Chapter 2:  A Crazy Self-made Microscope Camera

Next, this was the most challenging thing that I did 12 years ago.  I decided to build the camera myself using pieces plywood.  It’s not only a camera, it was also a microscope.  I could only use it in my room with all the lights switched off, and the curtains closed. I turned my room into a dark room which was not for printing photo but for taking photo.  It’s hard to describe the microscope camera without pictures.  I used the magnifying glass as the lens, 4 pieces of plywood which created a tube to allow the light to reach the film.  The lens was attached to one end of the wooden tube, and a piece of trace paper was attached to the other end which allowed me to do focusing.  The light source I used was a torchlight.

My objects were the transparent plastic ruler, leaves, and insects.  The ruler would be the best things to tell me how much the lens can enlarge the objects onto the film.  All of the objects must be semi-transparent because I used the “Backlight” method for the light source.  Before I took the photo, I needed to hide the film from light, and then I switched on the torchlight and do the focusing on the trace paper.  When the image was sharp on the trace paper, I switched off the torchlight and remove the trace paper.  Now there was a challenging thing to do.  I needed to pull out the film.  How long should I pull, and which part on the film I should use were all done in the dark, and based on estimation.  I did not have a light meter; therefore the exposure time was also estimated.

My brother sent the film to the photo lab.  The staff said that the camera was broken.  He just rolled up the film and stuck a piece cello tape to it.  No photo was printed.  He didn’t even put the film into the film pocket.  My brother didn’t tell him anything.  What I can see from the film are the images that were either overlap with each other, under exposure, over exposure or out of focus.  The shape of the frame is also not in rectangle. It’s trapezium.

It looks like this.

Overlapped frame.

Not exactly in rectangular shape.

Abnormal edge.

Although it’s not successful, I did focus the objects properly on the trace paper and I have learned a lot from this experience.  I saw the ruler enlarge at least 2 times larger than the real object and show its images on the trace paper.  If I were able to print it out on photo paper, it will be more than 10 times larger on a 3R or 4R photo.  Although the result was disappointing but the process was fun.  That’s the one and only one time I tried before the self-made microscope camera was discarded.

Later I got my first SRL camera.  I don’t think I am going to repeat it again because I have got a digital camera now.

To be continued……

I found this roll of old film in one of my drawers.  It made me recalled what I have done to it.  It was a poor film that did not capture any meaningful pictures.  Besides, the guy in the photo lab didn’t even bother to put it into the film pocket.  It’s still in a rolled shape.

Here start the stories of photography and me……

Chapter 1:  First Encounter with Photography

It was 1991.  I was reading a magazine and I just flipped through.  I saw a picture of a butterfly.  It was nothing special.  Within the same page, I saw another picture of a beach and mountain.  Some questions came into my mind, “How did they take these pictures?”  “Won’t the butterfly be scared and flew away?”  At that time I had no idea about “zoom”.  My biggest curiousity was how did they make the background of a photo blur.  The answer was on the same page in that magazine.  It’s a section of photography.  From there I have learned about “Depth of Field” and zooming.  At that moment, I told myself that I want to take photographs of the nature things (including insects and flowers) which the background is blurred.

I like to watch National Geographic Special which was shown on TV.  From there I also noticed that they made the background blur when shooting the pictures of wild life.  Blurring the background of a photo became the strongest force that pushed me to get into photography.

Later, I had got a camera from my dad.  The camera was a gift of a product which I have forgotten what it was.  The camera was extremely simple with a fixed lens, fixed shutter speed, no battery required, and I had to roll the film manually to move it to the next frame.  It had a mechanism to prevent double exposure on the same frame.  It was only suitable for outdoor photography.

I have forgotten what I had taken using that camera, and where did I put those photos.  I only remember that the camera was broken after a few months.  Since the camera was broken, I took the screw drivers, opened it up and did some operation on it.  It worked again, but I had to use 2 black paper cards as the shutter.  I was happy because it allowed me to do multiple exposures.  Since the shutter control must be opened and closed manualy, I needed to fix this camera on a tripod.  I loaded the camera with film.  My brothers became my assistant while I did some experiments on this camera.  My youngest brother even became my model as Qian1Shou3Guan1Yin1 (multiple hands effect).  I had taken a roll of film successfully after the operation and this camera was broken again.  I did not repair it again, but I have done a craziest thing. 

To be continued……

This is the colour when it is ripe.

This fruit is called Pomegranate in English, or ”Shi2Liu2″ in Chinese.  There are a lot of seeds inside, each seed is surround by its juice.  The way we eat this fruit is just to put the seeds in our mouth, bite the seed to squeeze the juice out with our tongue or teeth and take the juice.  Then you have to spit out the seeds and discard them.  I don’t think anyone will swallow the seeds.  The juice taste very sour and the seed is hard.

This is the fruit’s colour when it is yet to ripe.

Recently this tree produces a lot of “Shi2Liu2″ in our garden.  but all of their sizes are quite small compare to those sold in the market.

Do you know that this tree can become a bonsai if you control its height and shape?  I have read a book about miniature bonsai.  It can become a miniature bonsai which only less than 10 cm in height and still can produce fruit.  It looks very nice when it produce small fruit in bonsai shape.

According to [Wikipedia, pomegranate is cultivated in US for juice product.  It provides 16% of an adult’s daily vitamin C requirement per 100 ml serving.  Its juice can reduce heart disease; its seed oil was effective against proliferation of breast cancer cells in vitro.  The juice may also have antiviral and antibacterial effects against dental plaque.]

But from another source which I have forgotten where, it says that we shouldn’t eat too much because it will add colour to our teeth.

Not everybody likes to eat pomegranate.  Everybody have different sense, feeling and interpretation about certain things.  Just like the same dishes on the dining table, you may say that it’s too salty but I may not think so.  You may taste it too sweet but I say it’s not sweet enough.  Everybody experienced this before.  It proved that everybody has different sensitivity of senses. 

I always have a question in my mind.  For each same colour that we called or see, does it reflect exactly the same colour in everybody’s brain?  From we were kids, the definition of each colour is taught but there is no way to see how other people see this colour and interpret the colour in their mind.  Others may get the different colour but still define it as the same colour name.

For example, the red colour of the flower that reach your mind through your eyes, and the same things that reach my mind through my eyes may be different, but we all call it red.  The name and the thing are the same but what we get is different.

What I can tell myself from my logic is, human from close races have similar senses, and different races have a bit different interpretation of senses.  Animal will have a big different from human.  How to prove it? Do you notice that different races has different taste of food, they like different type of colours as well?  You see what an animal eat compare to human?

Sense :- sensitivity, interpretation & preference. 
Let’s the scientist prove it.

I found these living things beside a river when our ShiFu (Master) was having a life releasing ceremony last Sunday.  We were releasing the fish back to the river.

I asked around what is that and nobody gave me the answer.  I guess this is the eggs of a type of water creature.  I kept an eye on them and did not see them move.  I noticed there were at least 6 of them on the wood , rock and leaves beside the river.

I did not see their eyes or legs, it’s purely pink round ball which is as small as mung bean, and stay still.  When all round balls join up together, it’s about 1 to 2 inches.

Anybody have the experience rescusing a bird or cat?  You will notice that they feel grateful.  Both you and the animal are happy, right?  Why not?

Many people do not understand the meaning of releasing life.  It’s just as simple as set the animal free, and let them return to the nature.  And both the person who release the animal and the animal are happy. 

Animal also have feelings, they know how to cry, they know how to communicate with human in their way (especially dog), they can feel the pain. They can rescue human. They can help human to do something.

We only release those which is going to be killed but not the pet.

When looking at this new shoots, it tells me that every new day is a good day.  It gives new hope and we should catch this new opportunity to accomplish our mission.  I always like to see new shoots of any plants.  The plants tell us that it’s going to start their new lifes, new generations, and new journey.  It has forgotten about its pass, just concentrate on what is going to happen now and the future.

Do not let what happened in the pass to stop us from moving forward.  We supposed to move faster than before because we have learned how to avoid and eliminate the obstacles.

If yesterday were not a good day
today should be a good day
if we can clear the rubbish in our mind

If yesterday were a good day
today should be a better day
if we have a stronger will to reach our destination.

I’m sure if the PC you are using now is running slow or something is not right, you will restart your PC to let everything back to normal.  We may take the wrong path in a middle of a day, and if this is the case, we can just restart our day immediately by changing our mindset and controlling of our emotion.  This plant has been cut to eliminate the old branches which didn’t look nice, and it produces 4 shoots.