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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How to teach No-Self and Void

No-self,  Mind of No-mind = Mushin,  Void etc etc —– in fact it’s all same state 

of the mind or brain though, a trouble is, it can not be explained —– because,

if it was explained, its action, and the words themselves destroy the notion of

No-self or Void and in effect, it is to prove that “You have your own Self”.    🙂

It is the same to a duty of silence, you can’t tell or declare that “I am in silence”

= if you tell that you are in a practice of silence = you fail the duty.

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In the Buddhist scripture it was “explained” in the relation to the 5 aggregates

= in fact the relation between the sense and the object =  “sensed” —–

such as a sense of vision and the object what you thought that you have seen,

and likewise sense of hearing etc etc = 5 senses and effectively all the existences.

===> Its core is,  you never be sure whether you actually seen it,  or what you

thought that you’ve seen, was true or not, that’s because the subject, you and the

object were existing in the relation to the others in moment to moment, hence

they couldn’t be defined as a reliable solid existence therefore nothing, include

yourself is real —– in another word, Void.    (It’s shame though,  to understand

what was written there doesn’t mean “able to get Selfless or see the Void” ! )

—– (The expression in a typical Mahayana scripture “Exists as Not-exists” was

an excuse of the autoer “I didn’t say neither exists or not exists” )   🙂

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Because of you, yourself is Void, you can’t explain it’s situation because the

situation in any moment is keep changing hence any static description could

be a false = in fact any such notion is nothing but a delusion.

So, this is the fundamental trouble to teach, let alone to explain the Selfless or Void.

Lord Buddha had this trouble too, of cause.   And his answer was “Not answer” —–

because, there is no problem to continue the life without having the SELF, far from

it, we were born and naturally living in Selfless, in other words, having and clinging 

to the Self, or believing that the world, or all the existences are really existing, is

nothing but the delusion.    So, what

Lord Buddha did was just show the practice he does in Selfless state (Mushin) = 

and he instructed to do the the same, exactly like him. = and everybody followed =

automatically following him exactly the same manner IS nothing but the practice 

of the Selflessness.    (Please read [Test of Selflessness])

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It is impossible to explain what the Selflessness or Void is, still in practice 

anything can be done in completely Selfless manner and it is in deed a

demonstration and the proof of the Void.

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And this was the reason why the scriptures are in haywire still the teachings of

Buddhism and it’s tradition has been maintained in the Zen practice.

—– if you can do the same, again and again without conceive a question, you are

in the Selfless state.    And you can extend this state to do any other work, even a

thinking process.   (It may sound funny as it is the same brain though, the thinking

part of the brain is not necessary involving the emotional region where the feeling

of Me = Self was created.  —– So, the mental practice of Detachment will work.)

___/\___

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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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Graffiti in Hackney Wick

—–    (Photo above : Very impressive image though,  isn’t this huge print-out of

——- digitally processed image ? —– I’m not against the process,

——- because the final product is only the matter.)

May be because the most of building has been empty and so much wall space

was available, not only  nobody seemed to concerned about and policing,

the graffiti in this aria is really rampant.  Still, something peculiar about the

Graffiti in this area was that the most of them has been done as one-off work.  

Rarely see the repeated pattern by the semi-professional graffiti artist who

is doing the same tagging everywhere.  But here done by the guest member ! 

This one seems to be one of the largest, and obviously taken so much effort to make.  

In that extent I appreciate the enthusiasm and the effort (and the amount of paint)

the author has put in — but not necessary feel it’s appeal.

(What this one want to say ? —– Cosmic particle ? —– why it’s here  ??? )

Naturally, some are good others are rubbish still, it was certainly a try

and the expression of the person.

Some are common design of tagging.

But some are showing quite artistic 3D approach. —– I don’t know whether this 

mirror was originally broken or somebody did it after, anyhow, showing broken 

mirror as a “shocking image” would only appeal to the westerner.  

We Japanese doesn’t see it in any bad omen.  Broken mirror is not special to us.

Still, the position of each sticks with mirror matched the Rules of Ikebana.  I like it.

I praise the attempt to express in 3D —– at least it made me smile.  Ha ha ha.

Some are quite commercial !   Still, I like a cool figure in the right Photo !

And some are showing — incomprehensible noise. 

Try to paint something without knowing what to do.  (still just DO something)

Young people often mistaken that the attention some of the marginal subject

draw  (such as violence, sex, death etc = emotionally alarming subjects) AS

” artistic appeal”. — it called  Scandalism or  Cheap Sensationalism.

Same to that  ” Bad DJ thinks, the loud music is the impressive music”.  😀

It seems that the Graffiti is a passing phase of growing up.  = before establishing

one’s own “Reward system”  in the brain  ie;  before knowing what to do and what

would be fruitful (successful) —– Just try to DO SOMETHING (easy). 

It is the reflection of their irritation and the urge, try to show “Look, I can DO”  !

And it was the reason why here only few of them are showing the artistic sparkle.

(Anyone can have an irritation but only the one who born to be an artist can draw.)

Art is not an idea but the intuitive resonance which hit other’s subconscious.

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Cherry

One of the most popular tree of Cherry, they got hundred of species and may 

be thousand of garden varieties.    So that, all of their flowers look more or less

the same though, when it came to the fruits, they are amazingly different.  =

Not only the sizes or color —– but only a thing it would be certain, is, the most

of them are not nice to eat at all.   Only an exception I ever encountered was,  

the Cherry trees standing on the road side outskirt of  Wurzburg in Germany.

(Though, I wouldn’t guaranty  you to find the same street and the tree.  😀 )

That cherry was the same kind sold in the shop, the dark colored one.

I guess, the local council just planted the same variety for Cherry fruits.

(But I don’t know how their flowers looks like. )

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Many years ago, once European farmers tried to export their cherries to

Japan though, non was sold.  To the Japanese, Cherry got to have the color

like the one in the top photo and of cause the sweetness with subtle acidity.

So, this Cherry got the right color, the size was somewhat a half of “Salable”

standard in Japan but this one got awful bitter taste.

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Strangely you may think, not so many fruits yelling Cherry in Japan.  

There are hundreds of different Cherries there though, most of the tree

commonly planted there were the variety called  Somei-yoshino, which

was created  in a Somei village somewhere north of Edo (now called Tokyo).

Since it was a specially created hybrid, this Somei-yoshino is infertile ; ie

there is no cherry fruit !  = No seed.   And all the Somei-yoshino in the world

were propagated from single tree by means of grafting = one by one by hand. 

Therefore, thousands cherry trees planted on the bank of Potomac river

Washington, US were all created in the same manner and genetically

they are all identical clones.

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What makes this Somei-yoshino so special was,  when flower is open, there is

no leaves  and when the flower finished, each flower petals falls like a snow.

= Symbolizing the Ethos of Samurai.   The beauty in the death.    ! ! !

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