters with new C10245M filters . . . same result. I removed one telephone at a time from each room . . . same result. Regardless what combination I tried, I would hear a loud hissing noise. I pursued this issue with my telecommunications service provider during the course of countless telephone calls and discussions with technical support staff. At the end of each telephone call, I was disappointed and frustrated with the lack of progress or results. I had scheduled a telephone repairman to inspect and test my telephone lines, for a possible cause for the noise. Before he arrived, I checked the installation outside my residence and discovered copper wires green with corrosion. When that first telephone repairman came to my residence, he told me that if I have more than three telephones and devices connected, such as alarm system and fax, that I should have a Central Filter installed. It took nearly ten months to learn that bit of information. My telephone lines indoors had no faults. I did more research on the subject of telephone line noise with ADSL2+ and pressed my case with the Internet Service Provider, as it is a well known common problem. Prior to my Google research, I had no idea that Public Switched Telephone Network telephones and lines induce line noise when the phone is on the hook and idle. The telecommunications service provider knows this, but do not divulge that bit of information, providing misinformation, or try to divert one’s attention by getting the consumer to upgrade components, at our expense, because they do not want to be out-of-pocket to make it right, from the start. The telecommunications provider will provide a minimum acceptable level of service and infrastructure for the maximum amount of profit. The telephone and internet service provider agreed to install a C10 Communications/NetComm C10100E Central Filter, waiving the $30.00 cost, plus installation fee.

The hissing noise was cured. Though I live a mere 779 metres (cable run) from the Exchange, my internet connection became unstable. The modem’s down synchronisation speed varied from from approximately 700 kbps to just over 22,000 kbps. My modem had been upgraded four times by the Internet Service Provider. The first one had overheated, after a few months normal service and the second one had a faulty power supply that overheated. Presently, I am on my second Technicolor 797n v3 ADSL2+ Modem (costing $96.00, provided free of charge), with a C10100E Central Filter installed and a “stability profile” executed by the Internet Service Provider. My modem synchronisation speed upload is 747 kbps and down load is 18,072 kbps. Bear in mind it took more than one year pursuing the matter with my telecommunications provider to achieve this. Am I getting what I paid for? I feel it is mediocre service at best.

As the National Broadband Network (NBN) rolls out across the country and governing our country has changed hands from the Labour Party to the Liberal Party, so has the NBN rollout plan. The Labour Party planned to have the NBN fibre optic cables installed to every business and home, at a greater cost. However, the Liberal Party will install the NBN fibre optic cable to a node to save money. From my experience, the obsolete and worn-out Telstra copper cable network from (the exchange) that node to the business or home will be the real choke point for internet traffic. When was the last time the copper network from your business or home has been inspected and serviced? Are the connectors loose? Are the connections and copper wire corroded? Has the copper wire been spliced together from being cut by a workman’s hovel or backhoe? Is the copper wire subjected to moisture? In my opinion, the Liberal Party has not thought their NBN rolls plans through, in their quest to reduce the size of the budget deficit. This is an example of how politics affects everyday lives.

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Digitus Impudicus

Or, this entry should be titled, “The Truth Hurts Doesn’t It?” I make no apologies for telling-it-like-it-is. I am free to express My Opinion, which violates no law. I do not tiptoe through life being politically correct. I have no time for weasel words or being mealy-mouthed. My favorite question from my detractors is “Who do you think you are?” I know who I am, but you don’t really know me, otherwise you would not ask such a stupid question. So, my message to Brutus and his ilk, whose sensibilities are easily offended: Refer to the above photo, to see what I really think.

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