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UltravioletPhotography

Ultraviolet Hanami


OlDoinyo

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The viewing of blossoms (termed hanami) has been an important ritual of late springtime and a significant crowd draw since the eighth century. Most often, the blossoms are of Prunus serrulata var. "Yoshino", although other varieties have been planted in recent years as well. Because the flowers bloom and fall in the space of a few days, they are seen as an important symbol of mono no aware (the pathos of the transience of all things.) In the following post, the venerable tradition of hanami is extended to the ultraviolet realm. The grounds of Osaka Castle are a prime spot for this pursuit, as about 3,000 of the trees stand on the premises.

 

The following images were obtained with the Sony A900 camera, the Baader U2 filter, the Steinheil Cassar-S at f/16, and various exposure times. Display intent is BGR.

 

"Gangizaka Slope:"

post-66-0-06874600-1492355250.jpg

 

"Gokurakubashi Bridge:"

post-66-0-80010600-1492355314.jpg

 

"Main Keep with Blossoms:"

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"Ni-no-Maru Back Path:"

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"North Park Path:"

post-66-0-82783800-1492360614.jpg

 

"Ni-no-Maru South Area:"

post-66-0-92009300-1492360692.jpg

 

"Sakuramon Gate:"

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"Otemon Gate:"

post-66-0-37178900-1492360847.jpg

 

"Osaka Business Park:"

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The blossoms are the palest of pink to the eye, but are vividly tinted in the UV. Wind and lack of a capable close-up lens conspired to prevent the acquisition of any quality close-up images of them. The best I was able to achieve was this highly cropped photo taken at the minimum focusing distance. There is considerable wind blurring. Fivefold symmetry is evident, and there seems to be some sort of nectar guide toward the center of the blossoms.

 

post-66-0-62994800-1492361126.jpg

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I like your UV hanami images - would have been nice to see some of them at higher resolution.

 

Can I ask also, just what is meant when it is said that a photo's "Display intent is BGR"? I understand blue-green-red, but what other "intent" would there be? I feel like I'm missing something simple. I thought an image's display intent was "to be viewed" ;)

 

Is there some potential that a viewer may view the display in some other format than BGR? How would one go about that without editing the image offline? Could it be that the artist saved the photo in BGR format is and just notifying any possible viewers that they should not change the format, lest they deviate from the artist's intention?

 

Okay, okay, I'm just having fun now - but I really don't understand (yet) what this means, and I've seen it stated a number of times.

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Andy Perrin
Mark, he just means he's switched the blue and the red channels, as is commonly done for infrared pics (but seen more rarely on this forum for UV, and mainly in OlDoinyo's photos, or in portraits to avoid blue skin).
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The BGR rendering so nicely brings out the false colour of the cherry blossoms.

 

I enjoyed learning about hanami and mono no aware.

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