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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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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Riot of Flowers (1)

The photos from the same flower patch and by the same homemade lens.

The different tone was created by the combination of  White Balance in

the camera and a digital adjustment in the PC. 

I like those photo’s  Opal like tone.

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Passionflower

This flower was called  Tokei-sow, 時計草 (Clock Flower) in Japan though,

I never seen it in there but first did in  Canary Island when I was over 30.  

First time when I saw a picture of this flower, I was in my Junior school,

and it was in an article of magazine about the strange plants in the world 

such as Rafflesia, Farrus Titanium, Giant Lotus (Floating leaves) etc etc.   

Not only it’s Japanese name was really  convincing,  but also it’s structure

fascinated me so much. —– why a flower needs to have such style like a Clock.

The flower looks pretty complicated, and where to hide a honey

seems complicated too.  = a Bee needed to lick all-over ! 

Naive minded young people might have mistaken the name Passion Flower

= Passion for Hot Love kind though, the truth was,  it was named after rather grisly

Crown of  Thorn of Jesus on the Cross. That “Passion” named by Spanish missionary.

(And they tricked the indigenous people, “Look, Evidence of God is here” 😀 )

In this aspect, Japanese name sound more harmless.  —– With a kind of curiosity,

I wondered,  how on earth,  who designed a flower like this, or evolved from where ?

— I looked around the related plant, though,  this plant occupying it’s own species

and has no sister or first cousin.  —– ? ? ?     Utterly Fascinating !

—–

PS :  The Photos by  “Two Elements Homemade Lens” on Canon 5D Mk-III

(I’m amazed by the capability of this lens —– Nice macro too.  😀 )

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Cosmos

In that “Instant Flower Meadow” I found the Cosmos !  

— You may wonder why it makes a news ?  = Cosmos is one of the most

common (wild)flower in Japan, especially in a late summer, even though

it came to Japan about 120 years ago.   (It was originated from the Mexico,  

and taken to the Spain about 230 years ago then spread to everywhere.)

But, in here I’ve  seen  the Cosmos only handful times, and this is the one !

(= It’s a good question why Cosmos got out of favour in England. )

Still, as it spread to the wild in Japan,  if you see a field or disused land, 

the chances are,  you will see either  Cosmos if not Susuki (You may not

think, Susuki is a Flower though)  otherwise a bush of  Yellow rod.    

(Strangely you may think,  that notorious Japanese Knotweed is not

spread in Japan. —– Obviously, they like the England more.   😀 )

When the Cosmos fills a field, they do literally end to end.  

And they are as toll as 1 m, 1.5 m or even taller.  

And this  kind of flower meadow was what I remembered as a child.

(So the photo above shows how the Cosmos field looks like in Japan

—– Photos from Maki Yamamoto’s site)

Their variation of color is from white to deep pink. — There is

also yellow one but, we don’t call it Cosmos.   🙂

On the end of the summer, under the dark blue sky and be in a 

Cosmos field, which seemed to stretch as far as I could see, and

the fragile Cosmos are trembling in the first wind of Autumn.

The field became an Universe. (= Cosmos !)

—– was one of my Proto-image with nostalgia.

(A burnt down city, thanks to American Bombing, Tokyo was

almost a wild field then. —– it’s mean, lots of flowers survived the fire, or

scorched land was quickly covered by the plants from surrounding area. )

 So, for me, the flower photo is not just for a  fun to the eyes, but

a clue to trace back mental landscape as well.

(That’s why they are fuzzy.  🙂 )

—– 

Photos here were taken by the Two Element Homemade Lens

(with or without Extension Ring) on Canon 5D Mk-III

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Art Studio Open Day

I was invited to see a “Studio Open day” —– Yeah, I can see the Studio definitely.

The trouble was that not much else other than the space to see.

Or, it could be a biggest ever “the Art Performance” they created = To contradict 

all the creche and the stereotypical expectation around the artists and the studio. 

I saw an artist who is showing almost the same, made 4~5 years ago.  

(There was a sort of a say what makes an artist “Genuine” =

stubbornly keep doing the same ! ) —- is this the case ?

Anyway, Open-day is not an exhibition = literally door was open to the

visitors, that’s all = don’t expect to find an eye-catching or mind boggling art

= this is the studio (space or container) —– the contents is a different matter.

Then I realized that this is their annual party to have their close friends 

come together and to have a chat and a fun !

So that there was a Bar, or some food stool, stool selling small crafts etc etc.

May be the so-called artists here might had a misconception or fallen into a trap

of  complacency = “I’m an artist having a studio hence not a nobody therefore

what I make is The Art” —– still, the kids was born and the life isn’t easy etc etc

“On top of rack of creativity”. 

So, a guy I met there and had a short chat told me a very creative crazy idea !

(He was an outsider without having a studio ! ! ! ) = It’s better to remain an

outsider than a full-time “professional artist” in fact a professional pretender.  😀

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Fleet Street — Bicycle (?)

There isn’t much story to wright about in this post, but just a test of

that  2 elements homemade lens to take photos of general subjects.

Being as two plastic lens, there is not much quality to ask but the image with

full of hallation. = It’s mean, if any bright object was there, the image would

be completely eroded. —– But that is what this lens was.

The Bicycles were just happen to be there.

Some are quite fancy !    Though, I’m not fancy to ride this kind of purely

experimental model.   —– ( I would say, utterly impractical. 😀 )

= May be as useless as “My very homemade Lens” here.   😀 

Still, I like those nostalgic, old pinhole screen like image.

And I found that this lens can produce quite usable image

if the contrast wasn’t too high.  

So, it suits for the flowers in dull light.

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Meadow Flower – (2)

Yet another photos from the same flower patch as before.  

And this time, I used the same homemade lens and the Zeiss 85 mm F1.4 lens.

On the photo, if the back ground image was not completely out of focus in a Bokhe,  

such as this one and the top photo, they were taken by 2 element homemade lens.

Other photos, which got strong Bokhe in the back ground, like this one,

it was taken by the Zeiss 85 mm lens with  F1.4  aperture setting.

Not only it is a short telephoto  85 mm,  its extremely bright  1.4 F-aperture gives

very shallow depth of field —– yet still, the image in focus has pretty good details.

(That what this lens was famous for)

The photo Right is in fact the part enlargement of the Left photo.

Likewise, Right photo was a pert enlargement of the photo Left.

When this 85 mm lens was used on the close-up distance, it shows very

soft Bokhe due to the increased Coma aberration, which I like very much. 

Stopped down to a smaller F-aperture, hence increase the depth of field,

photo became like ordinary photo.  🙂

Still, which way to chose is depend on the purpose and the taste.

My original image of the wild flower meadow was in my vague child’s memory,

when the flowers were taller than me, and it was far more than 60 years ago.

There shouldn’t be the same clear images, therefore,  I don’t need to see

the images from a catalog  of a garden-center kind.

(And, I do no longer dealing with the reference book publisher.)

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