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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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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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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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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Olympic Park (London) — Shooting Party (2)

Instead of weekly meeting in the Greenwich, we decided to go to

the Olympic Park for a photo session.

 As usual with my good luck, the weather turned out to be very fine and not too

hot, considering the day before and the day after were both dull cloudy.  

Still, the way to Olympic park from Hackney Wick Station was a long walk.

Then the hint of Olympic things appeared on the horizon ! —  A ha !  

You see, it’s a middle of nowhere, still this is a part of London !

 Coming closer, it looks not too bad.

(You believe or not, this is my first ever visit to the Olympic park.

— in fact, I didn’t even watch any event as I don’t have TV.   

Except the Opening of which I saw it in a pub.    🙂  )

On the approach, how on earth, why excise machine was here —– ! ?  😀

And the sticking logs — ?   It seems the organizer had a headache to fill the space.  

And end up like a jumble-sale, put any idea, any installation available.   😀 

So, I have no idea, why this slide got anything to do with Olympic.

The visitor, who is the most enjoying this park must be those young Muslim

girls playing with their Skate-board —– going between the jetting water while  

avoiding getting wet = was a skill ! 

I’m not a fan of Anish Capor who designed this tower — my thought only

went to pity the constructor that they must had a nightmare to keep

each rod in position.   (I guess, all of them got different length.)

Round dish near the top is the viewing plat-home —– though,

going up there will cost  whopping  £15 !   So I said “It’s a rip-off”  😀

Still,  I learned that this was called  “Orbit” — So, it’s round and round !

Therefore, I had my exercise which cost nothing.

While walking back, suddenly this Citadel appeared.  

Blimey  it’s a scene from a Surrealist’s cinema.

Though, it was pretty easy to climb as it was intended so.

= a lots of holds and stances, no chimney or overhang.

Reflection on the mirror panel under a bridge.  

(It seems, she was doing a kind of religious practice.

—– while others were chanting. )

One thing was certain, not much content though, at least  the area is burst !  

= Good for a walk and may be good to take picture of the sky.  😀

PS : Lens used was = Pentax 15 mm F3.5 /  

Canon EF zoom 24~70 F2.8  on Canon 5D Mk-III

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Meadow Flower taken by Homemade Lens

This flower meadow was suddenly created in the past 2 weeks.  

It was a green patch between the buildings of the council housing estate.

Two weeks ago, somebody made a bald patch on the grass, — then after few

rains, it became a flower meadow. = Packaged Instant Meadow !

From this meadow, my regular diet of fuzzy photo was made — but this time,

I used a Home made lens which is a Retro-focus type,  2 element lens.

Sound a bit ostentatious though, in short, as the main convex lens had a little 

short focal length,  I put another concave lens to extend its back-focus, hence

it became a Retro-focus type. —– (Main convex lens came from a toy and the

Front concave lens was my broken short-eye-sighted glass.)

 This photo was a comparison.  = taken by the same

Wide-angle Double-density Pinhole lens, I’ve been using.

Note : Regardless the distance, Pinhole never posses a core of sharp image.

And rather blueish color cast, because not much glass lens there to block 

the UV.  —– (It’s a Pinhole ! )

 For this Double-element lens,  I improvised an “inter-changeable F-aperture” to

reduce a halation by stopping down.    (Sound heavy “F-aperture” though, it was

just a hole on a black tape to stick on the back of the lens.   🙂  ) 

——– (Photo above : The clear samples of Iris (F-aperture) Effect =

——– Left = Fully open / 10 mm.  Center Photo = 6 mm.  Right Photo = 3 mm.

Despite the utter humble origin, amazingly this lens has certain image quality.

And those pink flower having rain drops on it —– just able to see !

So, the image was Soft and Fuzzy, because of too much Coma- aberration

still, they are retaining certain sharp image in the center.   😀

This is a part enlargement of the photo above —– Not too bad.  I like it.

(Can you see the water droplets on the petals ! )

And able to give enough fun !

I have no idea, what those flowers called.

Still, I like this glowing color ! — not the Sun, but like a kindling fire in the ash.

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PS :  May be much of your annoyance,  this is it !   = THE home made Lens.

Photo Right shows “F-aperture” ! = Hole in a Black sticky tape.  😀

= To clack a nut of creativity, it doesn’t need to be ostentatiously heavy 

Lens, even though the Camera happen to be expensive.

= Typical case was, just smear the Lens with sliver to soften the image.

Heavy pretense blocks the flow of the idea. = Anything can be done.

Matter is Just Do and discover a FUN.

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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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Tilting Macro Bellows — Field Test

Following the test like previous post of homemade bellows, I took it to the park.

Setup was either Micro Nikkor 55 mm or Tamron 90 mm Macro on the bellows

which was mounted on Canon 5D  Mk-III.   And the most of the shots were taken

while the lens was tilted up to 30 degree. (Nikkor 55 mm = up to 20 degree,

Tamron 90 mm = up to 30 degree —– before the corner cut-off starts.)  

And as no F-aperture control, all the photos were taken with

fully open F-aperture.  (And hand held.)

Photo above, Right photo, you may see something strange = why the back petal

was out of focus. —– Because the lens was tilted.

Those photos were the too conspicuous demonstration of the tilting effect.  😀

But those were a bit more subtle.

And above left photo was made with Pan-focus effect and

the right was with Shallow-focus effect.

Shallow focus with rather exaggerated out of focus Bokhe. 

With the Bellows extension, the lense can give even larger close-up.

There were a lots of Bees and Bumble Bees though, they were too busy.

This small black fly seemed to taking a rest.

This Hovering Fly — right 2 photos, she was in the air hovering.

(I needed at least F5.6, not fully open 2.5)

Looks quite  inconspicuous,  still this photo was benefited by the tilting effect.

—– Tilting the lens works well though, to have full benefit of it need to have it

from infinity, not just on the close-up = But to do it,

I need to make yet another Tilting SLR using DSLR body.   🙂

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Karenisque Flower Photo

Here again, those are the photos created, while the camera was shaken. 

Anyhow, as it was not for scientific, critical needs, photo or the visual image

doesn’t need to be sharp and clear. Hence, the Impressionist’s paintings

has been appreciated on the wall.

Photo above top was made by a bit of off focus,  

and the bottom photo was made by a shake.   🙂

You may not know that the photography can be a good exercise too !  😀

So on.  It’s a good twist Sir !

If you can’t attach Pinhole on your camera, still want to take other than

an ordinary sharp, well focused photo, why not try shake your camera.

They are THE Photographs too !  (Why not.    😀 )

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Azalea and Rhododendron

Even among the same family of  Ericaceae,  Azalea and Rhododendron is

very close.  Often their flowers are indistinguishable. (I don’t care.  🙂 )

A bit fragile branched tree is Azalea and having stiffer branches, thick leaves is

Rhododendron —– in general.

In fact, in the mountain, both Azalea and Rhododendron are quite common.

—– well,  Azalea in the grassy meadow and Rhododendron grows much higher,

even rocky ridged area of the mountain.

Even in the wild, both of them got variety of colors though, in most of

the case, one area got the same kind and the same colored flower.

So, in Japan, we climbers are proudly boasting,  has seen the special

variety of the Rhododendron in the particular mountain.

It seems, the Rhododendron has an alkaloid (poison or medicinal constituency)

 which rise a blood pressure, hence some are believing it has an Aphrodisiac effect.

In the mountain Shelter,  I observed a group of the people experimenting it and

showed the effects = feel hot and itchy on the skin and having a feeling that their

 earlobe are swollen.  (but not their part of the anatomy —– how shame)  😀  😀 

So, when I read a description in the book  “Third eyes” —— Tibetan family eat

honey pickled Rhododendron flowers. = I was very suspicious about the

authenticity of the book = then, later I discovered that the author was in fact

an English Milkman.  Whole book was just a fiction.

So, don’t make a Rhododendron Salad.

They are pretty as they looks !  (nothing more,  nothing less)

(Whole picture were taken by  Canon Fish-eye Zoom 8~15 mm F4

—– it’s a pretty useful lens ! )

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