Orange Blossom

This is a common garden plant / shrub, [ Choisya ternata].  

Commonly known as Mexican Orange Blossom or just Orange blossom.

I don’t think I saw this in Japan when I was a kids —– seemed to came

there in the 70s and I have no idea when this plant came to England.

When I saw this flower first time, I wondered why this one got a name  “Orange”  ? ? ?  

—– Flower looks similar to other Citrus plants though, I haven’t seen its “Orange” like fruits,

not only that, the leaf is completely different. ( Citrus has single leaf, not compound leaf).

Then, I remembered what Professor said = “To distinguish Citrus family is, whether the leaf

has oil-spot or not”,  when I needed to take picture of Japanese [Sanshou] and not mistake it 

with looks very similar plant [Inu-sanshou] (only genuine [Sanshou] has oil-spot on its leaf)  

= like the yellowish small dots on the leaf = on the photo right. 

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The oil-spot in Citrus family ( Rutaceae, in exact )  contain typically smelled chemical,

hence they has been used as a seasoning or flavouring  in many countries.   (On this occasion

I looked into Wiki and found that amazing spread of this “Spice” in many many region in the

world but very little in the west ! )

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Even in the same [Rutaceae] family, [Sanshou] or more commonly known [Szechuan pepper]

is completely different looks plant ( I never seen it in this country hence, no photo.  — Wiki

got only a photo of the seeds ) — any how, in Japan, [Sanshou] is strangely exclusively used to

serve with eel ( Wu-nagi no Kabayaki  🙂 )  and such as in Thai cooking,  I think their

“Tom-yam” and its distinctive flavour were given by this spice.

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The insects, especially the butterflies, their larvae eat exclusively one plant.  

In Japan, Yellow Swallow-tailed Butterfly only eats this [Sanshou] leaves.  

(And when those larvae of Butterfly was disterbed, they push-out a kind of tentacles out of

their body to spread the concentrated chemical they accumulated from eating the leaves

(and its oil-spot) to repel the attacker.  (The smell is diabolical. It’s a chemical weapon.  😀 )

So that, when I saw Yellow Swallow-tailed Butterfly in this country  (though, only once),

I astonished  ” What a hell,  where the [Sanshou] plant grow in this country ? ? ?”  

—– I wonder is there any Butterfly who eat this  Orange Blossom leaves in this country ? ? ?

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Cherry = Double-Exposure and Double-focus, Soft Images

Those photos are, what I’ve mentioned in the previous post =  Soft image of the same

Cherry blossom which were done by the Double Exposures, of which one of exposure

was completely out of focus.

—– (Please click the photo to be enlarged, and click again to see it  in full screen ! )

In fact, the weather was not what I wanted = rather windy, therefore the movement of

the subjects might have affected the results though, it was not too obvious.  

Because of the operation, while changing Focus, Zooming position, F-aperture and

shutter-speed, I only made 5 photos from the same set-up on a tripod.

Despite a quite messy operation, let alone need to use tripod, the effect is somewhat

comparable to the dedicated soft-focus lens  which I did last year using Fuji Soft focus Lens.

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PS :  Those two photos are for a comparison, as they were taken by a  simple Pinhole. 

How soft and how much the core of sharp image was retained is all about the

soft focus photography. = It’s a matter of one’s taste and the type of the subject. 

Though the Cherry blossom may not be the best subject for Pinhole photo, as

they become just messy blob.  😀 

(This image is the the best so far among the photos what I’ve created by pinhole .  🙂 )

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Perpetual Cherry in Full-Bloom !

This is the same Cherry tree appeared 4 times before in this blog  ! —– because of her

very unusual character = flowering all through the year ! 

(Obviously, her internal clock is also working normal.)

As in the real season, she is now in full bloom, and I’m so glad to see her full dress-up.

So, I guess this might be the same feeling of seeing a daughter in her wedding dress.  🙂

(Though, I have no child, it is only a guess.)

When the nature is in its full bloom, that is where their beauty lies. 

We may not need to add any further decoration. =

straight shot, which shows just what it is, might be all we need to do.   —– still, I’m

thinking to make yet another attempt of pinhole photo or double-exposure kind.

(Before flower finish, and a calm, no wind weather permitted ! )

It is not for the sake of the beauty of the flower but the sake of soft-focus photography.  

It’s my Ego, Sir.     Ha ha ha   😀

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Soft Effect by Double-Exposure = Cherry Blossom

This is yet another attempt to create an effect of  “Fire-fly floating in the air”  like image in the

Cherry blossom photo.  I think, this technique is better than Vaseline on the fish-eye lens  🙂

Cherry tree is the same one as before but after few days, it’s having more flowers.  

And the photography was done by double exposure with flashlight while changing the

focus and F-aperture.   (Hence, large halo of bokhe appeared around the center image.)

(Once, this technique was used by Minolta in their Portrait Mode by shifting the focus

during the exposure,  in order to give a soft effect )

This photo was in fact the first attempt with primary lens  (Canon EF 20 mm F2.8) ——

The trouble in double exposure while changing the focus is = the size of images also change. 

Hence, the off-focused image radially spread out of focused image.  = To compensate this,

I used the Zoom Lens (Canon EF 24~70 mm F2.8) so that, top two (it’s the same photo but just

clopped) photos, focused image and off-focused image was not exactly the same focal length.

—– it’s a nightmarish operation = to remember the same size on the view-finder,  yet still

a devil wind blow the flowers off position etc etc.  😀  😀

So, it was a fun with a lots of unpredictable elements and human-error.   

Life is a fun in deed.   Ha ha ha  😀

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Soft Focus Fisheye Images — Early Cherry Blossom

This Cherry opens its flowers much early than most of the others (Somei-yoshino variety),

so that, I think this is the Yama-zakura (Mountain Cherry) which is the same variety, 

I posted the photos before as [ Early Cherry Blossom ],  last year.

I wanted to photograph this flowers like fire-fly floating in the air.  Hence, use of  soft focus lens,

and a flash-light under the dim evening sky.   So, I put soft filter onto my Fish-eye lens though,

the effect was not enough. = I may need to try again with different tactics.  🙂

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Soft Focus Fisheye Image

My quest to the soft image, I tried a kind of soft  filter  onto my fish-eye lens.

= In fact, it was like a Vaseline on the lens and it was aimed to take photo of Cherry Blossom,

which you will see in the next post.

I think it wasn’t too bad.  I like double-density pinhole more though, pinhole on DSLR

wouldn’t give us wide angle image, so, this make-shift filter is a temporally alternative.

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Still Blooming = Perpetual Cherry

This is the same Cherry tree,  I’ve shown you three times before, but always out of season.

Last time, it was a month ago.   And since then it kept blooming without a brake.

In order to highlight the flowers,  this time I photographed her with flashlight.   🙂

But for the reference, the photo above, center is without flash.  And right photo is another

ordinary cherry tree which shows no sign of flower yet — may be takes another 2 weeks ?.

This tree never in full bloom still,  always some (20% ?) = so far, continuously blooming

since last October,  November.  —– Now, the end of March, its mean even Kan-zakura

(Winter Cherry) is in the end of the season.  = in other words, this tree is different from

any other variety = This is the Perpetual Type ?  🙂  — Beyond this time, I should keep

watch how this tree does in the Summer. (I should have done it in the last Summer.) 

As you might noticed,  I was totally fascinated by this Cherry tree.  😀

What caused her to keep blooming continuously ?  (It’s not weather or sunlight.  So, What ? )

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PS:  Now in the middle of April, this Cherry is in full bloom.  🙂

More photos and the comment on this post.

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Plum (?) Flower

Well,  whether this one is Plum or Apricot is a difficult question.   Never the less, to my eyes,

this flower is the closest to the Japanese Ume 梅.    Cherry,  Plum,  Apricot,  Peach are all in the

same  Rosaseae family.  And as  Plum, Apricot, Peach belong to the same genus  Prunus, so they

are very close and easy to cross between.  Adding to this,  many more garden varieties exists.

So, here, I just call this flower as plum.  (Ume 梅 said to be called  Japanese Apricot  though  🙂 )

What makes this flower distinctive  (against  Cherry or Peach) is,  not only it blooms earliest

(in February) among the Prunus,  when flower opens,  the leaves starts to shoots as well. 

And something notable about  Ume is,  despite Cherry is the National flower,  when Japanese

select  Tree of Distinction,  they are 松,竹,梅 = Pine, Bamboo and Ume, Ume was regarded above  

Cherry. (I haven’t found the reason why)  In comparison to the Cherry,  Ume is giving rather

sombre impression,  so, if we say the Cherry is Yang,  Ume is Yin and influences where to plant.

Like Sakura (Cherry) spot,  there are many places to see Ume = Kitano Tenman-gu in Kyoto is

the most famous place to visit.  (In there,  Pink  variety as well, which called Kou-bai / 紅梅)

— (This close-up was taken by Canon Fish-eye Lens, while lens was held away from the mount)

Japanese makes Ume fruits to a notorious pickles = Ume-boshi (梅干し) which is only edible to

the Japanese because of its almost poisonously sour and salty taste．（I don’t miss it at all  😀 )

So that, if you put it in Onigiri (おにぎり = Sea-weed wrapped rice ball) it wouldn’t go bad for days. 

(I’m sure,  no germ could survive in such environment  😀 ) 

What I’m wondering more is,  why no genuine Ume was imported and planted in this country ?    

In comparison to have many types of Cherry here,  Ume-like tree is only this type. 

I don’t know why. —– So,  if  anybody knowledgeable there,  please let me know.

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Orchids Photos of Sing Lee

I received beautiful photos of Orchids from my friend,  Sing Lee of China.

Sing Lee  used to be a quite unique Chinese Blogger who showed impressive photos of

their Shang-tang mountain and many beautiful flowers there until his blog/ WordPress

altogether were blocked by their authority.

So, on behalf of him,  I put his photos here,  for the people of the world to see.

As he wrote before, those Orchids were found deep in the Shang-tang mountain,  and

brought to the city,  they could be very rare  new variety or even new species though, 

I don’t have the eyes to tell its name.  —– So,  just enjoy its beauty ! 

And I hope his well-being away from the suffocating air pollution. 

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Perpetual Cherry Flowers / Ultra Close-up by Fisheye Lens

—————- (In fact,  this photo is the same one = last in this post,  only cropped a bit. 

—————- And in here, the flower petals were actuary touching the lens surface.

—————  Fish-eye Lens isn’t too bad for Close-up.  We only need to extend the Lens for

—————  2~3 mm though, there is no way to do it but to loose it from the mount  🙂 )

If you’ve been reading this blog, you may rightly say  “Oh no, yet again Cherry flower ?”

I know, in fact I was rather bemused.  This Cherry tree is the same tree appeared here before,

and again in a post in the last Autumn as it showed the flower utterly out of season.

Since when I’ve put a post last November when the tree had orange colored Autumn leaves,

I’ve been visiting her time to time as she always having flowers.   = Hence, I came to a

conclusion that it was not caused by a confusing weather pattern but this tree is a new

variety who has the character, flowering all year round (well, half-year round at least  🙂 )

—  (Photo by Canon 5D MkIII / Zoom Fish-eye 8~15mm   at 15mm / Lens held off the Mount)

Without having macro lens with me, to take

close-up pictures,  I resorted to use my Fish-eye

Lens lifted up from the body (not fully mounted

= Lens was held not fully inserted to the body

leaving about 2mm gap !  😀 ) —– As the lens has

no connection to the camera’s electronics,

aperture is fully open and no focus indicator —–  seeing the focus and using

the same shutter speed (only + 1/3) still, picture can be taken.  (as you can see the result  😀 )

But, when the eye was concentrating the focus, the finger holding the lens couldn’t keep

the lens exactly in the center, the edge of  the image-circle got into the picture =

I needed to click few times  😀

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Photography is a very critical operation though, in the same time, it is a very loose

flexible funny art,  such as even pinhole photos are also the photos.  

When I was young,  before I got Macro-lens ,  lifting the lens,  even the lens was held

in an angle (hence giving pan-focus effect) or held reversed,  such technique was my

favorite improvisation.  (No close-up lens or extension ring = hence, cost nothing, 

still able to create more or less the same,  or even better results.  😀  )

The matter is not the equipment but the Mind = Just try,  just DO it. 

It could be successful —— if not = keep mouth shut  😀 )

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