in this grass hut. ~Ryokan (Trans: K Tanahashi, Sky Above, Great Wind)
As I watch the eastern horizon’s transition from the black of night to first light’s opaque colors and then to sunrise’s pastels, I find myself asking,” “What is it that you are waiting for? Or, are you, unknowingly, waiting for someone?”
The morning news filters into my consciousness, blinding me to what is now, and another cycle of searching and editing of words … sentences … meaning begins an undeclared battle with internalized others; fragmented, abstract, vague, absent others.
It was a perfect morning – a dove-gray sky with the amazing saturation of reds, oranges, and yellows … a braking car, a Pepsi truck, Target’s target …
A dove-gray morning that felt like 31 degrees with its 3 mph SSE breeze and 51% precipitation.
A dove-gray morning with the chilly tickle of the breeze upon my face as I walked sure footed in barefoot shoes and freed from hip and knee arthritic pain … a temporary release from the imprisonments of fading health.
A dove-gray morning with blooming trees filled with Spring’s whites and purple blossoms that seemingly woke during the night as I slumbered.
A dove-grey morning that carried the silent memories of fog horns, condensed-covered windows, pajama breakfasts with melting buttered waffles, maple syrup, bacon, rich dark coffee, unique scent of the newspaper, and the medley of sounds — crunchy folded newspaper, laughter, and voices of morning kitchen reunions from slumber to wakie-wakieness.
A gray-dove morning with unknown and unheard sounds of explosions as drones fill the sky; fear-filled, pain-filled screams intermixing with crumbling buildings … lives forever traumatized … all deafened by distance voices filling the air, “keep blowing them away” – “keep pushing, keep advancing, no quarter, no mercy.”
A gray-dove morning with a 9 year old bully in his ill-fitting Sunday clothes at the helm.
A gray-dove morning where more than 1,900 people have been killed and at least 20,000 injured in Iran.” …”more than 1,000 people in Lebanon and displaced nearly 1 million, 20% of the country’s entire population, creating a humanitarian crisis.”
As I visited various lens artists I was amazed how photographers would “see” and explain juxtaposition within their images. As a visual leaner I was then WOWed by the photographs in 500px … the expertise and creative use of juxtaposition, amazingly inspiring.
I then traveled through my media file to see if there were any images that may fit into examples discussed within the 500px article. So … hesitantly I offer the images below: near versus far, big versus small, human versus object, light versus dark, and side by side placement. I hope you enjoy.
near versus farbig versus smallhuman versus objectside by side placementlight versus dark
Thank you for visiting … I hope you enjoyed this brief journey encouraged by of Patti’s invitation to “to explore juxtaposition as a photographic technique.”
Contemplative and landscape photographs submitted in response to Ritva’s lens-artist challenge: encouraging photographers to deliberately defy traditional framing conventions.
Photographing what is … the morning’s light
landscape images cropped with a focus on negative space.
The beauty of the world as seen through a camera’s lens. I’ve found over the years that a simple photo walk opens one to the amazing beauty of the world…seen as if it is the first time.
The art of photography transforms a current photograph to an image that looks as if it was created during the 1960-1970s.
How a camera’s setting will add a dimension of unique art…
Hop on over to Wandering Dawgs to join a journey through what astonishes you with Beth
The two guardians of the world – the bright states that protect the world – moral shame and moral fear.
The Buddha shared that a sense of shame and the fear of blame are two bright states that protect the world. Having a sense of shame means that we refrain from doing evil because we do not want to harm ourselves. It is because we wish to preserve our self-respect that we develop a sense of shame. We wish to be respected by others, so we develop the fear of blame.
When there is a leader who does not ask his predecessor to give him advice of how to govern, he will rule according to his own opinion which sets the stage for a decline in morality and consequently the quality of peoples’ lives. If we look at the world today, the two guardians of the world are fading away.
We have stories of immoral characters who go unpunished.
We begin to see and hear of increasing violence in its manifestation of negation of others, verbal and physical abuse, threats, power and control, and murder.
There are increasing rigid polarizations within families, between friends, and among neighbors and strangers.
There are reports of increasing incidents of racism.
There is a growing absence of social governance and increasing incidents of lawlessness; as well as, a growing sense of distrust, fear, anger, isolation, and sadness.
Looking to find resolution we find that government figures are more concerned with winning votes than with governing.
Some religious leaders seem ready to do almost anything to accommodate their followers while others resort to fanaticism.
What are the variables that can begin to nudge us out of this time of discontent? Faith, virtue, a sense of shame, the fear of blame, mindfulness, concentration, wisdom, compassion, and/or loving-kindness?
Outside my window looking eastward is a field …once a hay field that silently told stories of seasonal changes. My favorite was during time of haying as it awakened childhood memories of harvesting … especially of those times of baling.
All of this ended when the construction of a new housing development began with dust and noise and then the absence of the hawk soaring through the late afternoon sky. After that it became a time of remembering when I was 7, and the sense of okay-ness to wander over to work sites accompanied with childhood curiosity, “what ya doin’?” during the beginning stages of construction.
Then … the clock towers ... of importance, of course, was the building of the tower right across the street and questions about possible blocking of the eastern horizon’s dawn. So a shift from my year long photo project from …
the morning’s sun north to south – south to north travels to a focus on a section of the horizon – away from the clock tower which began to look like a prison guard tower.
Yet, this morning as I pulled the drapes open with joyful anticipation suddenly silenced by …
This week artists Tina (Travels and Trifles) invites artists to share “those images you’ve loved over the past 12 months, but have not yet shared.”
Reviewing photographs created over the year confirmed that the majority of images posted on WordPress were part of a skyscape project, Dawning … beginning anew.
Each image within the photo book Dawning … beginning anew is a telling of the sun’s seasonal movements along the eastern horizon and the circular messages of spring, summer, autumn, and winter. The most dynamic is the ongoing changes, moment-to-moment … the multiple variables that paint the sky’s canvas.
So with this in mind, I decided to share the healing moments within the circular process of grief’s darkness to a renewal of life found within each dawn’s first light to its sun rise on this day … Winter Solstice.
summer solstice
The images above begin with the transition from today’s first light to dawn and then the beginning of winter solstice.
Winter Solstice messages the triumph of light over darkness, tells of the gradual return of longer days and stories the promise of renewed life.
For me the cherished moments … the aweness within the art of photography is seeing the world through a camera’s lens and hearing the click of the shutter. The rest is just a delightful dance with possibilities and a constant reminder, “you can’t make a bad photograph good, but you can make a good photograph bad.”
May your holiday be filled with the gifts of freedom within peace, joy, and love.
a meditative journey 
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