Karenisque Meadow – 3

Previous post “Karenisque Meadow – 2”  was shot by the Homemade Lens with

its unique soft halo.   But, of course Karen was not using such lens and the

softness of her picture was created by its blurr and a bit of tinkering —– it’s

mean the original photo has to be shot by a sharp lens.

So, this is a normal shot of desolated flower meadow.

(Lens was pretty sharp Leitz Elmarit 35 mm F2.8 on Canon 5D Mk-III)

Then during the exposure, whole camera was intentionally shaken to

make a picture blurred. (Here, Softness was made using Google Picasa.)

As a water painting like image,  those blurred pictures aren’t too bad.  

I like Opal like flaky color though, they are no way near to Karen’s image.

There is no depth and the atmospheric air here which I have to work further.   🙂  

(Original photo has to be a good landscape picture with the air of depth.  =

Blur or softness may give an etherly touch though, softness alone wouldn’t

make a good photo, and the digital manipulation makes  the image “Graphical”

= remote from Photograph.)

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Karenisque Meadow-2

Among the photo-bloggers in the WP sphere,  Karen McRae must be one of

the most distinguishable creative photographer.

When I first encountered her photos, woods under the snow, I found a peculiar

invisible “Air” in her photo, —– somewhat behind or beyond the image.  

Not only that, she often experiment and showed incredible new “View” of

rather mediocre subject —– such as a road-side grass from a moving car.  =

In fact, I’ve dubbed her blurred  photos of grass as “Karenisque photo”  🙂  

(Blime, [Karenisque Photo] was listed in the Google now)

How she could make rather plain view of empty grass field to an artistic image

with a depth of air is a mystery to me.   —– but at least,  why not try myself.

(But I shouldn’t forget, Karen is a painter too ! )

Spreading to the horizon, the empty grass field — is out of question in London.

— still, why not, that desolated flower meadow ? 

In deed, shake the camera is easier and cheaper than driving a car.

With shaky camera, inevitably the image would be blurred

—– though, it wasn’t necessary true.  Since the Homemade Lens has

fixed F4.5 equivalent of Iris opening, even with lowest ISO setting, I needed

to see the light well dropped to the 1/15 ~ 1/4 shutter speed level.  

= It was 8:00 evening.   🙂  ~~~~~ Whatsoever the technical side,  the results

were no way near to the Atmospheric Karenisque Image.  

Her subtle still impacting image creating skills are miles ahead.  🙂

(Of Course I wouldn’t anticipate to clack the secret of her creation which she

achieved with almost obsessive effort,  by me tring 10~100 times guess work. ) 

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Greenwich Park — and the Flowers

Next to the the pond, a patch of meadow (?) was created —– quite colorful

though, they were not a kind of seedling plants,  so  it may not for the

birds but purely for ornamental purpose, I think. 

Again this is the gorgeous set up for the fuzzy images.

No decent subtleness here,  just an orgy of rampant color !

Densely planted flower circle prevented me to see or take picture

in close proximity —– I have no idea what this flower was.  

Still, I like this flowers attitude “Standing out, firm”   🙂

In fact, this is the outside of the park = a corner of  Blackheath.

This  is a puzzling field.   If it was in Spain, it would be a Campo de Faria kind

though I never seen such things there.  The place was left as if  nobody want to

touch. —– someone said, it was a mass-grave for the Black Death time,  

hence the name Blackheath. —– Quite convincing.

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Greenwich Park Flowers

As the instant flower meadow was gone,  I took a journey to

Greenwich Park where ample supply of flowers there.

Those close-up photos following here were taken without the Front Lens.

(It’s mean, just a lens from toy camera) 

In contrast to the almost pan-focus image of Retro-focus two element Lens,

this lens from toy camera shows very clear depth of field and out of focus Bokhe !

Isn’t this Bokhe, fantastic !  🙂

The park got a lots of Cosmos though,  they are a dwarf type

= grow only to 1~1.5′ tall.

—– or, Greenwich Park might be keeping the old taste (to grow Cosmos)  🙂

As a park garden, the flowers here were well kept in order !

It’s mean, when flower was finished, they will be replaced by the other flower.

So the order here was kept by the strict regime.

No luxury to yield a seeds. 

—– though, it’s hard to say, otherwise,  grown to be eaten,  which life is better ?

(So called Human is not necessary acting Humanely = pulled flowers straight

to the compost = buried alive and leave them to rotten !  = hersh isn’t it ? )

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End of Summer Meadow

Since, the time of growth and flowering has more or less finished.

= for that flower patch it was not an exception.   After some strong 

wind and the rain, now the meadow is in their closing stage.

On the other hand, now I got proper front lens for that Homemade

two elements Lens thanks to the kind assistance of HOYA Optics.

(Original lens came from my broken specs and -5 Diopter strength.  

Now I got  -3 and -6 for further experiment. (I would have  -3, -6, -9 to test !)

Unlike 25 year old specs lens, brand new lens is much clearer = less fuzziness.  

To compensates clearer image, I increased the “F-Aperture” somewhat

one-stop (6 mm to 10 mm) = it affected the depth of field as well.   😦

Still, they looks more or less the same  😀

Only (used to be) the meadow looks different.  After a Riot, there

would be inevitable dead bodies and the dried-up carcasses and sticks.

That’s what we human saw the situation though,  for the flowers 

themselves,  looks like a dried-up carcass is their very seed pod etc

= their proof of success in this summer’s operation.  

Don’t make up a drama,  it is just another phase of one cycle.

I’m not sure whether they will come back next season. —– Just wait and see.

Anyhow, I was very much fired-up by their chaos.  

(And created lords of looks more or less the same picture.  😀  😀  )

Still it was a fun !

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Riot of Flowers (2)

As a post uploaded week ago had a title Riot of Flower (1),

this is the following one (2)   🙂     All the photos I took at the same time, looks

more or less the same, (and so many) I’m not sure whether it has been

uploaded already in different hue and trimming.   😀

—– never mind they are just a lots of flowers.

(On the process to upload here, the file of photos had been cut down from

5~10M to 500K or so, though the program seemed  no good for fuzzy image

= they became awful = so please use your imagination.    😀

(they seemed better and smoother on Android tablet screen.)

(Lens used and the camera was the same as before.) 

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Think yourself — Why ?

“Don’t believe what others said. Think yourself” was the most famous last teachings of

Lord Buddha in his death bed.   Buddhism is not a religion to recites the words in the

book (repeat the same words million times makes a man to believe it ) or arguing how 

to interpret the meaning with rhetoric, but just practice and get understanding.

 

Therefore, in this context, the use of the word “Think” may not to be the correct word

= instead, “Feel and Grasp” “Find and Understand” would be better, because as I said,

the Buddhism is not a religion of what you Think and Remember but who you become,

down to the subconscious level.

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See a simple situation. Somebody taught you the Walking Zen saying “By walking

round and round, you can get rid of all your thoughts, and get Mushin, the Mind of

No-Mind.   This is the another way of meditation which purifying your mind.”

—– Well, the words must be well remembered and a word Mushin must be stuck

to the mind. ~~~~~ Then, walk round and round —– while a thought of

“Have I got Mushin or yet ?” coming up again and again and haunt you. 😀 😀

(Instructor should have told you just “Follow me”.   It’s difficult to see a quality

of the instructor = well spoken friendly instructor tend to get more attendance.  

It’s a paradox  Sir ! )  😀

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When No-Mind, No-Self was the matter, 

teach it by the word is self-contradiction.  = I think,

Lord Buddha didn’t teach it in such a way, but just showed how to do, expecting

that the followers can get the Selfless Mushin naturally through the practice.

(Please read the Post : [Test of Selflessness]) (And remember Kisa Gotami’s story =

She was just made running around without having any explanation ! )

Though, among the followers, someone pretending to be wiser, started to give an

own explanation what was the intention of practice or meaning of Selflessness.

But as I said, to explain it by the word is the Self-contradiction, for instance,

“ Do this without thinking is the No-Mind, No-Self” — though, to have this notion

in the Mind IS against the No-Mind = nothing but a Self-contradiction.

So that, there is no way else to learn No-Self other than “Do the practice

and find it by oneself.” —– (Same situation to learn how to ride a bicycle

 = absolutely no word will help, but to learn it yourself !  —– And once learned,  

you ride it automatic = no thinking is needed there. )

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Lexical communication is based on the words which is the categorized, abstract 

notion, hence, it rely on the high-level process in the brain which we call thinking.

Bypassing those thinking process and leave the judgement, or action to the

old intuitive part of the brain called Limbic System, = is

“What Mushin and the Selflessness meant.”

This is why “Don’t believe what others said. Think yourself = Experience yourself and

discover the fact, that the things can be done without thinking = in Selfless Mushin.”

So, if it was Selfless, who did this = It was done by the Dharma !

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—– Still, this episode exposed a serious situation then.   In a very last moment, WHY

Lord Buddha had to give such basic instruction to the most closest disciples.

= It signify the fact, that

Lord Buddha did aware that his disciples haven’t fully understood

what his teachings of No-Self was.

(And it explains why the Buddhism have had deviated in such early stage

and mixed up with the Hinduism.)

___/\___

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What we see in flower Photo

You may believe that you are seeing the detailed truth of the things before you.

Yet the reality is, that is only your naive hope.   In our eyes, only the center,

about 15~20 degree of vision can see the detail.   — And in fact, on this text, if you 

gaze at a word “seeing” on the first line,  you are not able to read adjoining words

without wobbling the eyes. 

Exactly the same way to fill the gap of blind-spot in our eyes, our vision is

a conveniently  re-constructed mapping of the environment. = Anyhow,

we don’t need to have the detailed vision of everything. = because we knew

if necessary, we can give a close look.

And in reality, we reject the most of the details, otherwise our brain would be

overloaded —– we only need to have “a kind of understanding of [it is there]”

It is a funny belief that the photograph got to be sharp and show the details.

—– even though,  very few people know the significance of the detail of

such as the structure of a flower. —– So, the most of us don’t care !

With the same belief, even a Phone-camera which got mare 2 mm size lens with

2 x 3 mm sensor, still has 10 MP, 15 MP and produce pretty decent sharp image !

 (—– that’s annoying me.  😀  ) 

So, while using  x10 more expensive and x10 heavier camera I’m creating utterly

fuzzy image. —– anyhow, no botanists or any scientific person needs my photo.

Then suddenly appeared photos here, were taken by a proper Macro lens.

Some of the people prefer this kind of “normal” photo.  —– Why ?  

Are they a botanist or an entomologist ? 

Does anybody expect to find something important from this photo ?

—– I don’t think so.   Nothing significant in here.

It seems, it’s not just me, the people got tired of sharp pan-focused image.

So that, even Google Photo, created an app to give “out of focus bokhe”. (by

moving the camera and gives 3D depth info and digitally creates  bokhe !) 

 I think, the sharp pictures are a kind of piecemeal,  make  us to have a false

peace of mind that the nature is still with us.

(even though, the most of us are nothing to do with it ) = Even a man who

never gave a close look to a face of bee, still feel “Yes, this marvelous creature

 is [My Friend]= I’m in the circle” because I’m seeing such close details.     🙂

For me, the images behind the hazy curtain would calm me down more =

I was relieved  from the detailed scanning task and see the world as it is. 

—– or I would say, “Just feel it” = away from an useless thinking.

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Hot, Hot — Do something !

After the Summer solstice, the room temperature climbing up and up.

—– I think I wrote a story before, a comparison of two different approach to

deal with a summer heat in Buddhism. = The one said

 “Sinto wo mekkyaku sureba, Hi mo mata suzushi”

(When you negate the mind and the thinking, even a fire could be felt cool)

And the other “Atsusa no natsu wa ase wo kaki, fuyu wa chizimi-agaru”

(Get sweat under the summer heat, and shiver in the winter)

—– The former was a typical attitude in the Hinayana Buddhism and the

later was the Mahayana Buddhism.

I think, the both are correct —– for them.  Please carry on.

= It’s not my business to argue with them as they are not on front of me.

—– I’m facing the heat in my room. —– Of course, I can escape and go out 

though, my PC is here and I have to do something on the Net. = The trouble is,

since I’m using an Internet Dongle to connect, the Dongle get hot.    And as the

room temperature nearing to 30 degree, the Net-connection is getting slower

and stated to say “Connection timed out” “This page is not available”. 😦

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In most of the case, trouble or malfunction in the electronic devices were

caused by the overheat.   Any mistake such as wrong polarity, over current,

over voltage, all resulting overheat and burnt-down (of some area or inside of

a chip).  So, the heat management is a big issue in the electronic circuit design,

which is parallel with the issue of “Low power consumption” —– though, the

situation is always the same. ( 10A current on 1A device cause overheat, and

10mA current on 1mA chip will blow them off).   And the devil is, when they get

hot, the current increases = more current more heat = Thermal-runaway.

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Funnily enough, even this extremely advanced technological age, when the

fore-front of science is dealing with such as almost invisible Gravity Wave still,

the way to deal with a heat isn’t different from 100 years ago. = Hoping the heat

would disperse (hence, lower the temperature of the area) through heat

conductive material (include the air).

( To generate the electrics out of heat, hence take the heat away, seems a good

idea though, it’s efficiency is less than 10% = 90 % of problem is still there. 🙂 )

—– So, to against a problem of Hot Net-dongle, my solution was “as advanced

as the fore-front of the technology today can offer” = disperse

the heat through a heat-sink to the air.

Photo Left : Disassemble the Dongle.

The Centre : Put heat conductive paste on a metal part of the Dongle

then place a heat sink over it.

Photo Right : Place the SIM card in position and clamp all together.

—– It’s working perfect.  Heat sink is getting warmer, mean dispersing the

heat from the dongle and as a result, the Net-connection got much faster. 🙂

(So far so good. —–  In case, if small window appeared saying “SIM card

invalid” etc, it was caused by the card was not properly slide-in  ===>

Place the card again while mimicking the action to slide-into the position.)

~~~~~ So, have a cool Net surfing.    🙂

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Soba-plant — Buckwheat

Holly Mackerel ! —– Cosmos was a surprise but not a kind of out of scope.

But to see this one, Soba plant or Buckwheat in this country was utterly

out of my expectation. Unless you are the people from central Eurasia,

Russia, Eastern Europe, India etc, you may not have any idea of what

Buckwheat is. —– and even if you eat it before and knew the taste, still, the

most of the people didn’t know the plant of such “pseudo-cereal” came from.

Most of the staple grain is a seed of grass plant (with that long leaves) though,

this one is one of the exception, alongside the Amaranths or Quinua.

And this one came from a plant family called Polygonaceae, which is

having Knotweed, Sorrel in the family.

———- (Photo above : Green shiny triangular shape  are the seeds.) 

While checking the Net, I realized that some of the people found a business

opportunity selling the plant seed with a kind of sweet buzz word

“Greening the environment” “Seed plant to feed the wild birds” —– m m m ?

—– I’m not happy jump into a bandwagon here.

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Natural environment is a complexed huge system which took long time to

establish.   Each plant may need a particular insect to pollinate etc etc,

on top of geo-climate condition.

When foreign plant was introduced (wittingly or accidentally what ever)

quite often it cause the devastating consequences.   Such as Hay Fever, =

the local population may not have an immunity against a type of pollen new

species produces —– and it may takes generations to acquire the immunity.

Before, the root of invasion of exotic species were, stowaway seeds on the

imported log, packing staff between the products etc, (it’s an old practice) but

these days it became utterly unpredictable due to astronomical amount of

trade goods. —– not mention the exotic plant or its seeds sold by the

garden center / Net outlet.

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This plant, Fagopyrum.esculentum / Soba-plant was to make Soba (kind of

noodle, unique to Japanese cooking) though, I realized that it was cultivated

(and eaten) in Russia most, and produced and exported from China to Japan

in huge amount.  = (In fact, 80 % of Soba, Japanese is eating, came from China

and US.)   The plant was suited to grow in a cool, dry climate and able to live

even on the poor soil.   So, in certain extent, it is true to say, this plant can change

barren hill side, green though, if we see the agricultural productivity side,

this plant has only 1/10 against the rice, it’s mean, this plant need to have 10 times

more land to support the same population.

= So, if the land was utterly useless poor land, why not to grow this plant

= it may support some people to survive or help Japanese to enjoy

a small luxury to eat a bit chewy noodle.   Ha ha ha   🙂

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