Skagit Valley Tulip Festival

I visited a different type of garden this weekend.  No, not really a Koi Garden type garden, but a grand garden, just the same.  The type of garden that you might take a helicopter to see completely…. 

The Skagit Valley Tulip Festival is that type of garden (show) (http://www.tulipfestival.org/).  It goes on every year for the month of April in Mount Vernon and the surrounding areas.  There are fields and fields of colorful Tulips.  It is really quite impressive.  Now Tulips are not the type of flowers that you might normally find in a Koi Garden but colorful they definitely are!  Here are some photos.  Enjoy!!!

 This festival is based on working farms.  These are businesses that sell all these Tulips during the month.  In fact, most of the Tulips have already been harvested.  Therefore put off that helicopter tour 'til next year...

Rhu the Dragon Fish

One of the most interesting fish in the Koi Garden pond is Rhu (Roo).  Rhu is a long finned Kumonryu.  The name means "Nine Crested Dragon", hence its nickname as the dragon fish.  The Kumonryu is a Doitsu koi that has a jet black pattern that emerges like billowing black clouds against a white background. The black patterns is variable and unstable, disappearing with changes in the water chemistry, temperature, diet, and even stress levels, reappearing sometimes as a completely different pattern. 

That’s right a variable pattern!  Rhu will change its black appearance based on water chemistry and temperature.  Kumonryu are also always doitsu, meaning that they either have no scales or a few small rows of scales down the middle of the back and the side lateral lines.  This scale less body seems to make the color shapes more distinct, especially as they change over time. 

The Koi Garden Kumonryu, Rhu also has long, very shiny fins adding to its distinctive look.  The amount of black Rhu has makes him hard to see unless the water is very clear.  With Rhu, the black may be moving around, but the red color he has on his head and belly does not.  The red color has been improving over the few years I have had him.  The high protein foods I feed out fish may have improved the red coloring.  The red coloring is almost as bright as Metallica’s.  Rhu’s black coloring with the red underneath is especially striking when a black colored fish breaks the surface and turns over, exposing the red coloration.  I think that the surprise of a black fish breaking the surface is one of the most appealing things about a black Koi in a pond.

Among Koi Garden aficionados, a black Kumonrhu has a reputation as a good luck fish.  Most Koi Gardeners have at least one in their pond for good luck.  While I have only the data from our one pond, I can conclusively state that Rhu has brought a lot of good luck to the Koi Garden pond over the years.  I will keep a close watch on Rhu’s black coloring to see what shape he brings to the Koi Garden as the water temperature warms up this spring.

Stay tuned!!!

Photography in the Koi Garden

When I started the Koi Garden blog, I wanted to cover both the intricacies of a Koi Garden and also the art and fun of photographing the Koi Garden.  The format of a blog allows, no requires, many photos, but other than that we have not really done huge amounts of discussion about photos. 

Well, because I got a great holiday present, I will spend this blog focusing (oh, that was good…  read on…) on some photography in the Koi Garden.  I received an used 55mm f2.8 Nikon Micro manual focus lens.  But don’t worry; this was no garage sale special.  This lens was originally made in the mid 80s.  Yes, mid 1980s, as in big hair 80s.  Since that time, the lens world has been taken over by the auto focus, lighter weight, multi purpose zooms.  But try as they might, in my view, the new lenses cannot hold a candle to the great old ones (hmmmm, mixed metaphors?).  And the great thing about Nikon cameras is that the great old lenses work on the new cameras almost like the new ones.  Ok, what is up with that?  Can you imagine a present day Porsche allowing you to pull out the engine and plop in a 1985 engine?  I thought not!!!  But I digress…  The point is in the case of old Nikon manual focus lens, they just don’t make them like they used to.

The nice thing about this lens is the clarity.  It is very clear wide open at f2.8 or f 32.0.  That’s right f32.0.  That means the depth of field (DOF) for this lens is huge.  Things that are normally out of focus can be made in focus with this lens.  See the Heather photo where I take a photo at f2.8.  This results in the smallest DOF possible.  There is only one part of the Heather plant that is in focus.  The rest of the Heather is blurry; very blurry.  Of course, in the photo world, out of focus can be good.  They even have words to qualify the quantity of out of focusness.... Bokeh...

The DOF also allows me to keep the entire series of leaves and buds in focus.  This is an Akebia (silver Akebia, if you must ask) that has popped due to a few days of good weather.  Oh and by the way these leaves are lots less than a inch in length.  That is some magnification! 

When you attach a nice flash, or use the one build in to a D300, you get a striking photo like this. 

Ochi big fish in a little fish's body

One of our newest fish is Ochi a, small Ochiba Shiguri.  He is a grey fish with dark red-brown sections of color.  An Ochiba Shiguri is reputedly a Soragoi  mixed with a Chagoi (a large brown koi).  I personally think that these fish look more like a Kohaku, similar to our Koko,  mixed with a Sorogoi, but I digress.

The end result of this debate of the hodgepodge of genetic history is just a nice looking fish..  This type of fish is a favorite in most Japanese ponds.  The Japanese meaning for Ochiba Shiguri is “falling leaves on water”.  Cool.

Our Ochiba Shiguri is a small fish that also has gin rin scales.  Gin rin scales are shiny, highly reflective scales.  They make this fish shimmer as the sunlight hits his body. 

It must be tough being the a little fish among a bunch of larger fish.  This little guy measures about 4 inches and has to fight for every morsel of food it gets.  He is so small that any movement by any of the larger fish almost pushes him out of the pond.  But this guy is the “Jack Russell" of our pond.  I have seen him take on the larger fish Sorgi a Soragoi , about three times his size. He gets pushed around and then just jumps back into the mix.

I can’t wait till he gets bigger…'cause when he does, watch out.  He might be the one doing the pushing around.

 

The pond of the rising sun

One of the most photogenic members of the Koi Garden pond is a fish we call Tawny.  Tawny is a Tancho Showa.  A Showa, as mentioned previously in Metallica’s bio, is a "black fish with red and white markings”.  The Tancho part of the name comes from the single red marking on the head.  These fish are prized in Japan as many of the red markings are circular and reminiscent of the red “land of the rising sun” circle on the Japanese flag. 

Tawny is also a long fin.  These long fins and tails make a beautiful fish that produces some very elegant pictures because of the way these fish move through the water.  The genes that produce the long fins and tail also produce long “whiskers” making these fish the wise old men of the pond as they grow older.  In the case of Tawny, this has also produced a smaller, daintier fish as well. I love the way the long fins photograph.  Not only do they produce nice long lines, but they also produce interesting waves in the water.

While Tawny may be dainty, it still holds it own when the food appears.  The smaller size may mean Tawny gets pushed around by the larger fish, but that doesn’t stop this guy from getting in there for the food.  Go, little man, go!

If Tawny does have any faults, they are in the red markings.  The red of the Tancho markings are a little weak.  Having the red a little darker and richer would make Tawny a better fish.  The red of the Showa markings could also be improved as well.  In fact, originally the only red on Tawny was the Tancho markings on the head.  The red on the body consists of a weak, small mark near the tail of the fish.  The red color only appeared recently as Tawny grew larger than 6 inches in length, as sometimes happens in Koi.  It might get stronger, but my hope is that it disappears altogether. 
Only time will tell!

Metallica, but without the bad music

Perhaps the most striking Koi we have here at the Koi Garden is a nice Metallic Showa. 

Showa koi are typically called "black fish with red and white markings."  This is because the Showa koi's base color (the main color of the belly, the mouth, and the base of the pectoral fins) is black.  My Koi-aphile friends say that metallic Koi have “an abundance of reflective iridocytes into their skin”.  What more normal people say is that a metallic Koi has a great looking metallic shine to their skin.  What we at the Koi Garden say is that we have a beautiful metallic Koi that we have named Metallica.

We got our Koi at one of our favorite Koi store (Oasis Water Gardens www.oasiswatergardens.com).  We bought this Japanese Koi with a few of our other ones in a group, when they were about 3 inches long.  Buying Koi at that length is always a bit of a crap shoot.  It takes a while for Koi to show their true colors, if you will.  Reds take some time to develop.  The blacks of an infant fish will change as the fish grows larger.  Plus infant fish are tough to keep alive.  Once a fish reaches 12 inches it’s chances for survival get a lot better.  

 But this Koi has always been a little different.  Even when he was a small fish, he had a dark black base with a beautiful orange/red diagonal swath on its head.  That mark and the colors have stayed or even gotten better as the fish grows larger.  Metallic is now over 12 inches.  He has a beautiful shape representative of a nice male Koi. He also has an interesting personality.  He grabs his food and shakes his head as he takes control over those pesky food pellets!  If nothing else, the other fish give him wide latitude affording him little competition for a good meal.

Fall Colors in Seattle Japanese Garden

The Fall color provides a great excuse to see other Japanese Gardens.  And when the weather cooperates, we cannot miss the opportunity.  We have shown the Seattle Japanese Gardens earlier in the spring.  This weekend we went back to see the fall colors.

 Because there is so much to see, this week we will focus on the gardens and not the beautiful inhabitants that live in the pond.  The pond water was not very clear and we had enough trouble reducing the number of beautiful pictures to an amount that we could show on this blog.  In fact, if you want to see more photos of the Japanese Gardens, we have created a Picasa web site to see the complete set of photos.  See the pictures at this web site.  Contact Koi Garden Guy for purchases and prints.  Enjoy!!!!

Photographing Japanese Gardens are one of the only times where an overcast sky is a good thing.  The overcast sky allows for use of a lower exposure and brings the colors into the photo better.  Also this is a public park that gets a lot of mileage with people and their families.   So it might be hard to completely get people free photos.  It might make sense not to even try.  There are lots of nice family shots and the people interactions are very nice. 

The Seattle Japanese Gardens does make special provisions for photographers.  Certain Tuesdays during the best weeks of the year, photographers can have a free run of the gardens, before they are open to the public.  At those times, tripods are allowed.  The cost for these times is 30$ and sign-up is required.  During the normal times, tripods are not allowed.  The legs cause trouble with all the families, etc.  Check the web site for more info.

Meet Sorgi, Blue Gray all over

One of my favorite fish here at the Koi Garden is a very nice GinRin Soragoi called, I think aptly, “Sorgi”.  A Soragoi is a blue grey Japanese Koi with a darker grey outline to each individual fish scale. GinRin refers to the bright, very shiny scales.  The combination provides a nice shiny blue grey fish with highly visible, defined scales.

For Koi with Doitsu scales, the effect is even more striking as there are fewer scales, so the outlined scales stand out more.

There are a number of interesting things about Soragoi Koi.  For some reason they are usually very calm fish.  It might be because Soragoi are closer or more related to, the older type of Koi; in effect more muttly.  It might even be that the “calm gene” in Koi is quite close to the “grey fish with reticulated scales gene” and as they are bred for the grey, reticulated scales, the calmness comes along for the ride.  I don’t know what it is but they are a very nice fish to have in your pond.

Our Sorgi is always the first to come up to the surface and great you.  He is the first to stick his head out of the water and suck on your finger; of course it could be he thinks it is food….  And Sorgi’s calmness gets transferred to the other fish.  All of the fish become calmer when Sorgi comes up to the surface.  Hopefully this happens only for humans and not for an itinerant Raccoon, otherwise Sorgi might not grow too old….  One of the Soragoi’s relatives, the Chagoi (Brown Koi) is the other type of Koi that is reputed to be tamer and friendlier.  It’s all in the genes!!! 

Another nice thing I have seen about Sorgi, which I think applies to all Soragoi Koi that I have seen, is they all seem to have a beautiful, classic body shape.  As you can see in the photo, Sorgi has a nice symmetrical even shape.

One other distinguishing feature about Sorgi is he loves to eat.  He will eat longer and more voraciously than any of our other Koi.  He is one of our largest fish and we expect him to grow much larger still.  He also picks fights with the other Koi to get more food.  A regular eating machine!!!  In fact, in Japanese Koi competitions, Soragoi and Chagoi are usually the largest fish there.

Sorgi is one of the oldest Koi in our pond and we hope to have him breed in the future.  Genes like that need to be promoted.

Out & About in the Koi Garden Neighborhood

Keeping Koi is a popular hobby in Seattle.

Many people keep Koi ponds, some of them hidden, throughout the neighborhoods. There are probably countless people keeping Koi in aquariums as well. Those hobbyists will also probably end up having a small pond in the future as their Koi outgrow their glass enclosures.

Up until now, I have shown many photos of the Koi Garden. However, in the future I intend to show other ponds as well, both private and public. Some will be formal, public Japanese Gardens, while others will be personal ponds. This is one of those.

This pond, which belongs to my neighbor Miss M., is an older pond, with some beautiful boulders, rocks and older, established plantings. Maples, pines and ferns can all be seen in the picture below.

You’ll also notice that the water is perfectly clear and it is so without a filter system. That is one of the signs of a well designed pond. For this pond, it is probably due to the larger size and fewer fish in addition to the substantial shade, inhibiting the green water growth.

One of the beautiful features of this garden is the graceful bridge, a common element of more traditional Japanese gardens.

And of course, no pond tour is complete without at least one picture of its inhabitants. And these lucky fish will have lots of room to grow in the years ahead.

I hope you enjoyed seeing Miss M’s garden as much I do.

Allow Me to Introduce You to KOKO

Occasionally we will be introducing some of our fish. Each one has their own personality and each is really quite funny once you get to know them. We have purchased most of our KOI from Oasis Water Gardens in Seattle, WA (www.oasiswatergardens.com/). The owner, Diane Torgeson, has wonderful fish directly from Japan and is of great assistance in choosing the right one for you.

We have also named each of our fish – partly to distinguish them from each other and partly to remember what type of fish they are.

For example, KOKO is a KOHAKU (or was…more on that later). A KOHAKU is a Japanese Koi that is white with one or two large red spots of color across the body. With KOHAKUS the color is usually on the upper half of the body and doesn’t extend below the horizontal line. And according to the Japanese koi rules, the color should not extend onto the tail or into or below the eyes. As KOHAKUS grow larger, the red spots will likely separate with more white becoming visible inbetween. With KOHAKUS, the red and the underlying white should be the only colors on the fish., But just because a koi may fail these rules, it doesn’t mean that they aren’t still beautiful fish.

Sample Japanese KOHAKU

Now back to KOKO. After having KOKO for about two years, she started developing black spots. They have grown progressively more pronounced. It is not a bad look, just introduces a problem. Those black spots mean she is not a KOHAKU, but instead a SANKE. A SANKE is a fish with the big red spots of a KOHAKU, but also has smaller, black spots. OK, Fine, she is still a beautiful fish, even if her name doesn't correspond to her class. We will not confuse her by changing her name....

KOKO is a voracious eater, which might explain why KOKO is one of our largest KOI. KOKO was about 3-4 inches when we got her 3 years ago and now she is about 13 inches. She apparently thinks that food should come to her as she sits there with her head halfway out of the water, mouth wide open during feeding time. She looks like she is screaming “Feed me” but won’t really move to the food. She wants delivery!

KOKO has a sway back that also removes her from winning any Koi modeling contests. But I think that makes her more endearing. We are not sure when she got this but we think she may have been born with the problem which just became evident as she grew up. The sway back may also be related to a seizure she had when she was a smaller fish. The pond environment and or diet may also have been factors. Who really knows?! . This is a good reminder to keep a clean pond and provide a proper diet for healthy fish!

KOKO, like our other fish, has some distinct personality and heath quicks. For example, she is very sensitive to Ammonia. She is our “canary in the coal mine.” She will show ammonia damage earlier than any of our other koi. Her lips get swollen and her fins always get Ick; You cannot miss it!!!. When she starts indicating these problems, it means we need to really focus on the water quality of the pond quick! But we never wait for KOKO to show these problems before acting. As we indicated in a previous post, timely testing of the water is manditory, especially in the spring and summer.

This year we have solved most of our filter problems and the fish are able to eat as much as they can, without introducing any undue amounts of Ammonia into the water. This has definitely helped KOKO's back problem and we are hopeful that it will only improve with time.

Competition with the Koi Garden

Can’t hold a good bloom back

Despite Seattle’s best wishes, warmer weather was bound to happen, and it has.
With the cold winter and delayed warmer weather, it was pushed off for a while. But when the warmer weather came, even for a weekend, the flowers and leaves take the opportunity to pop. And pop they do.

In the Koi Garden, we have two Maples, a nice smaller lace leaf, and a beautiful coral bark maple. A few weeks ago, both had leaves were just a bunch of small buds, but now they are open and beautiful.

There is also a weeping cherry on the south side of the Koi Garden that has popped. Photographing Cherries are a game of chance in Seattle. Because the entire branches of the Cherries don’t bloom at the same time, one strong rain can knock the flowers off the branches. I took these flowers a few hours before the next downpour occurred.

For these photos, I have moved the F Stop as far down as possible, and kept the background far away. This leads to the out of focus feel and nice bokeh of the background. The depth of field is really only a few millimeters with these photos. I have also switched the auto focus off to allow me to focus on the exact part of the leaf that I want to.

Expect to spend some trial shots as any breeze will move these enough to loose the focus.
With digital cameras, this is no issue, and, in fact should be part of your technique. Just take a lot more photos and expect to spend more time culling out focus and unacceptable photos.

Popping in the Spring

The Koi Garden makes use of a lot of plants associated with Japanese gardens. Cherry trees, Maples and Heathers are all part of the mix. I especially like the lace leaf and dwarf varieties of the Maples. Also the Coral Bark Maple is especially striking. The red bark seems to get more intense when the winter is a cold one. We also have a section exclusively of Roses, including some ground cover roses. For the vertical spaces, we have a few varieties of Akebia (Deep Purple, Purple Rose and Silver Bells). I have been told that putting multiple varieties of Akebia together allows for them to generate sweet fruit that can be used for Jams. I will try to focus on each of those as they start coming into their fancy time. This early in the season, we have some pretty Pieris. Look for some close up of the nice bells.

I am also trying to learn about and try some varieties of Bonsai plants. Look for some write ups about those efforts in the future.

This shot is a picture of the buds on a Weeping Cherry we have on the border of the garden. I am expecting some really nice shots of these in the upcoming days as this Cherry blooms.

The Flowering Pieris provide a nice close up opportunity. I have used a low F Stop for a shorter field of vision. This blurs the background of anything only a few feet behind the subject. This technique is great for photography in city gardens and especially fun when you want to highlight small things these delicate bells.

Mediterranean Heather provides a nice purple pop of color at the ground level. Due to the frost damage this winter, we have culled some of the plants that had problems with the freezing temperatures. This has allowed us to add more of these beauties. Again, move the F Stop down and have some fun with the blurred backgrounds.

This shot is of a Coral Barked Maple. It is about 7 or 8 feet tall but still in a larger pot we have located near the Koi pond. We hope to get a few more years of life of this tree in a larger pot. If we move to another place, we can bring this tree along with us. If not, we will have to rearrange the Koi Garden to find a place for this favorite. This particular variety has some gorgeous, delicate leaves that I will highlight in future sessions.

Spring Photos

Spring is a great time to look over your fish to make sure no problems have taken root over the winter. While the water gets green very early, you can see your fish well enough. You can also take some nice photos of your fish.

Digital photography allows for modifications that are truly amazing.

Picasa (free from Google.com) has functionality that allow you to modify your photos. In addition to the obvious cropping and straightening, you can adjust the contrast, color, and general lightness of the photo.

Within Picasa, there are three buttons that are quite useful, especially for those new to digital photography. The “I’m feeling lucky” button, the “Auto contrast” button and the “Auto color” produce powerful results.

The “I’m feeling lucky” button reviews the picture and makes changes to the lighting and the colors within the picture. It truly makes some very good improvements. The “Auto contrast” button makes similar changes to the contrast within the digital photo. The “Auto color” adjusts the color to make up for any weaknesses in the color representation. I make use of those three buttons frequently. These pictures have been improved with the use of those buttons.