It was just another sign of the passing from summer into autumn.  I spotted a few acorns that had been gathered and placed on the wooden gate of an old temple in Ichikawa, Chiba.  It is still early enough in autumn that the acorns were still green.  The green so beautifully contrasted against the centuries of patina on the wooden gates.

It truly seems like one day it was summer and the next day I am pulling a hoodie over my head to keep the chill factor at bay.  The wind was whipping around as gray covered the skies that this little acorn spoke out to me.

“Here I am!” it announced to the world.  I wonder how many had passed under the gate and missed this green gem.  Is the little acorn not speaking loudly enough?  Or is it that it is only there for the people that are operating on the same wave length.  Whoever placed the acorn there was also tuned into his/her surroundings.

As the phases of the moon tick off towards another year, it is always those little reminders that let us know the season, and our place in it.

Be on the watch for those acorns, for the changing leaves soon come.

The lack of sleep is catching up with me.  The wandering back to the station seemed like a dream.  I was jut floating on snow the road, being pulled this way of that way by something that caught my eye.  I am not sure the path I took, but i do know that it was the right path for today because I came upon this tree that was shedding violet tears.

Those patches of colors fell from a small street side shrine in Ichikawa.  Violet teardrops on the cold cement side of the road.  There they were just lining up to catch my dream state that I was in.  I just lost myself in the violet bokeh softness as I wandered back to the station.

Shedding those violet tears again.  For a autumn that was too short?  For a winter that will be too long?  I do not know, but there are these purple drops to comfort me in my waking dream.

The autumn colors have been super late arriving this year in and around where I live.  I has very happy to have found that the Japanese Maple trees around are finally displaying their explosive colors.  These five-pointed leaves are alive rich hues that bound from the deep wine burgundies to multicolored mix and matched colors of yellows and reds.  The hues awaken my senses and I am always amazed at how vibrant these colors can be.

I found these all at a little temple complex on top of a small hill in Ichikawa, Chiba, Japan.  There were all amazing hues that teased my Ricoh GR IV out of my pocket and into my hand.  I searched out those hues that pulled me like a magnet towards them.   I wasn’t the only one wandering around this small complex looking at the autumn leaves.  There were several groups of mainly older Japanese looking at the trees.

Just another reason to be thankful.  I am thankful to the Creator for splashing my cold gray day with the explosions of color from the Mimoji trees.

This little one, actually, very little one was dancing in color sound vibrations.  All around him the browns, yellows, and earthen reds abound.  This little one was just shinning.  The purple hairs on the small buds that are about to open, to the flaming violet reds that color its petals.

Living and loving the colors that never cease to surprise my soul.  In the midst of all these earthen tones, I stumble upon these colors that light up my soul.

Sit back and let the meditative vibrant colors of this little on wash over your soul.  Let them soothe your troubled spirits, and see the light at the end of that tunnel.

The weather peaked at a high of nearly 25 (77) today.  It actually felt a lot hotter than that.  We are back to having that schizo weather that afflicts Japan in its transitional seasons.  The light from the autumn sun was beautiful and hitting at just the right angle as I was making my way back from the station to my home.  The walk back always gives me some time to reflect on my day.  The walk also gives me a challenge by training my eye to seek out something that I had not seen before.  It doesn’t necessarily mean that I haven’t seen today’s focus on a urban bush before, but it is more in the way that all of the photographic elements of light, composition, color and subject all align themselves and move my spirit to photograph the scene.

The combination of these elements have to speak to me as a human being first and then I must be able to communicate what moved me to those that view the images created.  Today was about how the light were hitting these tiny fruit on urban bushes.  These were plain bushes that had been planted as a hedge to hide some of the industrialness of Kasai Rinkai Station.  But here they were; one blue and one red.  The setting sun was just hitting them with that autumn glow and moved my spirit.

The idea of change began to bubble up in me as I observed these two stages of fruit.  One in it blue hue that has yet to mature into its red cousin on the same bush.  How does it feel to change?  Do we, as humans, change as slowly or quickly as these fruit? Or are they (we) just two sides of the same bush?

More often than not things never quite go as planned.  I might have the most perfect idea in my cranium, but when it comes to try to bring from the synapse realm to the physical realm there is something missing in the process.  The same can be said of creating a photographic image.  I may have the best of intentions to create an image that is clean and sharply focused; however, I end up with soft edges and blur.  Does this mean that our vision is not complete?  Or should we learn to embrace the process that imperfection can bring a glimpse of perfection?

I am leaning more towards the second view point these days.  If I set up in my head an exact image of what I want I am missing the process.  I am missing the valuable steps that take an idea, that sudden impulse, and be able to bring it to completion.  These two images today are both not as I intended to end up with.  I wanted them to be sharp macro images that illuminate the beautiful intricacies of the flowers.  What I ended up with were blurs of shapes and colors.

As I was looking at the images for a second time, in post, they became expressions of color.  That is how their imperfection spoke to me.  Not what is wrong with the images  but what is right with the images.  I first viewed them as rejects.  I saw everything that they were not.  They weren’t sharp.  They weren’t  well focused.  If i hadn’t of given them a second going over I would have missed the beauty that they had become.  They became perfected through their imperfection.  Their first perceived negative points became their strengths.

The colors became my longing for the Big Island of Hawaii.  Those days nearly three years ago were we played under deep blue skies and watched the flora fill our vision.  The colors of Hawaii here in the semi countryside of Chiba Prefecture, spoke to me.  I was only able to enjoy this expression because I transformed my imperfection into a perfection.  At least a perfection for the moment.

It seems like only yesterday that the heat and the humidity were oppressing my body.  Now, wait a minute, it was only yesterday.  Today the clouds and some misty rain have rolled in and the mercury has taken a refreshing dip.  On of my truly last days of summer, I have my windows open listening to the a unusual quietness drifting into my room.  The cicadas screeching has been silenced.  There is only the occasional street noise coming in from my neighborhood.

This summer’s heat has been long and hard.  Even though we didn’t get any days over 40 in my part of Tokyo, we still had day after day of hot humid weather.  The weather just wouldn’t quit except for a few freakishly cool days end of August.  Today it is the stillness.  It is as if the entire neighborhood knows that the heat is gone and that the cold is not that far away.

I am thankful for being able to see the four seasons here in Japan.  The four seasons were something that I never really experienced growing up in the two season weather of South Florida:  hot and not so hot.  To be able to experience the gradual changes with my senses is a blessing.  The cool feeling of cold as it hits the side of my face.  The bright colors of autumn leaves as they float down from the trees.  The smell of fresh flowers in spring.  And the tastes of those wonderful summer blueberries from my patio.  The seasons are in tune with the world.  Now we need to be in tune with them.

So in this season as summer is quickly fading into autumn, let those short sleeves soak up those last rays of sunshine.  Let the last of the summer blossoms fill our senses.  Don’t worry what time the sundial flower says, for there will be another one is only nine months away.

Sometimes it is good to get lost with in the blurred colors of the natural world.  An escape, if only for a moment, from the hustle of my urban lifestyle.

Purple bubbles swirl in the lens.  They relieve my spirit and lift my head.

Purple

Bubble

Blossom

The wind was howling when this one was snapped.  It did come out a bit on the blurred side, but I’m surprised that it wasn’t completely blurred.  There is a beauty in it’s soft edges, and how the blue melts into the greens.

I have been a bit out of sorts over the last couple of days.  My stomach feels like the stress of the last couple of months has taken its toll, and just not feeling to with it.  I pretty much spent the weekend indoors, and just trying to recoup my strength.  I feel a bit better this Monday, but this haze continues.

I will try to get a good nights rest, and continue my recuperation of my mind, body, and soul.  May you all seek the rest needed to keep the mind sharp, and the soul satisfied.

peace

Rain has been forecasted for the next several days, leading up to a typhoon that will come by Tokyo on Tuesday.  There is no rest for us.  I am thankful at least that it isn’t hot yet.  Sometimes it just seems that there is one disaster after another.  Earthquakes, tsunamis, tornados, severe thunderstorms, typhoons, hurricanes.  I wonder if it will ever end, or are these signs of the times?

Given all the turbulence in the world, I will spend my sabbath with family and being thankful for the end of another week.  It is a weekly reminder of what is important, and what is not.  It gives me the pause to let that which is not important to just slide off from my soul.

At lest there is a little purple sunshine on a rainy, mist filled afternoon.  I wish all my friends and family a restful and fulfilling sabbath.

The odd weather just continues.  The skies have slowly grayed over the course of the day. By the time I was making my way home the gray completely covered the Tokyo skies.

I found a little garden that a household owner had set up on the street across from their house.  The brilliant purple and yellow flows were just there and singing under the gray skies.  They without a doubt but a happy end to a long day.  I am so thankful for all the variety of colors, flowers in the Fathers kingdom.

The weather really has been a bit manic depressive the past couple of days.  It is like the weather can’t make up it’s mind whether it should become summer or not.  Today was actually cold enough to warrant a scarf in the morning.  Eventually around 2 in the the afternoon the sun did make an appearance.

At least it isn’t blistering hot yet, and I am thankful for the days I can take the camera out for a stroll.

Today was one of those days.  It poured rain all day, and it is predicted to keep on raining all day tomorrow.  There was one aftershock early this morning that woke me from a deep sleep at around 4 or 5 a.m.  It wasn’t that terrible.  It was just a reminder that the earth here hasn’t settled yet.

The streets of Shin Urayasu are just becoming puddles that fill up with the black sludge that percolated up through the earth in the liquefaction.

I took this image of a flower near the station on my way home, and it just seems to sum up the day.  All wet, struggling to stay upright.  I struggled to get it in focus, but failed.  So in the end sometimes it is just a struggle.

I admit it.  I am completely utterly flower obsessed this spring. I have always had an appreciation for the spring but this year it has taken on life changing proportions.  The situation in Japan, in a larger picture the state of the world, has forced me to look at my situation and see what needs changing.  What are the things that need to change?

Change is a life long process.  I can not be happy with my past accomplishments but I must strive to seek out new accomplishments.  I must challenge my lens to seek out other worlds.  I do not know where my lens will lead me next, but I am sure wherever I end up it is where I am suppose to be.

Come, step into the violet, with me.