Year of the Rooster

Another one on the notes ;-)

One more inverted image from last week. I guess this is Physocarpus opulifolius ’Diabolo’. See the non-inverted original on a note. Strangely it has one branch in green, and I even found there one single leaf that was half dark and half green.

'Tibetan Singing Bowls With Binaural Beats' by Sonic Yogi: soundcloud.com/sonic-yogi/c-tibetan-bowls-with-binaural First part of post processing done on Snapseed. Then on Gimp I played with 'Newsprint...' effect: docs.gimp.org/en/plug-in-newsprint.html

'Waves' by Melorman (Antonis Haniotakis): soundcloud.com/melorman/sets/waves

Blacksand - Abyss by Nick Franglen and Charlie Casey ♩ ♪ ♫

I tried all sorts of "on camera settings" to exaggerate the green tones but I eventually ended up to play around with Gimp software. I first used 'Channel Mixer' to create black and white layer with green tones turned extremely light. Then I used that as a mask with "Value" layer mode to make the greens "shine" and pop out. Sources: docs.gimp.org/en/gimp-concepts-layer-modes.html docs.gimp.org/en/plug-in-colors-channel-mixer.html

Taken with a mobile phone clip on fisheye lens. Reflections of a flashlight has caused those pretty flares around the image.

"We see symmetrically; canoe on the northern Canadian lake; stars in the midnight sky repeated in water; forested shores precisely mirrored. Our hearing's asymmetrical: noticed sounds surprise us; echoes of shouts we make transform our voices; straight line of sound from us to shore's followed by echo's slithering around the lake's perimeter." ~ John Cage's diary 'How To Improve The World (You Will Only Make Matters Worse)', Part 1: soundcloud.com/john-cage/diary-01 "Don’t you hate that feeling? When some crucial wire in your headphones breaks and they begin to only play music out of one ear? But these headphones are not broken; the sporadic shifting of Cage’s voice from one ear to the other, to both, to neither, is all part of the composition. Cage achieved this aural effect by changing the position of the microphone and the recording volume throughout the recording process. Not surprisingly, the visual counterpart for this piece is similarly warped." ~ Maggie Molloy's review 'Diary: How to Read John Cage – Part I': secondinversion.org/2015/10/27/diary-how-to-read-john-cage-part-i "Much of the time, Cage’s words will feel obscure and poetic. And then, as you’re lulled by the rhythm of his voice, he’ll hit you with something as profound as a Zen koan. (“The goal is not to have a goal.”) Just sit back and let the words flow over you." ~ Jonathan Crow's review 'Listen to John Cage’s 5 Hour Art Piece: Diary': www.openculture.com/2014/04/john-cages-5-hour-art-piece-diary.html And if you wish to complement the reading with some music (like I do), then play 'John Cage: Seven2 (1990)' by Ives Ensemble at the same time, along with Cage's speech: youtu.be/NZ-SSYFdAew

Summers are often time to meet friends and relatives. And when they visit you, then the best place to spend some time together is outside in a local park. For the kids the favorite place is the Sorsapuisto park's playground. Because I'm also "forever young", I do participate to plays and games, and not just hang around. Besides, playgrounds are photogenic places. One just have to remember to respect anonymity, and that's when shadows and selective point of views are a good choice =)

Editing done on GIMP software: docs.gimp.org/en/plug-in-polar-coords.html docs.gimp.org/en/plug-in-map-object.html

...I visited a place called Nautelankoski. It is a 600 meters long rapids in river Aurajoki, relatively close to Turku. It was a rainy day, but we were prepared for the weather quite well. Walking out in the nature is one of the best ways to spend summer holidays.

ISO 125 was the lowest my new camera could go.

...used to go bowling, and won several trophies in tournaments.

Soundtrack 'Dominion' by Jens Buchert: soundcloud.com/jens-buchert/dominion I did a retake of my old shot I took over six years ago: I have often planned to do this, and shoot some of my ideas again with better gear, but also in order to find some new twist on my old subjects. I recommend this to everyone. You will keep the old skills sharp, and also improve them, and maybe even discover something new. For this shot I held my mobile phone LED as a light source, holding it on my left hand. Then thanks to new better camera, I was able to take hand held shot by holding the camera on with my right hand. The lighter double shadow is caused by the light reflected from the chess board surface. The same chess board can be seen also here:

Soundtrack 'Cinder Cone' by Tipper: soundcloud.com/tippermusic/cinder-cone