Japanese New Era is coming

Well well, not for tomorrow’s April fool, but Japan is going to have the new name of the Era for coming new Emperor.    Japanese calendar system has the name of each Era with each Emperor’s throne.  Which is the continuing tradition of the past 2500 years, started on the time of the legend of Emperor  Jinmu.  So that the coming new Emperor Naruhito is its 256th Emperor.  = in other words, the current Emperor Akihito’s (He is going to cede the throne to his son Naruhito on 1st of May)  Heisei Era will end tomorrow.  (I remember the day, when I went to see the wedding parade of Prince Akihito and his bride, Michiko in their hose drawn coach. — I think I was a secondary school boy then) 

—– anyhow, on this last day, I should clear the stacked photos of Heisei while it is still in its era.

(Those photos were taken by ZM2 lens and Helicoid B lens on Nikon Z7)

On the end Japan got their new name of the era as Reiwa (令和) —– long live to them.    🙂   🙂   🙂

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Cherry Cherry – 2018

Since I put the photo of the first cherry, it’s already 3 weeks past.  They are still in full bloom though, the flowers started falling. The end of Somei-yoshino season.   (Then Multi petals cherry is coming.)

So, this year’s Cherry pictures were made by “Helicoid-B” lens.  (One of the worst reputed lens ! = therefore in these days I’ve been using the most.   😀 )

Without me shake even a single finger, the picture became almost trembled. ( = The technique to produce the paintary effect in the most economical way !     😀 )

(Only the problem was that the image in the finder was too fuzzy to see the focus.)

So, those two (three) photos were taken by a kind of normal lens = Tamron SP 500 mm Mirror lens. —— Somebody teased me saying “Can’t you take normal picture ?” “I leave that kind of business to the Phone camera user, otherwise no point for me to use bulky interchangeable lens camera”   😀

Though, the Tamron gave me too pale color.  (May be I need to use Photoshop kind though, that’s what I hate most.)

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Autumn CHERRY BLOSSOMS

It was on the end of November last year, I found the flowers on this Cherry tree.

But it happened to show the same, two weeks earlier in this time. —– As it is a bit early

this year, the Cherry tree has lots of leaves as well.

So, the autumn golden leaves and the pink blossoms in the same time = rather unusual

sight in deed. Because it was unusual, I didn’t feel very comfortable last year though, I was

more permissive mood this year. After all, to impose “What is normal or abnormal” is man’s idea.

—– Nature may have much more facets which we never know = And they may say,

“What’s wrong with having flowers in an Autumn = it’s not your business”.

A sort of stereotypical knowledge = there may not be an insect who visit and pollinating

the flowers out of season though, —– yes, there is an insect (kind of fly ?) was in the flower.

Out of our eyes and beyond our knowledges the Nature may still be in full

operation regardless the season 😀

And WHO said, the Cherry open the flowers only for the purpose to make fruits

and seeds = yet still, they could blossom just giving a fun

for the winter insects too —– why not 😀

—– As a result, this tree gave the opportunities for me to talk about TWICE already

= it’s a big achievement for such a small tree !

Never mind, the Wheel of the Nature is Going Round and Round and Round —–

And our lives goes on as well. 🙂

___/\___

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Fuji Soft-Focus Lens

While looking for a Pentax 20 mm lens to use for Macro shot (use it with revers mount-ring

on Canon —– Canon’s 20 mm lens is too big and F-aperture couldn’t be set manually),

Then I bumped to 40 year old  Fuji Soft-focus 85 mm F4 lens, deep inside of camera cabinet.

Yah, yah, I’m still having this ! —– I remember, I used this lens twice = It is my bad habit to

buy strange Camera, Lens, funny devices whether I need to use it or not = still, to see how

it was designed or what sort of things could be created from such junk is,  I should say,

my pleasure. —– (Like £10 broken camera, it is a treasure box of spare-parts)

Any how, to test this lens, I popped out to take picture of  Chery Blossoms. (Yet again  😀 )

Most Soft focus Lens is using an optical aberration = Uncorrected Spherical Aberration, 

which cause the light spread out side of the image, hence giving soft halo around the image

while maintaining the sharply focused core image in the center.  (Though, having inherent

soft image in the view finder, to have sharp focus in the first place is not easy  😀 )

And as this Fuji Lens is using so-called Lotus-Root Iris (having lots of hole in a disc) to

control intensity of the effect, some time the artifact appears in the off-focused Boke image. 

In the photo above, you can see the ghost of multi-hole disc. = this is a sample of dirty Boke.

When soft effect works well, effect is far better than soft filter or grease, as the image has

solid core of focused image.   (With soft filter, everything become soft).

With darker background,  you can see how halo spread around the bright images.

Though, with low contrast subjects, the effect is subdued.  In fact, with smaller F setting,

the effect of aberration become very little, same as even a cheap bad lens can give sharp

image with small F-aperture setting.

These days,  even a Mob’Phone camera can take pretty sharp photos.   Sharp images with

over Photoshoped photos are everywhere, and I’ve got rather weary with them.

Our eyes are not necessary need to see everything in its details. That is why, when sharp-eyed

Photographer showed unknown view or fresh viewing angle, the image surprises us.

So, I found, soft images which shows [the details as if no details are there],  isn’t too bad.  😀

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Early Cherry Blossom

In order to put  [ An-Mochi Cooking ] post, I needed to have a photo of Plum Blossom. 

Though I couldn’t find it in time of the 3rd of March, Japanese Hina-Matsuri (ひな祭り／Girls Festival )

Then few days ago, I saw a Pink Blossom from a bus window.  But when I went back there with my camera,  tree was

turned out to be a  Mountain Cherry  ( we call Yama-zakura/山桜 ) = the origin of  Somei-Yoshino variety.

Despite of normally rather small Mountain Cherry,  this tree was a quite hefty big tree of 5~6 m tall which

I can even climb up. ( Though, as a good citizen, I didn’t  😀 )   As it spreading the branches wide, it

convinced me to use Fisheye lens ( again )  😀

In the western tastes, the more the flowers, mean “Gorgeous” !

So, enjoy the view.  Gorgeous isn’t it.  — though, if I may a bit sarcastic, this psyche and its tendency

might be related to the birth of the Capitalism.  ( In its endless greed —– though, don’t ask me

how about the psyche of tremendously rich eastern industrialists  😀 )

So, it might be only a fig-leaf of yet another greed, still this kind of rather reserved decency, originated from

the Confucians philosophy is more appreciated in the east as it often appeared in the Chinese paintings.

Coinciding with Confucians, Taoism has been teaching

the virtue of  living with the rules of the nature.

 Be humble and live as an anonymous small person

 = This is the idea of Minimalism.

This minimalism has been reflected into Zen philosophy.

So that even in poetry, such as in Haiku/俳句, it is not just

short,but the strict rules limiting the use of the word  = only one word indicates the season/季語 = it must be

there, but another word doubling it is regarded to be superfluous, hence illegal = it got to be strictly minimal.

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So, in photography, in order to show the full bloom of cherry,  some time photographer only showed a fallen

petal or two on the ground, or floating in the stream.  ( Though, in real life, to create this image, photographer

remove all the petals on the ground before, and places the best look flower petal in the most effective,

looks natural position = it is a staged photo  😀 ) —– I don’t have any editor to please = I’ve just clicked

a photo above.   If you find the flowers in full bloom and its end of the life = temporariness of

the life,  it is what this photo meant to be.  ( Click on the photo to enlarge, and click it again for further

enlargement = it become about the life-size.   Put your lap-top or tablet on the floor.   Kneel down as if you

are  looking into the fallen petals on the real ground.  Give a thought.  =  It would make you feel a bit humble. 

—– Take this as a Buddhist’s practice in Direct Transmission. )

( Camera used was a very humble Canon EOS 5D Mk-II,  8~15 mm Fisheye Zoom, 24~70 F2.8 Zoom Lens )

___/\___

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Dead Leaves ?

By seeing this, what you perceive about it ?

Is this a representation of the Fall and the indication of the end of era or even a shadow of death ?

Or you think, this is their loudest final fanfare, show-off the completion of their duty = their

most glorious moment,  hence it got brighter golden color ?

If you are a type of the person to feel the former, you may need to chin-up —– or are you indulging a

self-consoling emotional memories or rather sentimental [soul-searching] !

If you are the type to see it like the later, you are a person most likely to reach to the Nirvana.

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In the medieval time, Japanese are pretty sombre Buddhists.

Like the plague ravaged European medieval time, japan was in the constant battle between warlords.

People thought this is the end of the world, hence Pureland Buddhism with their longing to reborn in

the Heaven became very popular.

As peaceful life was out of question, people’s mind was focused to how to die.

So that they appreciated even a cherry blossom in its moment of the end of flower, when their

flower petals are fallen like a snow is the best.   (It got a dedicated word Hana-fubuki / 花吹雪)

(Hence, cherry blossoms are connoted as the symbol of the Samurai and the Kamikaze fighters, because of

their beauty in its moment of the death — I mean their mind, not a bloody scene.   😀 )

—– since then, in Japan, Buddhism was assigned to deal with the death. —– With this misconception,

Buddhism became a formality to take care of the funeral, and not a guiding light to live positive life.

Yet still at least, it made them the most docile, decent people in the world.   😀

(But, with their suppressed psych, some time it erupt to utterly crazy creation of Manga or Cos-play kind

of culture — and it became another tradition called Kabuki / 傾き then 歌舞伎)

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In reality, the tree has no such mind = when the sun light dropped below the productive level and the air

temperature become too low, the green color = Chlorophyle became redundant = then another chemical such

as Carotene which happen to have red or orange color which has been masked by the green color become

visible = hence the leaf looks changed its color, and then they fall.

It is nothing to do with the life or death to them as they got the buds of yet another leaves

prepared for the next spring = it is just their cycle of the life.

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—– still, we give plenty thought when we see the  Autumn leaves in its red color.

Lots of thoughts, memories, regrets etc etc —– all just in the mind.

To the clear eyes, they are just the Fallen Leaves.   (Zen often spoil the fun.   Sorry guys.   :-D)

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