Author: brenda

weekly photo challenge: unlikely

brenda's avatara meditative journey

For this week’s photo challenge, I am resharing a post that tells the story of the loneliest whale in the world.  It is one of my earliest post and still touches my heart today for I believe her story is not unlike so many people today. It is unlikely that her story doesn’t resonate with many of us, young and old.  

In 2004, The New York Times wrote an article about how, since 1992, scientists have been tracking a baleen whale named, “The 52 Hertz Whale.”  She swims and sings alone in our earth’s vast ocean:

Not heard nor seen

She isn’t like any other baleen whale. Unlike all other whales, she doesn’t have friends. She doesn’t have a family. She doesn’t belong to any tribe, pack or gang. She doesn’t have a lover. She never had one.

Her songs come in groups of two to six calls, lasting for five to six…

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the quatrain of seven steps

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People burn the beanstalk to boil beans,
filtering them to extract juice.
The beanstalks were burnt under the cauldron,
and the beans in the cauldron wailed:
“We were originally grown from the same root;
Why should we hound each other to death with such impatience?

~Cao Zhi

I was introduced to the Quatrain of Seven Steps while watching, The Advisors Alliance, a 2017 Chinese two-part television series based on the life of Sima Yi, a government official and military general who lived in the late Eastern Han dynasty and Three Kingdoms period of China.

The poem itself is written in the traditional ”five-character quatrain” style and is an extended metaphor that describes the relationship of two brothers and the ill-conceived notion of one harming the other over petty squabbling.

a photo study: red

This week’s photo study has been inspired by Ted Forbes’ discussion about the use of red within photography.  Undertaking a photo walk with an intention to see and photograph “red” is an interesting experience that I invite you to explore.

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Nikon D750   f/4.5  1/1.250 s   56 mm   800 ISO

Red is the color at the end of the visible spectrum of light, next to orange and opposite violet. Reds range from the brilliant yellow-tinged scarlet and vermillion to bluish-red crimson, and vary in shade from the pale red pink to the dark red burgundy.

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Red is the color of blood and has a historical association with sacrifice, danger, and courage. It is also the color most commonly associated with heat, danger, determination, strength, activity, passion, sexuality, anger, love and joy.

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Nikon D750   f.4.5  1/4,000 s   85 mm   800 ISO

When you place the color red within a frame of contrasting colors the brain will always direct the eye to the red object first.

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Nikon D750  f/6   1/30 s   300 mm   100 ISO

Because red attracts the human eye it, it also acts as an invisible leading line inviting the viewer into an image.

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Nikon D750    f/2.2    1/15 s   28 mm   100 ISO

Red creates a focal point…an anchor, something that isn’t the subject, but supports it

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Nikon D750  f/8   1/100   68 mm   100 ISO

Red offers us a point of interest when there isn’t one

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Nikon D750  f/8  1/20   300 mm   100 ISO

I hope you enjoy the creative work of photographers who participated in Ted Forbes’ photo assignment on the color red.