Shimpaku juniper from Peter Tea’s latest post, titled Shimpaku, The Unexpected Surprise. My apologies to Peter for cropping the bottom of the pot to get rid of a distracting white band that appears in the the original (it’s below so you can decide for yourself if my pickiness has gotten out of control).
It’s a great story and the tree’s not half bad either. If you’re not familiar with Peter Tea and his bonsai blog, please allow me to introduce him (once again). Peter’s work with bonsai is inspiring, and his writing about his experience as an bonsai apprentice is generous, funny, insightful and just plain fun to read.
Just in case you don’t believe me, here’s a little teaser from Peter’s latest story about the tree pictured here: “It was just another work day at Mr. Moriyama’s garden in early December… With us was Mr. Tohru Suzuki and his apprentice Mr. Takuya Suzuki of Daiju-en…. After we finished our work that morning, I wondered around the garden admiring many of the trees. Mr. Tohru Suzuki was looking around as well. I stopped to look at a large bushy Shimpaku that’s I’ve cleaned in the past a few times and Mr. Tohru Suzuki walks up to me and point at the tree. “You wire, okay?” he says to my surprise. I didn’t get my hopes up too quickly because I thought he was joking around with me since he’s done that many times in the past. I quickly said, “no problem, easy work!” Mr. Tohru Suzuki looks at me and laughs and said, “for Kokufu?.”I said, “yes, no problem,” playing along and laughing myself. He smiles and walks away looking at the other trees and my mind went to other things.”
I’ll leave rest to you, except to say that Kokufu is Japan’s most prestigious bonsai show and there are at least two very good reasons for you to check out Peter’s post: first it’s a great story that’s very well told, and second, Peter provides a way beyond the-call-of-duty, thorough (to say the least) step-by-step series of photos (70 in all!!!) and text on the tree’s development.
Here’s the tree and the whole pot.
One of the seventy photos that Peter provides on the development of this one tree. Have you ever seen seventy photos on the development of one tree?
I’ve read Peter’s post and it’s fascinating. His detailed writing and the photos are interesting and instructive (it doesn’t feel like you’ve looked at 70 photos).
If you wish to retain the full pot, why do not clone part of the background on top of the white band instead of cropping? It is easier to clone the floor rather than the backdrop screen. Given that the band is almost uniformly white, you can select it and then fill it with the clone stamp filled with the floor pixels. After that you can correct any offensive borders using the blur tool after deselecting. The image would improve as well if the grey segment at bottom right would be darkened.
Peter should be proud of himself. Enjoyed every photo, it certainly seemed like there was only half the amount. Very educational and just tremendous. Expanding my bonsai knowledge just that little bit more. I won’t be afraid to tackle any large roots found in the wrong place. Thanks for bringing it to our attention.
Hi Ann,
Agreed. It’s really worth taking the time to go through the whole proceedure.
Hi Miguel,
Thanks for the tips.
I tried something like that with my primitive photoshop skills and it came out a little blotchy, so I gave up and just cropped (there have been many times when it has worked, especially with uniform backgrounds).
Hi Paul,
Thanks for your observations and you are welcome!