Poppy Poppy

Normally I don’t  go to a public event and take picture — the same reason that I don’t watch TV.

(If million of others do the same, I can’t see a point, why do I need to do the same ? — among the millions, there must be much suited person to do the subject = leave the business to that person and I’ll do what nobody else is doing or ever tried (provided, it cost small = Most of project with large cost is not creative, since it is a rational combination of existing devices and the ideas, otherwise, it is industrial (Humanoid Robot is ingenious but not creative), if not political (Communist’s huge monument never be creative, unless we see them as an ironical symbol of man’s idiocy.) —– that is my art and who I am.)

But strangely, I made an exception to the unusual event to fill the ground of the Tower of London with Red Poppies.   (Said to be 890,000 of ceramic flowers.)

In an essence, this is an art exhibition using the Remembrance (of the War dead) Day as a pretext. (Red Poppy is the symbol of the war dead as they flowers in the old  battlefield of the western front.)

When I popped out, it was a bit of drizzle though, when the bus coming to the Tower of London, the sun blakes out and even a Rainbow appeared on front. (Top photo)

Then after a while,  the sky became like this photo.(Shadowy ground needs to have a morning sun though.)

These days, the art piece got to be massive size, it is a silly creche, the larger the work it must  impress more.  (Unless it was installed in a middle of nowhere, it’s easy to proclaim that this is a public art hence easy to get public funding and media exposure.) (it seems, it was started with that floating big duck)   😀

Red Poppy ? ? ? — they don’t look like a Poppy  though, it’s their problem.

(This photo was taken — can you believe — 20 m away ! )

 The cascading flowers was dubbed as “Weeping window” — is it ?

(A man in the cloud said “Snorting nostril” — well, it’s looks much more like.)   😀

Those photos were taken by Canon Fisheye Zoom 8~15 mm and the closer shot was made by Tamron Mirror 500mm F8 (I really love this lens.)  on the Canon EOS 5D Mk-III. 

(I went there only with those two lenses. = I knew what I need to photograph and had the pictures in my mind. —– I have 9 genuine Canon lens (from 8 to 200mm include Macro and TS lens kind) which got all different character  = I chose which one or two will suite the job.  — which mean, I don’t rely on the opportunistic discovery on the spot. — With a good luck and an opportunity even amateur can produce quite good picture.   But, I’m not an amateur = even in the worst condition, still need to fill the assignment = no excuse = That’s what professional meant. (—– I mean, when I was in the job.  —– Thanks goodness I’m out now.) Ha ha ha.   😀

By the way, a combination of photos here was a demonstration of minimal set, such that for 2 pages article in a small magazine.  If the Editor likes to emphasize an aspect of one photo, I’ll send the addition though, in this case, the most interesting kind of image is “Making Poppy” but, no doubt, it must have done in China and not available, (still, no doubt, organizer has them.) —– Though, as the Organizer is going to sell those “Poppy” to create huge profit, they may not like to expose the story behind “The Soul of British Dead Soldier = Red Poppy was cheaply mass produced in China”.)

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Autumn Cherry 2014

In a normal sens, it must be crazy to see the cherry blossom in November.

But this cherry tree is not an ordinary cherry.

= This is the Autumn Cherry which I’ve been photographing every Autumn to

Winter in a past few years.    ( I even called her Perpetual Cherry, before.    🙂 )

In the Autumn, when the tree started to change the color, this cherry start to have her

flower bud.  Then one or two bleak open.  — On the beginning, I just bumped to this flower,  and

realized,  it was not an accident or fleak,  this tree has a fixed program to have winter flowers.

Since then, I also made my custom to visit this tree when I see the season.  May be, it is

the similar kind of feeling to see an out wedded daughter come home once a year and find that

she is fine and doing well.    (Only a guess as I don’t have any kids.   🙂  )

Those photos were taken by Zeiss 85 mm F1.4 , with and without

“Homemade Ultra heavy Proxer (close-up lens)” on Canon 5D Mk-III.

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Become Immune or Irritated ?

When you read a post, like Key Mechanism in Zen Buddhists Mind you might have

mistaken that while doing repeated practice and keep receiving repeated same signal,

our brain automatically start ignoring it. —– Really ?      Think it yourself.

In the real situation, such as when you hear the same CM repeating the same name

on the radio or TV, in most of the case you just feel annoyance and irritation =

our brain, our perception couldn’t stand of it. —– So, which is the true.

— the brain become immune or become irritated and mad ?

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My explanation there was

“When a task was given by an order or from a situation in the life, first, it’s needed to

have a “Contemplation” some time interpreted as an acceptance, giving-up (to resist) or

determination to take the task (which ever it was passive or more positive, active way).

—–> And as it was accepted = no way else to go = have to face

the task head-on (this is called “Mindfulness”).

= “needed to have an acceptance” (whether, I’ll do / I have to do / I need to do).

This acceptance or determination, mind-set has to come first, preceding to the act.

And this determination = the conviction “I’ll DO” makes the same task, such as  

sweeping the garden,  from just a task to the practice to reach the Enlightenment.

Lord Buddha did know this from the beginning therefore in his earliest teachings of

“Four Noble Truth” he said

1) The Life is in sufferings.

2) There was the cause of those sufferings. (because of Karma, hence  impermanence)

3) So, it is necessary to (actively) seek the way to escape from the sufferings.

4) And the Buddhism is the way to overcome those sufferings.

Lord Buddha didn’t go any deluded idea, how this world was created by whom kind

of mumbo-jumbo but straight into the reality of the life = It IS the sufferings, and

telling the people to accept it first. 

First to accept, then seek the remedy.  And the way to seek the remedy is the way of

the repeated practice.  So that, the repeated same signal in the brain doesn’t cause

the repulsion but just accepted, then got used => ignored => so, the person become

immune to such signal while carrying out the daily life = => become immune to

the sufferings in the life general => able to live in peace without feel sufferings = is the

Enlightenment.   (What a clever magic or the clever design of the brain mechanism !)

= this is the mechanism (the Dharma) everybody was born to have

= therefore, anybody can get the Enlightenment !

= This is THE beauty of Buddhism.

___/\___

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Funeral Party (of Space Hijackers)

On the Halloween night, an Anarchist group Space Hijackers had their own funeral.

Is it really mean the end of their organization or it was just another ploy to attract

party goers, are waited to be seen. (They might  say, Goodness, We were resurrected.)

Anyway, what ever the excuse, it was a good busy party.  (Though, with rather slow

music, I did little dancing and spent most of the time photographing the people.

—– on the big party, DJ doesn’t go to hard-core = they do soft focus too.  😀  )

Photo was taken by my  two-element homemade lens.  (Originally a small  plastic lens

came from a toy camera and its 27 mm focal length was extended by a short-eye-sighted

specs lens from Hoya.  It’s called Retrofocus Lens design and the focal length now is

38 mm which enabled the lens to be used on the DSLR.)   I like this soft focus lens

—– but, it has no control.  And almost all blind shooting. (No use of finder)

Still, pocket sized flash-light with umbrella worked pretty well.  I like it. 

I’m not putting caption to each photo.   They are as it looks.  

And you must know your own photo. = You can Copy if you like.

Some familiar faces are the old members of Hijackers and they do

all the work and DJ as well.

The members who is wearing red pants can get in free = so, they exposed theirs.  😀

M m m m m m m m — some are quite pretty !

BTW, if you are not happy with those fuzzy images,  you’ve bumped to the wrong man.

You should have asked your friend’s iPhone to have your own photo taken.

The photos were taken by the lens I made myself = (and I’m qualified to do this kind. )

They were aimed to be fuzzy. ( fuzzy but omnifocus = thanks, no need to focus.)

Photo is for a fun (of myself) = if you ask me serious business, I have to charge !  😀 

—————–

PS :  Other photographer wondered the lighting technique, how they were done ? =

It was not an ordinary flash-lighting, nor white plastic cap kind or bounce flash.

It was a handheld lighting of a flash with small umbrella ( — see the photo.)

(Umbrella was an one-off special made and the support frame was my handmade.)

 

 

 

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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 ?

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—– 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 )

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3D View ?

On the second previous post, (to those Tri-color Photos) Photographer Karen

(drawandshoot) put a comment wondering what would happen if those picture 

 was seen under a 3D glasses.

—– My understanding of 3D image was, that if our each eyes receives the image

of slightly different viewing angle, our brain Re-configure them into one 3D image.

(but 2 different images has to be the images seen from the position, horizontally 

shifted about 2″ ~ 3″ distance = in short,  like the images seen from our eyes  😀 )  

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So, I tested it —– to see what happened ?    

The crucial point of my Tri-color Pinhole images was, each Pinholes were separated

 less than 2 mm. = It’s mean, the difference of each images in Sky, Pink, Orange 

colors were very small, almost identical. —> therefore they didn’t make 3D.  

Funny thing was, the brain (my brain) seemed to have a big difficulty to comprehend 

the images which got Sky and Pink in the same time.  —> So that, a moment to moment

the dominant vision Left or Right changes = suddenly the images changes Sky to Pink

or visa versa. 

(If you are good in 3D view in aerial photo kind, try the top photo here, = to see

Pink photo by the left eye and Sky photo by the right eye.  Actually, as each eyes seeing

different photo, this color change wouldn’t happen but more likely the brain sees

mixed colored image.    But if you try to see, such as this one with 3D specs (if you have

one, or use color gel) you may seen the phenomenon = dominance of Right or Left brain

changes.  =  This must be our brain’s defensive response.  Like our left eye is connected to

the right brain = a kind of evasive action to limit the damage when our head got injured.  

There couldn’t be a possibility  of one object having two colors in the same time = it’s  

mean, eye could gotten wrong, otherwise visual cortex got wrong —> hence the brain is 

testing the system by rapidly switching and changing the channel.  Interesting isn’t it ?

 

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Morning Sky

Well, most of the morning sky in the Autumn, in London are dull gray.

Still, time to time we can see the sky like this.  This was the sky on 

the 17 Oct’ 2014 / 6: 46 (long before actual sunrise over the roof)

The lens used was Canon EF 40 mm F2.8 on 5D Mk-III.

—————————– 7:17 ——————————————- 7:19 —————————————— 7:24

The photo in the middle was by Tri-color Pinhole.

(Otherwise it looked like next — 7:24 photo)

————- Then, I saw the sun over the roof.   8: 08 ————————————- 9:34

In fact, the last one = 9:34 , the sky was just bright, colorless sky.  

I’ve added the color by  Tri-color Pinhole. (Sky, Pink, Orange)

So, this was the cloudy sky this morning,  8:10  colored by the Tri-color Pinhole.

It’s somewhat convincing isn’t it ? —– it may looks like a Turner’s oil painting.  

I like this as a good joke.   🙂 

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Sky-Pink-Orange Tri-Pinhole Pictures (3) = Pretty Images !

Pinhole Photography is so easy and even Tri-color Pinhole is not difficult to make =

just put small (3×3 mm) color filter sticked on the back of each hole.  —– Only a

tricky part is, as the viewfinder was masked with black tape, shooting has to be done 

blind, it’s mean the composition and the angle of photos are all in guess work.

And those colorful images appeared after the image was tinkered, the shooting was

done more or less on the speculation —– still, after hundreds of the experiences,

I know what to look for.   When the results got a sort of sweetness, it got a maturity.

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Sky-Pink-Orange Tri-Pinhole Pictures (2)

If you are tired to see this kind of looks all same images, I should say sorry

but still, I would put you into misery few more times. 

In here those Tri-color pictures, the trouble of Orange color in the previous post

has been sorted out and the position of Blue and Orange were swapped. 

 As its character, Tri-color Pinhole images are inherently gorgeous.

It makes one flower suddenly trebled and put a color to each one.  

—– How marbelous. 😀

As I’ve explained in the previous post, those exaggerated color was not made by

any fancy program but by just darken and brighten several times that all.

(with an adjustment of  Wammer — Cooler color a bit)

For me it’s a fun.

Pale Blue -Pale Red and Orange Tri-Pinhole Pictures

Well, this was a further attempt to create colorful pictures out of otherwise

boring whitish flowers.  The effect of Yellow filter was not strong enough on

the last post, so that, on here I’ve put Orange instead. 

So, white cosmos was tinted with Sky, Pink and Orange ( not so apparent).

Then it was a riot of color Sir !

The flower’s own color such as yellow or pink was retained more or less as it was.

With slight adjustment of White balance, the effect of blue became predominant.

And to have some exercise.

I think, an attempt to have colors out of white was worked — at least.

🙂

PS : Somebody asked me “What Digital Filter / Effect was used to create

those overwhelming reddish color ? ” —– I answered him “In my policy, I don’t

use PS kind of digital manipulation.   I use Picasa to file, which came free with Google.  

So that the photo above were just tinkered (brighten, darken, clopped) by Picasa, still

brighten and darken the same picture repeatedly, the contrast of the picture increases,

in other words, the color would be strongly saturated.   Since the picture having red

element because of the pink and orange filter, they came out quite strongly.  

Reason why the reddish color tend to be in the left hand side was, that’s because

on the three pinhole positions, pink was upper side, orange was left

and blue was right bottom.   (I should make them rotatable.  🙂 )

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