香港花卉展覽 返來啦!

 

疫情關係，對香港攝影發燒友而言是年度盛事之一的「香港花卉展覽」停了足足3年，今年終於回歸了，好開心呀!

如果疫情期間少了影相，攝影器材真係唔用反而易壞的，現在是用用佢地的好機會呀! 展覽地點： 香港維多利亞公園展覽日期及時間： 3月10至19日上午9時至晚上9時主題花： 繡球花詳情可以見官方網頁: 
https://www.hkflowershow.hk/tc/hkfs/2023/index.html

借題發揮，花卉是個很巧印相功力的攝影主題，而我們的高級製作以畫面細緻、層次豐富、不易褪色見稱，自然有不少高要求攝影客戶會找我們印製這類題材。

是次的例子是一幅27×18″的花卉攝影作品，選了用德國產的高級啞面光身藝術紙 – Hahnemuhle Photo Rag Bright White，本紙其實適合各類題材，是最萬用的高級藝術紙。但其光身及成色非常結實的特性，萬用之餘卻特別能呈現微距拍攝的花朵的細緻質感，而我們資深色彩管理專家的眼光及經驗亦能協助再現出花朵鮮艷顏色的豐富層次感，亦即與別不同的真實感。

攝影媒體（相紙、藝術紙等）如何配合作品去最大限度地發揮出視覺效果，是攝影知識及功力之一，更屬少數人能達到的境界。如果只是透過電腦屏幕看相，無論屏幕多好亦無法取得把攝影作品實實在在地變成高級實體作品的存在感、滿足感。

只設email落單，詳情請見網頁:
https://www.trailstudio.com.hk/Services/Output/Photooutput_detail.html

From Porfirio Diaz to P F.Chang, 100 years of Chinese migration in Mexico Photo exhibition

Coming from the other side of the Pacific Ocean, The Ministry of Culture of Peru will be organizing a photography exhibition in the Hong Kong Cultural Centre, and it is an honor for Trail Studio to be the photo printing service provider of this exhibition.

By participating in this exhibition, we are proud to be able to realize our core value – a life-like photo print helps define photography as art, as well as an effective means of communication between people speaking different languages and living in different places, and to record history.

Venue
Exhibition Gallery, Hong Kong Cultural Centre

Date & Time 
29/8/2017  10am - 8pm
30/8/2017   9am - 8pm
31/8/2017   9am - 7pm

Here is the official introduction:

The Director of Arts of the Ministry of Culture of Peru is pleased to introduce Julia Wong Kcomt, Peruvian poet, writer, curator and cultural manager who is currently promoting the photographic exhibition "From Porfirio Diaz to P F.Chang, 100 years of Chinese migration in Mexico 2017 "to be held at the Hong Kong Cultural Center in August 2017. 

This exhibition will feature the works of Peruvian photographers Carlos Paz Carbone, Laura Luz Correa and Alberto Phumpiu, with images from the Argentinian Photographer Matias Salgado, and will be curated by Julia Wong Kcomt.

We consider important the realization of this photographic exhibition, being an opportunity to promote Peruvian photographers abroad. But most of all for us is capital to develop the concept of understanding History in the process of Cultural dialog between Asia and Latin-American.

These four photographers did a deep research about the dramatic knitting of relationships between the first Chinese People arriving in Baja California,(at the beginning of 1900), and then how things started to melt with the new Culture. Peruvian Photographers are very familiar with Chinese migration, because the Chinese community in Peru is the largest and well rooted in South America. This exhibition is a multilevel Bridge between two Folks and their  different approach to the concept of time and how the official Story was told.

***

Trail Studio Professional Photo Printing and Framing Service

www.trailstudio.com.hk

#photoprinting #photoexhibition #hongkongculturalcentre #photoprint #photoservice #canvasprinting #hongkong #hk #晒大相 #攝影展覽 #展覽製作 #晒相店 #晒相鋪 #晒相公司 #油畫印刷

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.

新的小米手機 - 小米5 香港發佈!

小米推出新手機, 影相非常不錯呀!

夜景掂, 少noise放大印出來都好得, 四角成像好OK! 鏡頭成像變形又控制得好! 印到大大張都有足夠sharpness! 點解阿Ming咁清楚? 因為小米5香港發佈會, 用來show-off 部新機畫質的DEMO相, 都係交由我地Trail Studio印製的嘛~ 由睇monitor到睇print-out, 對住大把時間慢慢睇清睇楚啦 :p

這輯相片是由著名中國攝影師趙嘉先生 以小米5 拍攝的。感謝策劃是次發佈會的Teresa Creation識得揀,揀我地做print out此重要一環。負責人Teresa本身是一位由美國回港工作的影像專家及計師及攝影師 (哈, 同Ming一樣都是多重身份的 ^-^v) , 當然清楚知道有要求的相片輸出工作, 其實是很專門的。

有些人可能會問, 為甚麼相片用不同角度觀賞都沒有反光的呢? 考慮到這是發佈會, 如果使用常見的光面/半光面相紙來製作這批print-out, 各路人馬在兵荒馬亂、閃燈橫飛的情況下隨時會拍出一幅幅大反光的printout回去交差, 那又如何能令讀者明白此機的真正拍攝實力? 因此, 是次的printout是採用一種很優質的不反光fine art paper來製作的。 

順帶一提, 曾有少量查詢者會認定印出來的相片是一定會反光的, (抱歉說, 別再誤以為家附近隨便找家沖晒店就能輕易做到專業品質好嗎?) 看見類似的高畫質返拍SAMPLE相後, 竟懷疑我們在KEY圖造假。我們也常見到別人的key圖。但是我們Trail Studio一向真材實料, 根本不需要, 更是懶得花時間造假 - 其實key圖也很花功夫的, 那些造假的...有頭髮的話我猜他們都不會想做癩痢吧 :p

UNWIREHK 對小米5的介紹:
http://unwire.hk/2016/04/28/xiaomi-5-hk-version-launched/mobile-phone/

Teresa Creation (是次發佈會的壽劃者)http://teresacreation.com/


The Wave (是次發佈會的場地提供者)https://www.facebook.com/thewavehongkong
(這是個很好很前衛的Workspace平台, 有志創業的設計師/攝影師不妨留意一下The Wave的服務。感謝The Wave 的Associate Director帶了小弟繞場一周參觀)


Trail Studio Professional Photo Printing & Framing Service, HK.http://www.trailstudio.com.hk/Servi…/Output/Photooutput.html
Our Scope of Service: Large Photo Printing Service, Canvas Printing Service, Fine Art Paper Printing Service, Image editing service etc.