...against a blue sky (22/365, 22 Jan 2022)
Saturday mornings tend to start rather, er, early for me. For several years now I have participated in a virtual reading group based in New York. Their '1:00pm Friday' is 3:00am Saturday my time (2:00am in summer), and how the rest of Saturday turns out can often depend on several things...how busy was the rest of the week, for example. Where possible, I like to take it a little easy on Saturdays.
This morning also involved a semi-regular spot on Australian radio, a chat with the ABC's Rod Quinn, at about 3:15am during the Australia summer and about 4:15am most of the rest of the year. I enjoy the spot and appreciate the opportunity to chat about current events in Japan, sometimes as they might affect Australia, and other times for newsworthiness alone. This morning was a case of winging parts of the chat, a large earthquake rumbled through Kyushu around 1:00am and just as I was going to air, I was watching and conveying the content of a press conference going live here in Tokyo at the same time.
At around sunrise (which I gather is about the coldest time the day) temps dropped down to about minus 4 degrees in these parts. Any wonder that by about 7:00am, I felt like I had run a full day.
I am currently finishing off an article or two due next week (and no, this post is not a procrastination device, really, it is not), so if I needed a reason (or two) to stay home, well 3-4000 words will do that to you.
My outing today was always going to be limited to the neighbourhood. Against a brilliant sunny and blue sky day that defies (and continues to defy) the single digit temperatures. About lunchtime, I had to pop out to get the paper at the shop via a walk through the local park (as regular readers of my social media posts will know), especially because I saw online earlier that the paper I usually buy has an article that is relevant to one of the articles I'm writing...(this is a good bit of fortune really, ever since I was a student submitting assignments at uni, really interesting and relevant articles turned up two or three days after submission...always!)
Anyway, a walk out side under sunny blue skies gives me another chance to have a photographical 'play' just like yesterday's clouds. Back home, in winter, a few trees will lose their leaves, but here, it seems just about every tree loses just about every leaf. It is fascinating to look up and see the patterns against the sky.
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| There's always one leaf remaining |
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| Side-by-side |
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| I think this is what my ink-blown drawing would end up looking like |
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| And, photography being photography, there are lots of 'rules', like writing and occasionally , like writing, when you know the rules, well, it is kind of fun to 'break the rules' too (to paraphrase (poorly) Picasso's famous 'Learn the rules like a pro so you can break them like an artist'). Some of my most interesting pics have been 'mistakes'; this one, just for interest, was taken directly into the sun, usually a no-no, completely lost the 'blue' of the sky. It is not one of my best, nor one of my most interesting but, example made. |
Why do I like these patterns? I took art classes right through high school, have always enjoyed it although I ended up with photography because I can neither paint nor draw--so said my teachers, in that constructively critical way they can. Often, I'll try and take a picture of something I imagine I might like to be able to draw. (Photos of insects and birds will be another post one day about my failed considerations to become a biologist--it had a bit to do with insisting on taking art all the way to senior high school...)
So back to today's pics, the bare branches of trees, in winter, they're not yet dead Fred, they are on the verge of blooming in a few weeks and indeed one day soon, these branches will be back here filled with the pink blossoms of the famous sakura, cherry blossoms. But the bare branches remind me of those art classes where, armed with a blank canvas (well, paper in those days, it was a state school), and bottle (or two) of ink, and a straw, we were encouraged to blow the ink over the paper to create a kind of ink drawing. It was, as I recall, fun. 'Exhale, DO NOT inhale' was the rule.
In years since, I've discovered the ink-drawing genre here in Japan and also significant in China and Korea. Kind of interesting connections. In recent weeks, I've been looking at a few fountain pens and other ink-based pens with a view to going back to some ink and watercolour pictures. We'll have to see how that turns out. In the meantime, I can just marvel at patterns in the lens.
Today's stroll accompanied by the Canon EOS M5, 18-150mm, which I remembered to bring home from the office.
Thanks as always, for coming this far. 😊
