Category: Indiana

Phantasia

Food is art.

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Local Indiana goat cheese (which can be very good, as visitors from France have admitted) has become more local since the Goat Conspiracy from Bloomington added artisan goat cheese to their product line.

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Their (very limited) highlight (so far) is Phantasia, coated with a thin layer of charcoal to encourage the growth of the characteristic mold.

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At current temperatures, the cheese quickly starts to flow, calling back memories of the lava flows of Iceland.

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It goes exceedingly well the excellent local bread from Muddy Fork Bakery. What better is there to enjoy in this weather?

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From North by Hill, From South by Lake, From West by Paths, From East by River

So the title of a little book by László Krasznahorkai, better known for Sátántangó, and responsible for the stories behind a few of Béla Tarr’s films.

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Main protagonist is the grandson of Prince Genji, who is visiting a monastery near Kyoto.

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In 49 short chapters, we get a tour, both of the monastery, and of what the grandson perceives. Everything is treacherous.

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It is as if the visitor and the place are resisting their fictionality: Their possibility is enough to contemplate how place and visitor react to each other.

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Physical reality becomes secondary, what counts is the permanence of the imagination.

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9 is less than 10

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As hinted at earlier, Laowa has made a 9mm full frame lens, and I couldn’t resist.

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The lens is small, much smaller than the Samyang 10mm lens, which may come at a price. Its widest aperture is only 5.6, and there is a bit of distortion going on, but I can’t complain about sharpness.

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I think I’ll call this lens my black hole, it sucks everything in.

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No human eye is capable of a perspective like this. 

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The pictures here were taken a McCormick’s Creek State park, following the creek from its over-photographed waterfall  until it merges into the White River, a tributary to the Wabash, itself flowing into the Ohio, then flowing into the Mississipi. That’s a long trip for a little water.

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My trip was shorter, and a nice contrast to the loop of the Pate Hollows trail from a day ago.

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When you reach the end, that’s it. The only option is to turn back.

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Does one need this? A lens with extreme perspective? Or, to follow a stream until it ends?

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The reason is simple, sometimes: Turning back is not that different from changing the perspective.

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But learning is hard.

Seven Crossings

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Pate Hollow Trail is a 6 mile loop, with a few shortcuts as variations. In its longest version, it requires seven stream crossings.

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We follow them here counterclockwise, so to speak, if you look at the trail from above on a map.

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We also follow them in spring, when the streams carry water, for additional challenge.

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The crossings are small obstacles and excellent landmarks, telling how far we have progressed.

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The actual obstacles, however, are the in-betweens, where one has to climb up a few hundred feet just to descend again to the next crossing.

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So we can learn a lesson: progress is measured by landmarks, but achieved by what we do in-between.

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Care to join me for another round?

Turkey Run at 10mm

After my recent journey into gloom, it’s time to bring back some clarity with a fresh perspective.

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This is (again!) the Rocky Hollow Falls Canyon Nature Preserve in Turkey Run State Park, before sunrise and heat and people.

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The rock formations are extreme, and so is the perspective, with 10mm this is as wide as it gets (even though Laowa has announced a 9mm lens…) for full frame cameras.

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What’s the point? There is the effect, of course, which can be mind bending. 

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There also is the challenge. How do you avoid seeing something when everything is visible?

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But foremost, there is the possibility of getting lost, in a picture, or in taking pictures.

Darkness and Light

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Nino Haratischwili’s book The Cat and the General is a difficult book. It talks about guilt, and the unhealthy death wish that can come with it. It’s also a long book, and might not satisfy the reader expecting satisfying exterior context. This books is about minds.

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The novel often appears to be talkative, giving too many irrelevant details, but these are just part of an undercurrent of themes that connect victims with perpetrators. One such pattern is that of Darkness and Light.

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After Sonja’s Death, Ada had begun to be afraid of the dark. She only wanted to sleep in bright light, holding a pillow in front of her eyes.

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“Why is there Darkness and Light”, he heard his daughter ask, then just five years old.

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— Because we couldn’t see the light without darkness, and the darkness not without light, he answered, and felt doubtful.

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— But why do I have to see darkness at all?

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Darkness is nothing but a disguise for the light!

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This dialogue between the general and his young daughter replicates a dialogue between Nura and her father, and is one of many parallels that live in the subtext of the book.

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The pictures here were taken during a recent visit to Turkey Run State Park. 

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Besides Light and Darkness, there is also the theme of wood and rock in these images, of growth and strength.

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Mushrooms

 

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Now that all the pretty spring wildflowers are gone, it’s time to pay attention to some of the other vegetation that prospers in the humid Midwest. As you can see, they still have to learn about social distancing. 

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I know next to nothing about mushrooms. The beauty above is probably a coral fungus. But don’t trust me, and in particular don’t eat one just because you have seen it here.

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They grow with an astonishing speed, and take on shapes that range from gracile to monstrous. And they are usually gone after a few days.

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Some look so strange that I don’t even know whether they are mushrooms.

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The ones above were photographed with a macro lens. For the one below I didn’t have one, but I also didn’t need one.

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Tradescantia (Spiderwort)

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The spiderwort is a late spring wild flower. The local kind has blossoms that close a night and dangle down, suggesting spider legs.

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But maybe it’s the long leaves that are often bent like spider legs. In either case, each individual plant is an architectural master piece.

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The flowers have three petals. Unlike trilliums, I have never seen a four leaf variation . Another explanation for the spider name are the hairs around the anthers.

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Maybe we should consult an expert. They seem to like these flowers, too.

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Black and White Are Not Colors

For over two months now, I have been walking Pete Hollows Trail almost daily.

I have made a few friends, I hope, saying hi while cautiously getting around each other on the narrow trail. Nobody meant any harm. Thank you.

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I have met the trail maker. He told me that this trail is his masterpiece. I think I start to understand what he meant by this. Thank you.

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I also met the Hermit. A friendly looking shy guy wearing an NRA cap, and camping out in all kinds of weather away from the rest of us. He took care of the trail by cutting down fallen logs, too. Thank you.

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When I started this, it was still winter, and every little drizzle would soak you. Now, the tree leaves provide shelter enough. Thank you.

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There are secret spots, too, that provide inspiration, where you have to step off the trail a bit. Thank you.

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Then there are seven streams to cross. They help keeping track of time. Thank you.

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Oh, there is light and dark, separate and together since the beginning.  

All this makes a place, and forms its character, and builds it a home, slowly, for some.

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And then there is Cassiopeia. This is her home.

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She taught me that it is not us who own a place. It is not a question of ownership, but of belonging. Thank you.

We have no right to remove her, or anybody, from where they belong.

 

In Memoriam George Floyd, May 25, 2020.

More Moss (Mosses II)

After using Laowa’s 2.5-5X Ultra Macro lens for extreme moss images, I couldn’t resist to try out the new Lensbaby Velvet 28mm lens on the same subject. 

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People on forums discussing photography fight bitter wars about lenses as if it was about their salvation. It is certainly true that Lensbaby is making lenses on the other side of the spectrum of what many photographers expect.

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These lenses are good at not being sharp.  Even closed down they are a bit blurry, and show strong chromatic aberration. The idea is to shoot them wide open, of course, and enjoy how almost everything gets blurred into oblivion. The sporophytes of the moss above are impossible to get sharp with any lens, so why not make them extra blurry?

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The Velvet is a 2:1 macro lens (2cm in reality become 1cm on the 35mm sensor), but the working distance is so small that it will often cast a shadow on the subject. So these pictures where taken in the morning when the sun was low. 

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An advantage of shooting wide open is that you can do everything handheld — just magnify what you want to shoot in the electronic viewfinder and push the button when it’s (relatively) sharp.

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