Rhododendron in the Park — by Focus Shift

Long time ago, I was seeing the Rhododendron in the mountain.  

Then I saw them in the Kew Garden —– I’m afraid those memories

 are getting afar and fading.   Now, I’m seeing a bit in a local park,

— may be I should be contented or I need to be thankful that I did

have the struggle to go through gorgeous bush of Rhododendron.

I don’t know why the fragile sister of Rhododendron was named Azarea.

To know about the “Focus Shift” please go to the previous post and the links.

[]

Sweetest Cherry Photo (so far)

Those photos were taken by a lens came from a Tokina Wide-converter and

its converging part of the lens has about 160 mm focal length, I call it Tele-soft.

In fact this lens can have a quite sharp image when an Iris was placed and the

spread of the light was centered — otherwise, its F4 equivalent of optics

produces beautiful soft Bokeh.     As the lens was mounted on a bellows, it is

quite awkward to use still, it can easily make a good close-up image as well.

I hope you appreciated to see them.   

(Honest ?)  🙂

PS : I didn’t use any filter or PS digital manipulation at all

—– only clopped and the brightness was tinkered on Picasa free program.

[]

Magnolia – 2015 (B)

This Magnolia was an utterly unexpected discoverly.  And beyond of my knowledge

and imagination — came from where or if it was a garden variety, how it was

created from which parents ? ? ?  

She is a tall tree and the flower is huge = as big as a Magnolia Grandiflora

 ( even 10″~12″ ) still, flowering long before the leaves was coming out

= closer to the Kobus but not Grandiflora.

In closer look I wonder if they are in fact a kind of invertebrate from the sea ?

—– You know what I feel and that was why I wanted to create fuzzy image.  🙂

Lens used was Canon EF Macro 100mm F2.8 and Tamron 500mm Mirror F8

on Canon 5D Mk-3.   (Some fuzzy pictures were taken by Homemade Lens.  🙂  )

[]

Magnolia-2015-(A)

Magnolia here must be a garden variety of Magnolia Kobus, its origin was a Japanese

“Kobushi” (こぶし）which has 6 petals.  But I don’t know the Garden Name.

In this post, the photos were taken by a homemade Lens on Tilting Bellows.

And if it was not fuzzy, it was done by the Canon EF Macro 100 mm F2.8.

I still like those fuzzy images.  🙂 

[]

Lens Test on Cherry and Plum Blossom

Those photos were taken a while ago, the same day I took pictures of Daffodils.

(After this, there must be much better full bloom somewhere else though.  🙂 )

(photo above was taken by a Canon Fisheye lens)

And the following photos were taken by the Two Element Homemade Lens above.

The beauty of this lens was that there is no focus  😀   (Other than this lens,

rest of the lenses were used with the Tilting Macro Bellows for focus.)

And the following photos were taken by a lens originally came from a Canon

compact camera G9 = it was their zoom’s front element.

The lens was Epoxy glued onto a lens mount ring and a filter ring was fixed too.  

Unlike first two photos, those photos were (I think) Plum tree.

Next was a front element of a Zoom lens  (I don’t remember where it’s came from,

Canon or Sigma ?)  — The lens was fixed in a similar way to the other homemade lens.

Front element itself couldn’t eliminate the aberration. —– but this one showed

very strong Coma aberration — (if not a camera shake).  In most of the case,

good softness of the image was created by the Spherical  aberration  

= so, Coma aberration was not desirable here.

Strangely, this Coma aberration appeared somewhat in middle distance.  

And not much so on the close-up.

This one above showed no Coma aberration but the following one did  ? ? ?

I need to have more test.

Last one here came from a cheap Wide-Converter for a compact camera.

It got quite big diameter — hence the effective F-aperture is F1.6 !

 

I like the images from this lens though —– strangely, despite full open F1.6,

the back image was not necessary out of focus or dissolved into big  Bokeh.  

Anyhow, each lens got its own character = pros and cons.  🙂

Last photo above was again by the same Fisheye lens. 

[]

Singing Bowl

After the post of Wind-Bell I got a call from a person who said that she got

genuine Japanese glass Fuurin. “Oh, marvellous!”—– It’s said to have come

from a Net-shopping with a help of her Japanese friend.

“The sound is exquisite, its ethereal resonance suck you into the infinite depth

of space!” “How extraordinary!”— and she said that she got a singing bowl

from Tibet too which sound even deeper and draw us into deep meditative state.

—– though, —– What can I say ? ? ? —– should I say “Congratulation” for her

able to get hold genuine article ?

Or should I praise her keen effort to seek a genuine sound ? —– ? ? ?

Or should I flirt her that her spirit will reach higher awareness soon.

[]

It may not fare to write here like this because soon she will read this and might feel

offended though, this is not just her personal phenomenon but this is the wide-

spread misconception among those who, so-called “spiritually awaken” — or

New Age kind of people.

As a matter of fact, it is not easy to see what they are after. (Fashion ?  Snobbism ?)

Are they really believing that they can get hold the Cosmic Power through a

Crystal they bought ? —– Are they believing that to keep a particular article, made

her to posses its myth and the understanding ?  (It’s called Fetisizm Sir/Mme !)

[]

In this area, there are three levels of  misconception.  

1) Believing that the object has its own power. (Like a Crystal power)

2) Or believe the function of its object would solve the problem.

(Like an exercise machine — the matter is not what the machine is but your act.)

3) With its object, the one can imagine that he or she suddenly acquire the truth.

(Like a “Special Mantra” “Book of ancient wisdom” kind. Chanting  O~~~~~rm !)

(— like seeing a film, made a person to believe “Be force with ME” ? )

Unfortunately, none of those kind are in the world. If anybody selling, it’s a fraud. 

[]

Yes, I did said that the sound draw a mind into meditative state and this IS the

state of Void.    This is true, — you try test = what you found?   Did your brain

configure any notion out of tinkling sound ?

I don’t think so = nothing there because nothing else of pure sound is there.

But in this Void what could be discovered ?   It is the question to be a Buddhist.

—– To a non Buddhist, Void or a sound of Fuurin or Singing Bowl wouldn’t make

any meaning other than A sound.   Though, to a Buddhist who seeks nothing,

this Void opens the eyes to see the Void.  (I said, “seeks nothing”)

[]

—– How come ? = our brain takes High-pitched tone as a sign of danger, hence

our brain activities were suddenly silenced and all the perceptions were

concentrated to pick-up further sign.  — even though our higher brain did know

that the tinkling sound was mere Wind Bell and nothing to worry about at all, still,

the emotional region / limbic system and all the sensory receptors were tentioned.

= This combination : completely blank-out Thinking activities and the

completely open / absolutely passive perception is very close to the state of Zen,

and it was the base of the Clear Eyes.   (Then, to see WHAT is depend on the person 

— some will see the enlightenment, but some see nothing.

— you can buy Singing Bowl but not necessary the Enlightenment.)  

And this is THE Singing Bowl ! —– yes it sounds more or less the same to Tibetan

Singing Bowl.

(It’s my cooking pan. = the handle was just unscrewed that’s all, and still sound nice !

— cooking pan wouldn’t make any rice sound.  But it would sound just Gong !   :-D)

—– What’s wrong with this ?          Do you still clinging to the Tibetan Bowl ?  

___/\___

[]

Fuurin / Wind-Bell (2)

Well, this product / Wind-Bell here, was an utterly odd creation.  

—– ( Before this, there has been a long stories of “Lens making” though, I’m

not actually making glass lens = just modifying them to an usable shape.)

—– anyhow, in order to make a lens usable, I’ve been mounting it to the

Camera Lens Mount using another metal ring etc etc = in short

I’ve been playing with lots of small metal pieces. = then I accidentally found,

some of those metal pieces makes nice sound when they were hit.

[]

So, the photos above are the metal rings hanged as a wind-bell but this one

was made to rather quiet one.  🙂   —– here, there was a post about a nice Zen

story of a Fuurin / Wind-Bell. —– Yes, Fuurin makes nice sound —– yes, on

the beginning. = second day, it became an irritation. = Hence, I made quiet one.

= it chimes only once or twice in few minutes. (When wind was not too strong.)

Its high-pitch tone with resonating tail makes our ears to listen,

and our ears can catch even faintest sound

 = the ears become so sensitive, 

still its sound got no meaning,

neither no-point to waite next sound 

= it may come may not come.  

—– So, the mind become completely passive and open.

= this is nothing but a deep meditative state.

The mind is in the state of Void.

[]

In this design, each three metal pieces had different sizes and the sounds though,

strangely, when they hit each other, they makes only one sound ! (or, to my ear)

(You know, it’s a famous Zen question, when two hand crap, why only 

one sound came out, despite each hand makes each sound ?  — Try to see. 🙂 )

[]

So, now on, the spring breeze has nice company.

[]

 

Dale’s Studio

——– (Note: Photo above by Zeiss 18mm lens for Nikon = Virtually no Distortion ! ) 

Yesterday, I went to the studio of Dale in the east London who also run the Cafe,

Small White Elephant to help a documentation, photographing his paintings.

As always, when I go out to take picture, it was a sunny blue-skyed day. = Almost

like the first spring day of this year.

(In fact, I’ve told him “If the weather was like this rainy, it would be a sign of

that the Heaven doesn’t like you” as the day before was rainy.)

As always, the studio was in a disused big industrial building,

some walk from the Bromley by Bow station.  = Real East End ! —– the area

“was” really a derelict, disused industrial land though, in the past few years,

suddenly new development was started. = would become posh town soon ! ? 

Utterly out of my guess, Dale’s paintings were the riot of colors with tons of paint.

— paint was not painted but more likely, deposited on the canvas. (= so that,

even after few years, some paint was still not completely dried yet.)

I only say ” Wao, Amaaaaaaazing”.  and then, I realized the connection, why

he interested in Zen = those process to dripping the paint without having

much of  pattern or figure = almost endless work of Mushin (Mind of No-mind

= Do the task without needing to have the Thinking.)  —– And the result

—– it showed nothing or it is the everything !  (色即是空，空即是色 = like what

Heart Mantra said ) —– He was not trying to copy a style of Zen painting

but “Do the Zen” in action.

And, for the next step, for exhibition and for a publication, he needed

to have his paintings digitized.

When we finished the shooting, his friends came to the studio with cans of beer.  

In most of the case, the studio of the artist never be tidy —– so, looks like this

pile of mess = was not a mess = it was a collage of the doodles or a draft of plan

etc etc. in his past (= said to be.  🙂 )

Therefore, I wouldn’t make any question “What is this ?” to an artist.

(with obvious reason.  🙂 )

So, I even didn’t have an attempt to guess what they are — why the blobs of

the paint was kept and treasured ? ? ?

In some distance, over the Bow Creek, landscape of the East End.

The life is there as usual. (of usual kind.  🙂 )

(Camera used was: Nikon D810 with PC Nikkor 35mm F2.8 and

Carl Zeiss 18mm F3.5 for Nikon)

[]

Ai Music — What ? ? ?

This music said to have composed entirely by a computer.  It’s mean, a computer

(its program) had its mind how to compose a music, in other words it was an

Artificial Intelligence to be a classic music composer in Bach’s style.  

—– It’s pointless to talk about the music without listen it first.  (So, ask your ears.)

Sound somewhat a part of J.S.Bach’s clavier collection —– though, what did you 

find of this composition ? — In my feeling, I found this, very irritating to listen.  

So that, it convinced me that how the man who composed the original

Well Tempered Clavier, Book one = J.S.Bach  had  human mind and a sensitivity.

I think, the mind was conceived phrase by phrase such as  “I like this flower”,

“A is equal to B” or “As A was equal to B, therefore A plus B will be the amount

of twice of A” kind.  So, the music expression has more or less the same structure,

whether it has a poetical dialogue inside of the composer or the description of the

landscape etc, in any case, each phrase, description etc is a complete packet.

They never drug the argument endlessly, as they ought to settle somewhere.

Yet, this  “so called, Ai composed Music”  has no such packet structure, but just

continuing on and on for the sake of making it to the length.   How irritating !

[]

 —– My guess is, that the man who programmed this so called Ai,  just made an 

algorithm  “What most likely choice of a note after the note, according to the 

statistical tendency of  J.S.Bach” not the artificial emulation of  Bach’s Mind.

Music is not a permutation of the note,  but the emotional phrase induced by

a musical language.  —– Language need to have a structure and the words.

They are not an endless line of  alphabet.  

I don’t mind if this music was played to a computer, but human ear is not a machine. 

If you like to follow this Ai story, the link was :

http://www.gizmag.com/creative-artificial-intelligence-computer-algorithmic-music/35764/?utm_source=Gizmag+Subscribers&utm_campaign=6730ebc432-UA-2235360-4&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_65b67362bd-6730ebc432-90317158

[]

Autumn Color — in Japan

When this kind of photo is the standard, it’s quite discouraging for me to attempt a

substitute.  😀     This is a photo from one of the climbing club in Japan.

And this is the notorious mountain, Tanigawa-dake, otherwise known as the

Graveyard of the Climber.   When I went there (yet, the easiest rout “Nan-ryo”)

with many  younger members, — then one of them fallen from the face.

 = it was literally free fall of 10 m, while pulling out three anchor-pins.  

I could see him flying down mid air in slow motion.

But miraculously,  the man landed on his Rucksack, and tumbled half on the 

narrow terrace, stopped on its edge with small bruise on his knee ( that’s all ) !

While he was in the air, I was thinking  “Oh dear, I become the first leader to have

a fatality on the history of our club.  So the question is, how to carry his body =

carry him down on the tricky face or carry him up and ask rescue helicopter ?

[]

—– After thoughts, I realized that, how cold-blooded man I AM !  

While seeing a man going to die,  still able to think how to deal with its body.

(But mind you, I had to take care of other member’s safety as well. — Remember,

Zen is not for shedding a tear but keep clear eyes on even the harshest moment.

—– Can any “Sweet compassionate mind” stop him fall ? — Joking. )

—– We simply gave-up the day’s climb and came down the face. 

It was a beautiful day like this photo of the Ichinokura.    🙂

(The link to the original photo —- http://www.bunanokai.jp )

[]