香港觀鳥會「跟著港鐵去觀鳥」攝影藝術展

香港觀鳥會「跟著港鐵去觀鳥」攝影藝術展
HKBWS Go Bird Watching by MTR Photographic Art Exhibition


香港觀鳥會將於港鐵將軍澳站PopCorn商場舉行攝影藝術展。

香港觀鳥會成立於1957年，是一個旨在欣賞及保育香港鳥類及其自然生態的本地民間組織。2002年，香港觀鳥會更被認可成為一個公共性質的慈善機構。該會舉辦攝影展的一大目的，是透過攝影讓更多人關注自然生態，認真看待保育問題。

很高興Trail Studio能為展覽出一分力，以我們一貫高品質印製相片及作出相關贊助。能參與慈善機構及環保組織的攝影展覽製作，讓我們有機會在自己專業範疇為社會做一些事，同時亦貫徹了當初成立高品質相片工場的信念 - 相片並不只是一個純粹的畫面，而是溝通、保存訊息的工具。而畫質優良的相片，能忠實傳達攝影訊息及藝術風格，從而讓圖片說故事、感染觀賞者。

是次展覽採用我們最高級的啞面Fine Art Paper製作。Fine Art Paper被視為archival-safe的物料，但亦能用於短期室內展覽。使用優質啞面Fine Art Paper展出作品有很多好處，例如:
1. 紙質較一般相紙厚重有質感，無需裱貼於底版也不易起縐
2. 全啞紙面不反光，再配上我們的藝術級輸出設備，可印製出極高色彩層次、極具迫真感的相片。
3. 極有利展出於燈光變化大/光線條件惡劣/無專業佈光之場地時，作品不受反光問題困擾，讓參觀者能多角度觀賞。
4. 同樣原因，使用手機/相機內置閃光燈拍照留念也不必擔心作品畫面變白。

留意，另一種「啞面裱膜相紙」雖然也是「啞面」，但由於是塑膠面，其實是會反光的(只是散射而已)，沒有上述優勢。
Fine Art Paper用於短期展覽時一般不會配上玻璃作保護，愛護展品，請勿觸摸。

「跟著港鐵去觀鳥」攝影藝術展詳情如下:

開幕禮日期：2017年6月1日 (星期四)
開幕禮時間：下午3:00至下午3:40
地點：將軍澳PopCorn一期一樓大舞台1 (將軍澳港鐵站商場)
主禮嘉賓：環境局副局長陸恭蕙太平紳士
展覽日期：2017年6月1日至9日(10am-10pm)
展覽內容：「跟著港鐵去觀鳥」攝影教育學員的作品，教育活動以市民最容易接觸的媒介－「攝影」為主題，透過視覺藝術的創意表達，讓市民表達對香港濕地保育的關愛。

Exhibition Details: 
Go Bird Watching by MTR Photographic Art Exhibition
Date: 1– 9June 2017
Time: 10:00am – 10:00pm

Venue: 1/F Atrium of PopCorn (Tseung Kwan O MTR Station)

Hong Kong Bird Watching Society 香港觀鳥會: http://www.hkbws.org.hk/

Trail Studio: http://www.trailstudio.com.hk


這是製作相片時拍攝的:

一張張很大張未裁切的藝術紙。

用慢動作，小心地把藝術紙裁成獨立的相片。處理大尺寸紙章時，要保持紙張完好沒有括花、起縐或被污染，不算容易，欲速則不達。

裁好相片後，再排好次序。

最後再檢查一次品質，並點算相片。這也是慢動作步步為營，很花時間的。一不小心弄壞相紙便前功盡廢，不是大家所想那麼容易的。

等待包裝的相片。由於每次的訂單都是不同款色尺寸的，我們根本不能大量訂製包裝物料，個別包裝時要讓製品得到合理保護，又要考慮客戶能否輕易安全地取出相片，用的功夫也不簡單呀。很有趣的，常有不少客戶大讚我們的包裝方式 :) 

Sailor 1911 Standard / Sailor Profit Standard Demonstrator Fountain Pen Review

I'm switching to English Channel for the first time in this blog, see if I'll be able to meet some new friends around the world.

Here is an idea of my background, while many people in my place(Hong Kong) know me as a large-format photo printing specialist at Trail Studio. I'm also an experienced product designer with engineering & manufacturing knowledge, so I can apply my knowledge when talking about fountain pens. 

It seems to me that fountain pen is a matter of hit-or-miss. Problem is that, tolerance exists in every manufacturing process, it is not noticeable for most products, but is critical for fountain pen nibs, which require high precision as they rely on capillary-action to get the ink flowing. Unfortunately pen manufacturers aren't doing rocket-science, and some problems may have been caused by the handling of retailers as well. Whatever brand of fountain pen may have a good chance to go wrong, it's better to try the particular pen before you buy it, or to buy from nib-meisters who will test and adjust the pen. Or, at least read some reviews before making your purchase. So, here is my contribution to the great community of fountain pens.

Here we go, Sailor is one of the well reputed "big-3" Japanese fountain pen manufacturers, the other 2 being Pilot and Platinum (where is the Driver? Just kidding :D). I didn't care about the Japanese pens in the early days of my pen journey as they look plain and boring, until I acquired some Pilot fountain pens and realized how precise the nibs were and how great the writing experience was.

The Japanese Fountain Pen manufacturers should be well respected because they are the very few contemporary ones who still manufacture their own nibs - the soul of fountain pens. They are able to offer a wide variety of nib options, giving unique characteristics to their pens. To be fair, some of my Japanese pens have issues just like their western counterparts, the gold-nib pen which gave me the most trouble ever, is another popular Japanese Pen, the #3776, I’ve made intensive adjustments to get it work well. Indeed I had worked on about 1/3 of my "branded" fountain pens to get them write well.

Some people consider the Sailor 1911 (as well as whatever black/gold cigar pens) as Mont Blanc knock-off, but to me the 1911 is just another cigar-shaped pens with basic(or classic) constructions. Many online sources suggested that the archetype of black/gold cigar-shape pens is the Sheaffer Balance, first introduced at around 1929 which pre-dated the MB Masterpiece line.

I don't consider the 1911 as MB knockoff, but I can't control what people think. I use my pens in business environments, to avoid confusions or misunderstandings, I'm forced to avoid the black-body 1911. I've been eyeing this demonstrator model for a long while, but a golden-converter was unavailable at the time, the chrome one was a poor match to the gold-trim (same case as the Platinum 3776 Nice), so I didn't pull the trigger until I realized a golden converter is actually available.






Pen Body
This is a 1911S demonstrator, S stands for "standard-size". The Japanese pen was aimed for their own market, so it is a ok for we Eastern people to use it unposted. However, for Western people with larger hands, the “S” should in real-life stands for "short" or "small", and the cap probably has to be posted before use. For a pen of such a small size, the metal piece in the section make this pen heavier than what it appears to be, and make it well balanced either with the cap posted or unposted. Some heft in a small body can mean quality to some people, including me.

I like big pens, but for the 1911 demonstrators, I prefer this 1911S over the 1911L because I love the proportion of the smaller barrel to the inner workings(i.e. the piston converter) - there is not much empty space inside the pen, it's transparent but not hollow, and reminds me this pen is small but practical. In contrast, the internal space of the barrel of the 1911L demo looks a bit wasted to my own taste, it also reminds me the Sailor converter is of low ink capacity and doesn't utilize the advantage of the larger pen body. Anyway, if you’ve big hands, it's better to get the 1911L.

Here comes my biggest criticism – the cap doesn’t post well. It is friction-fit, but the area of contact between the barrel and the cap is extraordinarily narrow, you'll need to press hard to produce sufficient friction and you know you'll scratch the pen very soon. More to the problem, resting your hand not exactly on that narrow ring-of-contact will create a leverage and wobble the cap slightly, that's annoying and is enough to break the friction all in a sudden, the cap may then fall out easily as the tapered barrel can't encase it. I suspect this problem is unique only to the demonstrator model with large single metal cap-ring, as the cap opening is made larger to avoid the metal ring from scratching the plastic (or "precious resin") of the barrel, it looks great but doesn't work well.



Now comes my second complaint about this pen. Many of us get used to flush the section before use, or when changing ink (the maintenance procedure is written in the user manual as well). Unbelievably, doing so is not good for this pen! Water will run through 2 little trenches at both sides of the feed collar (the black plastic part) and trapped inside the clear section if you flush it the usual way. I had to disassemble the pen and wait for 1 or 2 days to have the water evaporate. If ink goes inside this space it will be difficult to wash it out (perhaps try using syringe), and it may stain or corrode the metal, that will be ugly. I guess the best way to clean the pen is to keep the converter attached and soak the water up through the nib, or to flush it with the nib ALWAYS facing upwards.

The pen clip wobbles sideways a bit, not ideal but no big deal. I like the shape of this old-clip far more than that of the "Sigma" or "Mk.ll" version. To me, the clip of the Sigma version looks like a skateboard, and the anchor-shape thing on it is too big and looks "cartoonish". Sorry to say that the new clip design effectively stealth those new Sailor pens from my radar.

For a demonstrator pen, it's always a good idea to display the nib with the use of a clear-enough inner cap. The inner cap of this pen is not spring-loaded like the Platinum#3776, but it's quite elastic and is able to create an air-tight seal, I didn't experience hard-start or ink drying-out even when the pen is left inked for 2+ weeks. The plastic column inside the top of the cap looks like a cap jewel, a nice touch.





Another great feature with demonstrator pen is that, you are able to immediately know how much ink is left and what ink you're using without unscrewing the barrel.

Converter and ink capacity
As mentioned, the ink capacity is low, I didn't actually measure it, by observation the cavity is short and narrow, and ink level drops fast even that I'm not a heavy pen user and the nib is relatively dry. The converter can be dissembled easily by twisting the metal collar, pay attention not to twist it when you operate the piston, otherwise it may lead to ink leakage, I bet you don't like to demonstrate this. It's good to put silicon grease inside of this collar and around the piston knob as a safety measure.



Nib & Feed
The nib art is appealing, it is marked as H-F (hard fine) and writes relatively dry, with some feedback on certain papers. It writes finer than my other japanese fine-nibs. The feedbacky feel is consistent across different writing angle and directions, and since the first day I inked it, this means the nib is well-ground. I've inked it with several J.herbin inks, which all worked well so I didn't try other inks, I'm afraid there'll be flow issues if thicker/more viscous inks are to be used.

It's easily one of the hardest nibs I've ever used, you won't get much line variation unless you press it real hard, but the relatively tapered tip allow the nib to get some barely noticeable "initial spring", I mean, the slit opens very slightly when it touches the paper and then stopped there, not enough to produce noticeable line variation, but sufficient to pour down a bit more ink to produce nice shading. I'm very happy with the performance of this nib.



It seems that Sailor's (fine) nib is well-known for a distinctive feedbacky feel, it somehow feels like writing with a very sharp 2H pencil. It's not my scientific analysis but just theory, the feedback is not produced with any secret recipe, but simply because these factors happen altogether:

1) the tipping material is smaller and it writes finer than the other Japanese "F", it's probably EF by Pilot's standard. It's just not easily noticeable especially as the "initial springiness" widen the line to the other Japanese "F" standard before firmly stops there. 
2) it's on the dry side so it receives less lubrication from ink
3) it's really nail-hard (the "initial springiness" I mentioned isn't noticeable at all) so there's no damping when the nib glides across the paper.

Besides viewing under a loupe, one easy way to distinguish between a good feedbacky nib and a faulty scratchy nib, is to draw a horizontal straight line, then draw again in backward direction, and repeat with lines of other angles. If the nib is significantly scratchier on some lines/directions, chance for a mis-aligned slit or a deformed tip is high.

Conclusion
This is a great c/c demonstrator pen, and for people with big hands, it is especially excel as an EDC pen: small thus handy, with a little bit of heft but not heavy, most importantly it writes really well. It is eye-catching with its crystal clear body and gold trims, and people can easily tell it's a fountain pen - a good tool for fountain pen addicts to reveal their identity! With this pen, you always know how much ink is left so there’s no worry about running out of ink in a sudden - a good feature for an EDC pen as refilling it on-the-go is usually not an option. Unfortunately the cap doesn't post well, and can be a problem for EDC pens in situations like jotting quick notes without a desk, it's still ok if you pay attention, just don't lend the pen to the others with the cap posted.