Don’t dye it, don’t pull it out,
let it grow all over your head.
No medicine can stop the whiteness,
the blackness won’t last out the fall.
Lay your head on a quiet pillow, hear the cicadas,
idly incline it to watch the waters flow.
The reason we can’t rise to this broader view of life
is because, white hair, you grieve us so!
~Ch’i-chi (864-937) Translation: Burton Watson
Nikon D750 f/7.1 1/320 44mm 100 ISO (neutral density lens)
moss blossoms bloom
in a little crack…
stone Jizo
~Issa (www.haikuguy.com)
Nikon D750 f/1.8 1/800 35mm 100 ISO
Nikon D750 f/4 1/60s 35mm 100 ISO
On a mountain slope,
Solitary, uncompanioned,
Stands a cherry tree.
Except for you, lonely friend,
To others I am unknown
~Abbot Gyoson
I’ll forget the trail
I marked out on Mount Yoshino
last year,
go searching for blossoms
in directions I’ve never been before
~Saigyō (B Watson, Poems of a Mountain Home)
The question, “Is the centered eye more likely to follow the viewer?” drew me to the above piece of art while walking across the Colorado State University campus.
Tempo as a composition element within photography is an extension of Ted Forbes’ discussion of rhythm…the beat…the pulse within images. He notes that tempo is the means by which we display speed, movement, as well as the passing of time all within a frozen moment.
Within the comment section of the YouTube video , Tempo in Visual Composition and Photography, Ted Forbes furthers his discussion by noting that
tempo is different than the ‘rule of xxx’ stuff. Every photo has a tempo—a pace at which the elements relate to one another. This is simply becoming conscious of these relationships and learning how to vary the pace of the images you create.
Speaking of music within composition, here is a blog by Moss and Fog who offers us a video that is “a fascinating experimental film by Marcin Nowrotek [who] combines 3D footage of jazz musicians and 3D animations to create a video that brings amazing depth and physicality to the screen.” Enjoy.
As always, I would love hearing your thoughts and seeing how you understand Ted Forbes’ discussion of tempo within photography.
It is by its breath
That autumn’s leaves of trees and grass
Are wasted and driven.
So they call this mountain wind
The wild one, the destroyer.
~Fun’ya no Yasuhide
Nikon D750 f/4.5 1/40s 24mm 100 ISO
On the waters
of the flowing river
a jewel, a bead of foam —
the pity
of this fugitive world
~Saigyō (Poems of a Mountain Home, B Watson)
Nikon D750 f/9 1/160 90 mm
Is it because my mind
keeps dwelling
on every worldly thing
that the world seems
more hateful to me than ever?
~SaigO (1118-1181 B Watson, Poems of a Mountain Home)
Nikon D750 f/4.5 1/40s 85mm 100 ISO
Should I leave this burning house
of ceaseless thoughts
and taste the pure rain’s
single truth
falling upon my skin?
Izumi Shikibu (J Hirshfield & M Aratani, The Ink Dark Moon)
rhythm… Nikon D750 f3/2 1/320 40mm 100 ISO
On a troubled current
we grow old in this world–
today’s rain-filled stream
will only increase
with tears.
~Izumi Shikibu (J Hirshfield & M Aratani, The Ink Dark Moon)
rule of thirds…rhythm…symmetry Sony NEX-5N f/8 1/200s 96mm
a meditative journey 
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