Sunday, April 29, 2012

郎靜山

上周有朋友向我介绍台湾摄影大师郎靜山的作品。他的传统水墨画调的摄影独具一格，很有创意及启发性。郎先生的作品集目前已经很难方便地买到（有些原作品或少量书可通过拍卖获得）。Amazon的中、英文网站均没有见到。


寒江獨釣 (1960)


松蔭高士張大千 (1963)

 

 

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守望台的传道人

昨天在家时有两个传道人来敲门。一名中年非裔妇女，一名白人女孩。令人吃惊的是她们都会用中文说耶稣的名字。女孩还会用中文读圣经的章节。她们向我介绍中文学校及离此地不远的华人“耶和华见证人王国聚会所。” 临行前还留下一本小册子。我对守望台的出版物并不陌生，它们的书籍中通常有极为丰富的彩色插图，可读性较高。有趣的是中国近年来的掘起似乎对西方传道方式及语言都产生了影响。与此同时，不前久一位朋友说北京现在年轻人信教的人很多，教堂周末通常挤得人山人海。中西方文化健康的交流与渗透，是这个时代令人欣慰的一件事。

我后悔忘了替她们拍张照片。不周肤色的人因信仰而走在一起，齐声用外邦的语言来宣扬天国的福音。如此罕见及有趣的题材，却被我错过了。
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Friday, April 27, 2012

孤独的艺术


早上进办公室时，桌上邮件盒里有一个小邮包。打开一看，是一本漂亮的小书，谷川俊太郎诗集，名叫《孤独的艺术》。书由康乃尔大学东亚系列出版，連東女士英译并作了长序。书是連東女士从新泽西寄给我的。邮包里还有她手写的一张小条。除寒暄之外，还告诉我诗作者Takikawa Shuntaro的汉字为“谷川俊太郎。”

我第一认识連東是六年前，她作为日文译员，同我们几名律师一起飞往东京去见一个日本客户公司。当时当然不知道她是位诗人，还翻译发表过许多日本文学作品。老太太个子很小，但性格直率，脸上大部分时候是冰霜。我同许多日文翻译都工作过，她是唯一享受在律师顾客会议时可以说“我累了，歇会吧”“特权”的译员。由于她的经验、水平及能力，我们对她极为尊重。她的才能、资历及性格，对我们诉讼很有帮助。原因之一对手译员往往水平没有她高，在争议一个词的翻译时，往往会不自觉地以她的翻译为准。美国诉讼如果涉及译员，通常至少有三名译员：一名是“译员”，另一名“核查译员”，第三名为“法庭泽员。”(由于日译行规通常-特别是在正式场合下--每个泽员工作半小时就需换人，所以通常译员以二人为一组。) 連東经常担任法庭译员来提供标准英译。

谷川俊太郎（1931年生）的目前日本文坛上声望很高且健在的作家，拥有许多读者，他的有些作品据说在中国也很流行。他也常常被猜测是诺贝尔文学奖的潜在得主。他的成名为《二十億光年の孤独》（1952年）。連東在长达40页的引言详细介绍了谷川俊太郎的生平、成长的时代背景、作品特点、风格及宇宙观、哲学等。作为战后作家，谷川俊太郎的成长背景同我最近在重读的日本漫画大师辰巳 ヨシヒロ(Yoshihiro Tatsumi, 1935年生))的漫画自传《A Drafting Life》所描述的背景极为相似。他们同日本国一样，从二战废墟中兴起。失败、孤独与彷徨成了滋润成功的土壤。

連東英译的谷川俊太郎诗“孤独二十亿光年”如下：
On this small sphere
Humans sleep, wake, work
From time to time want friends on Mars

I don’t know what Martians do
On their small sphere
(maybe they sleep’eep, wake’ake, work’ork)
But from time to time they want friends on Earch
That’s absolutely for sure

Universal gravitation is
The force of being alone, attracting each other

The universe is warped
That is why all of us seek each other

The universe is growing fast
That is why all of us are uneasy

Standing alone in two billion light years
I sneezed, in spite of myself

Komagatado Hall and Azuma Bridge, 100 Famous Views of Edo, Plate 62, by  Hiroshige (1857)


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Thursday, April 26, 2012

Camera and Focal Length


A week-long vacation in Florida, five theme parks in a row, presented me with a garden variety of cameras used by tourists from all over the world.  Even within my own family, we used at least four cameras: Nikon Coolpix S3000, Canon PowerShot SD550, Sony Nex 5N, Nikon D3S. Not counting iPhone 4S and Blackberry Bold.  

Yes, he is taking a photo, not reading an ebook.
I brought with me a Nikon 24-300 zoom FX lens, among a couple of other lenses.  I got the lens about a year ago--acting in part on a whimsical reaction to a reviewer's funny, casual comment at YouTube. (At 5 minute and 21 second.)  I had used the lens in the past but never as extensively as I did on this trip.  Overall, I took over 6,300 photos on this lens, from group photos or landscape to architectural elements at a distance, from still portraits to moving targets (e.g. roaming animals and performing actors), and from extremely dark environments to high contrast situations.  I really like the image quality, flexibility and portability this lens, coupled with a D3S,  affords.


Given the large number of photos, a quick analysis, even if a simple one,  on the relative frequency of various focal lengths actually used during the trip should be statistically meaningful.   Here are some observations (Tables 1-3), most of which simply confirm the well-known facts in the industry:

  1. 28mm has the highest frequency (20.3%), followed by 300 mm (8.9%).  This is very surprising as it indicates focal lengths on both ends of the lens got used the most.  The two lengths constitute close to 30% or 1/3 of the usage. 
  2. 48 mm has the third highest frequency (3.6%).  This justifies the common use of 50 mm-lenses. 
  3. Lens range from 28-70 mm covers close to 60% of uses.  This makes perfect sense.
  4. Lens range from 70-200 mm covers close to 30% of uses.  This also makes sense.
  5. Not surprisingly, a 28-70 mm and a 70-200 mm lens will be sufficient for 90% of the situations.
  6. Extra focal length above 200 mm is still useful, about 13%.
  7. Frequency for 85 mm, based on the uses from 78mm to 90mm, is 7.8% (calculation not shown), or close to 10%, significant enough to justify the purchase of a 85 mm lens.  


Table 1 Focal Length (mm) Frequency (%) Distribution

f (mm)
Photo #
%
28
1292
20.29
32
180
2.83
34
104
1.63
35
93
1.46
36
88
1.38
38
115
1.81
40
159
2.50
42
129
2.03
44
132
2.07
45
125
1.96
48
229
3.60
50
125
1.96
52
138
2.17
55
132
2.07
56
113
1.77
58
114
1.79
62
215
3.38
65
86
1.35
68
133
2.09
70
80
1.26
72
97
1.52
78
139
2.18
82
148
2.32
85
121
1.90
90
88
1.38
92
99
1.55
98
106
1.66
100
103
1.62
105
99
1.55
112
81
1.27
116
73
1.15
122
79
1.24
125
62
0.97
135
127
1.99
145
60
0.94
150
48
0.75
160
71
1.11
170
50
0.79
180
67
1.05
190
56
0.88
200
34
0.53
210
74
1.16
230
69
1.08
250
69
1.08
300
567
8.90
Total
6369
100.00






















































Tab 2  Focal Length Frequency (%) in Descending Order

f (mm)
Photo #
%
28
1292
20.29
300
567
8.90
48
229
3.60
62
215
3.38
32
180
2.83
40
159
2.50
82
148
2.32
78
139
2.18
52
138
2.17
68
133
2.09
44
132
2.07
55
132
2.07
42
129
2.03
135
127
1.99
45
125
1.96
50
125
1.96
85
121
1.90
38
115
1.81
58
114
1.79
56
113
1.77
98
106
1.66
34
104
1.63
100
103
1.62
92
99
1.55
105
99
1.55
72
97
1.52
35
93
1.46
36
88
1.38
90
88
1.38
65
86
1.35
112
81
1.27
70
80
1.26
122
79
1.24
210
74
1.16
116
73
1.15
160
71
1.11
230
69
1.08
250
69
1.08
180
67
1.05
125
62
0.97
145
60
0.94
190
56
0.88
170
50
0.79
150
48
0.75
200
34
0.53
Total
6369
100.00



Tab3  Focal Length Range Frequency (%)

Lens Range (mm)
Frequency (%)
18-50
43.51
28-70
59.38
70-200
28.39
70-300
41.87
100-300
28.09
200-300
12.76




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