“What’s that dripping from above, is it raining?” thought the boy and looked up and saw his younger brother in the tree. He climbed up the tree and without a word gave him a jitak (a knock on the head) and climbed down. His younger brother smiled shyly, kept his laughter as he just peed, up in the tree. “There’s no boy ever wanted to pee in a toilet” he thought.
What isa flower, the “shoe-flower” (kembang Sepatu) without branches, leafs as I picked, plucked it with my camera? In a bunch they would look like plain vegetables.
What is a fish in an aquarium without waterplants, sand, a house without trees, plants, flowers, birds, the sky without the sun, the moon, the stars, the sailing clouds?
Were there no men, beauty, charm, warmth of women would be in vain, were there no life, this beautiful earth would be in vain. No one, man, creatures, animals, fishes, plants, ... to enjoy and be happy to live on it.
I’m lucky to capture this bird far away by “zooming in” yet the result was blurred. Unfortunately “Windows Life Movie Maker” can’t play it. It was too short. I didn’t succeed to turn out a sharp real photo. Though, I can still manage to make me this picture, blurred, but dream-like.
What A Joy Is Recording, Movie Making, Broadcast In You Tube
Poor recording -as you can’t command for the right moments, circumstances, sceneries -, not having a very special good camera, doesn’t prevent me to turn out relatively good videos with the excellent editing tools of Windows Life Movie Maker and when I succeed to create a video I can always make me pictures, besides.
I would record a sunset for aboutfive minutes through an opening in the foliage of a tree, then increase the speed many times and I’ll could see the sunset slowly setting, changing color. Or the moon from underneath a tree and see the beautiful silhouette of the leafage waving.
A bird’s very short twitter while aiming at a beautiful scenery could be repeated many times, a very short dragon’s fly very fast flight, could be slowed down then I could reproduce it many times.
Record an excited ant, a spider weaving its net, climbing up and down its thread or have its thread flowing, waving in the air to fasten somewhere. Record a guppy fish and see its colors but not in an aquarium and a lot more.
What a joy is recording, movie making and broadcast yourself in You Tube even whenever you would fail!
He is perhaps one of the last wandering ‘sekoteng’ (gingerly drink) vendor with his wheel-cart, an oil lamp, sounding “ting-ting” along the road. In former times, villagers, common folk, enjoy a night, leisurely sitting together, squatting, sitting on a bench, on the side walk, near a village market, or alun-alun (plain), ... drinking warm ‘sekoteng’, while someone is playing the ‘kecapi’ (Indonesian zither) in the still, cool night, the moon rising, a starry sky, fire-flies, with soft, peaceful ‘pelita’ light (oil-lamp), ... There were no glaring city lights, no roaring cars and motor-cycles, no hard-rock music ... The people sometimes give him some cents.
Just within a short life time of 60, 70, 80, ... years, so much, a lot has changed and many things, plants, insects, birds, animals, delicious folk cookies, drinks, ices, ... are gone, lost, I see no more ...
The “kue putu” (rice cake) vendor with its whistle in the night, the kue rangi, folk niceties, cakes, ...
Dragon-flies, damselflies visited, birds nest in our garden, there was dew on the grass. You could hear the gecko: “tekeh-tekeh, ...”
There werefrogs’ concert after rain, a ‘gabus’ mother fish with almost a thousand babies of her brood, the ‘betok’, rice, paddy fields with a lot of fish ...
There were little snails like sailing boats or skiing on leaves and stalks, many kind of beetles in the Bogor Botanical Gardens ...
The eagle, herons sailing, circling in the sky, hooting owl, the ‘musang’, fireflies, ...
The sky in Jakarta was so clear the stars were visible.
What a loss, they almost are no more. And I’m not a scientist. It has become a fairy tale.
One day you could only see them in pictures, in a zoological-, botanical-museum. If fortunate, you could see them still “live”in You Tube or a video.
I wanted to capture the wind by recording the ripples on the lake by “zooming in”, I just captured faintly the ripples but surprisingly, the camera captured a lovely flower. That’s what I learned, my reward for poor shooting.
So now can I capture the wind also by recording waving trees, waving lovely flowers, sailing clouds, ...
I could sit for hours with my thoughts, enjoy watching in the shade, in a breeze, these flowers waving. See You Tube: The Wind – chewginhoa.
Piggy sat and looked happily at me. Her eyes were a bit deformed. She didn’t know this and so, wasn’t ashamed of her ugly appearance as a little child who isn’t ashamed without clothes.
They do not know about what is beautiful and ugly, good and evil, decentand indecent. They don’t care whatever people think of them.That’s it: They “do not know”, they’re unconscious of it. They’re happy, feeling not ashamed, awkward. That’s heaven.
On the contrary, when we grow up, we “do know” and that makes us unhappy. When we fail,are not good looking, poor, without higher education, ... being conscious of it, we would become ashamed, unhappy.
If one is successful, rich, intelligent, beautiful, being conscious of it,one is inclined to be arrogant, cold, haughty.But happiness is a different thing.
Yet to me, I wouldn’t ever exchange Piggy with the most beautiful, smartest, faithful dog ever. A child grows up and isn’t “blo-on” –can be fooled with eyes open - anymore but Piggy will always be the same, “blo-on”, delightful, sweet and always love me.
I thought it was forbidden to shoot all kinds of birds in Indonesia.
Yet hunters, don’tyou be downhearted. Armed with a superb gun, you could shoot not only birds, but also monkeys, deer, boars, the rhinoceros, elephants, lions, sure, also animals, birds, species that are protected, dogs, cats, butterflies, spiders, orchids, the lotus and even ... take aim and shoot a lovely maiden without punishment.
Then cook and serve it as a nice dish in a newspaper, magazine or TV. Youeven get a honorarium without ever harming, torturing, killing the victim.
That was a long time ago, but today I can even capture them “live forever” as you could see them in You Tube: “Chew’s Videos”.
You can’t buy a beautiful voice” said the Choir Conductor. “except by exercizing regularly. When one day you succeed to develop a beautiful voice, you’ll be so happy, so grateful, no birthday present, even of a new car, a mansion or got a PhD ever, could outdo.That’s God’s reward.”
And I thought of good health, profound knowledge, art (Divine whisperings), ... They are God’s rewards, - more valuable than worldly riches - for exerting one’s efforts.
Sure I can buy me a camera, a computer, learn to open a blog, upload to You Tube, - they’re like a fine dinner-set -, which makes me certainly very happy but never so happy and grateful as when I now succeed to open my new kiosk: “Chew’s Videos”. What’s a fine dinner-set without dishes. Mine are the dishes, delicacies, my videos, my writings, my thoughts - God’s Reward – those are my treasures I never could buy, on it.
How I Recorded A Cock’s Crow How should I record a cock’s crow as I just saw a cock in a cage? When start recording, when you don’t know when he will crow? So I recorded something else. Luckily I saw and recorded swimming ducks, while waiting for the cock to crow and I succeeded to record some of his crowings, but pity, as I stopped recording he crowd again. I got the ducks by “zooming in” that is tomake them larger but blur while the lake Kemuning unfortunately wasn’t captured. Thanks to the superbe ability of the digital mini camera, the ducks were kept on the light-side.
I can’t picture a crow, but if you want to hear it and see the ducks swimming turn to You Tube: “Cocks Crowing, Ducks Swimming”
I was practicing an oriental health exercise by walking barefooted on “planted” stones in Monas Park. As I lay down on the stones on my back to have my back also “massaged”on the stones, I got a new, wonderful view of the trees with their branches, leaves assomething of a beautiful silhouette painting, embroideryagainst the clear sky. I never observed in that way before and I thought that it would be wonderful to have my bed in the garden and view the trees, the stars, the moon and clouds. As I turned and lay down on my side, I saw the people exercising, walking without feet as though gliding on air. How wonderful. Viewing the world in this way, in a lying down position was new to me.
Viewing from above on a plane I saw the clouds beneath me as wonderful giant icebergs or an enchanted city or country as in the talesof Thousand And One Night.
I saw, felt the beauty of spring when the Mahogany artistically was sprouting new leaves, as delicate as a Chinese painting of plum blossoms in winter, yet without being inEurope in spring. And I thought offlower arranging. But this was by Nature’s hand. I remember the exquisite beauty of the blimbing with hundreds of red tiny flowers perching on her stem and branches. And a branch with blossoms of the Lamtoro tree, so fine, so “fragile” with hovering little bees on its woolen-like small round flowers was as seeing a paradise in the air. Not to say of seeing a paradise in a flowering coconut tree from close by, or a paradise in the showers of blossoms of the King-palm tree or the showers of red-, white-, black-colored berries of the Buni tree.
And just before my feet there was a paradise in the water, formed by a rivulet. Wide, clear and very shallow, so that each grain of sand could be seen, little water palms here and there and the grass half under water and a bit fresh green of algae and an only little fish, the Kepala Timah, Cupang, Beunteur, and there was a bluedamselfly perching still on a grass leaf rising from the water or hoveringstill in the air. And the water further flowing imperceptible, silently, endlessly into a stream-let again to new paradises. How live that water was as compared to water from our taps, fountains or swimming pools.
Then, I saw another paradise in the distance. How green the paddy as a giant carpet, the tall trees surrounding it. How fine to walk,how cool is Nature’s park. And I thought of Adam and Eve wandering beneath the trees, enjoying the stream-lets, the fruits, hearing the same birds, feeling the same cool air, wind, seeing the same sun, stars, moon, clouds as happy, delighted, enraptured as I am now.
I’m so grateful as I could see, find a paradise just before my eyes, my feet without searching for a Paradise to the end of the world. I could find a paradise anywhere.
Ican’t command noisy people in the Bogor Botanical Gardens to hold their tongues, motor vehicles stop running when cicadas are singing, can you? But I insist that the human species can also sing very beautifully. However I have no way of capturing sounds in picture.
Chasing after aseabird in flight I got no bird, blank, but captured this picture. Ha. Ha.
