looking delicious
the snow falling softly
softly
~Issa (www.haikuguy.com)
Nikon D750 f/5.6 1/200s 300 mm 100 ISO
those snow days…blanketing the earth and gifting us with silence, before snow shovels and snow removal trucks, serene
Let’s spend a few minutes listening to…The Sound of Silence, Simon and Garfunkel.
No matter how much things change, they still remain the same.
We live
in a tide-swept inlet,
floating, flung.
In such a world, why cling to
collections of poems?
~Izumi Shikibu, (J Hirshfield & M Aratani, The Ink Dark Moon)
How invisibly
it changes color
in this world,
the flower
of the human heart.
~Ono No Komachi (J Hirshfield & M Aratani, The Ink Dark Moon)
Raj writes in his 16th xdrive photo lesson that contrast, a deviation from the brightest parts of the image to the darkest, is often overlooked during the digital darkroom process. As I read his explanation about low contrast images, it brought to mind those long exposure landscape images that are composed of a single tree or those low contrast images of trees within mist or fog. Dreamy.
apples Nikon D750 f/4 0.1s 35mm (prime lens) 100 ISO
In the two images below, I can see in the color image how the contrast highlights the water drops…they seem to glisten within this backlit photograph. While the water drops within the monochrome image are not as noticeable, I like how the reflections of the countertop are reflected in the bowl. The tiny sunburst along the right edge of the bowl is visually interesting.
snow Nikon D750 f/5.6 1/125s 300 mm 100 ISO
While I like the warmth of the monochrome image of the apples, I couldn’t seem to create the same atmosphere with the snow photograph. It just may be incongruent to create a warm image of snow?
I prefer the color image which had a bit of editing within Color Effects Pro 4’s green-yellow color contrast presets. The water drop on the tip of the leaf also seems more apparent in the color image.
The low contrast monochrome image (first monochrome image) is not as dramatic as the high contrast (last image). The water drop also seems more apparent in the last image. I also noticed during the digital darkroom process that experimenting with contrast within Color Effects Pro 4 required awareness of how some of the presets darkened the leaves to a degree where the detail was hidden.
Again, thank you Raj for these lessons. I would also like to thank Helen at HHC Blog for bringing to mind the beauty of color contrast within images.
Nikon D750 f/7.1 1/80 s 85 mm 100 ISO
When we touch one wave, we are in touch with all the other waves. This wave is continued by the next wave. A wave pretends to appear, it pretends to dwell, it pretends disintegrate, and it pretends to disappear.
~Thich Nhát Hanh (Zen Battles)
We live
in a tide-swept inlet,
floating, flung.
In such a world, why cling to
collections of poems?
~Izumi Shikibu (J Hirshfield & M Aratani, The Ink Dark Moon)
Nikon D750 f/6.3 1/8s 35mm 100 ISO
Nikon D750 f/7.1 1/25 s 35 mm 100 ISO
an experimental perspective
On a troubled current
we grow old in this world–
today’s rain-filled stream
will only increase
with tears.
~Izumi Shikibu (J Hirsfield & M Aratani, The Ink Dark Moon)
Nikon D750 f/7.1 1/100 s 300 mmm 100 ISO
The pictures produced [in the 1950’s] were especially useful to the magazines, which were meant to be flipped through rather than lived with, and in which a picture’s first impact was seen as more important than its staying power.
Cited: J Szarkowski, Looking at Photographs, p. 180
Nikon D750 f/8 1/160 s 300 mm 100 ISO
This abandoned house
shining
in the mountain village–
how many nights
has the autumn moon spent here?
~Ono no Komachi (J Hirshfield & M Aratani, The Ink Dark Moon)
Lumix GX85 f/5.6 1/400 s 32 mm 200 ISO
Just a few words about today’s homelessness from the AP:
A homeless crisis of unprecedented proportions is rocking the West Coast, and its victims are being left behind by the very things that mark the region’s success: soaring housing costs, rock-bottom vacancy rates and a roaring economy that waits for no one. All along the coast, elected officials are scrambling for solutions.
“I’ve got economically zero unemployment in my city, and I’ve got thousands of homeless people that actually are working and just can’t afford housing,” said Seattle City Councilman Mike O’Brien.
cited: Amid booming economy, homelessness soars on US west coast, Gillian Flaccus & Geoff Mulvihill, Associated Press, Nov. 9, 2017
Homeless advocates and city officials say it’s outrageous that in the shadow of a booming tech economy – where young millionaires dine on $15 wood-grilled avocado and think nothing of paying $1,000 for an iPhone X – thousands of families can’t afford a home. Many of the homeless work regular jobs, in some cases serving the very people whose sky-high net worth is the reason housing has become unaffordable for so many.
cited: ‘We still need to eat’: Tech boom creates working homeless, Janie Har, Associated Press, November 8, 2017.
And in the shadow of homelessness, tax havens for the wealthy:
The fundamental lesson of the Panama and Paradise Papers is twofold. First, the people everywhere, regardless of whether they live in Russia or America, are being oppressed by the same minuscule social circle of wealthy elites who unduly control our governments, corporations, universities and culture.
We now know without a doubt – thanks to the incontrovertible evidence provided by the Panama and Paradise Papers – that there is a global plutocracy who employ the same handful of companies to hide their money and share more in common with each other than with the citizens of their countries. This sets the stage for a global social movement.
Second, and most importantly, these leaks indicate that our earth has bifurcated into two separate and unequal worlds: one inhabited by 200,000 ultra high-net-worth individuals and the other by the 7 billion left behind.
cited: Why aren’t the streets full of protest about the Paradise Papers?, Micah White, The Guardian, November 10, 2017.
and…continued denial of basic human needs over political and corporate greed
… over the past few weeks, several Republicans have indicated that the tax bill would boost the wealth of the already rich and ensure that their political donations keep flowing to help the GOP hold power in 2018.
“My donors are basically saying, ‘Get it done or don’t ever call me again,’” Rep. Chris Collins (R-N.Y.), himself a millionaire,
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) told reporters on Thursday that a failure to pass tax reform would fracture the Republican Party and lead to more far-right wing primary challengers. “The financial contributions will stop,” he added.
cited: Republicans Admit that CEOs and Donors Really Need the Tax Cut Bill To Pass, Paul Blumenthal, HuffPost, November 9, 2017
How much money does one person really need?
In closing
Little is known about Ono no Komachi’s life, “and the stories about her are drawn from a blending of historic fact and suppositions drawn from her writings. In The Dark Moon, Hirshfield and Aratani noted that historians believe she was the daughter of the lord of Dewa and served the court in the middle of the ninth century. Legends, folktales, and songs paint her as the outstanding woman poet of her time and the most beautiful and desirable of woman. Legend also tells us that towards the end of her life, she lived “in anonymity, isolation, and poverty, an ancient, half-mad hag living outside the city walls, though still writing poetry and possessing a deep understanding of Buddhist teachings.
Can we look at each other and recognize ourselves in each other?
This youtube video is drawn upon Thich Nhat Hanh’s poem Please Call Me By My True Names.
orignial raw image
Raj’s xdrive photography lesson lesson for November explored 10 edits that photographers should know about prior to publishing images. My initial submission was of a family walking on a bike path during the golden hour.
Nikon D750 f/7.1 1/160 s 35 mm 400 ISO
Taking a few minutes to review this image in response to Raj’s feedback, I found that it is a bit of a challenge for me to notice the tilting due to 1) the curvature of the pathway as it moves my eyes to the background and 2) the presence of the trees hinders a clear view of the horizon.
In the markup below, my initial horizontal adjustment was the rooftop of the building in the background. Raj noted in his feedback, “we can’t rely on anything man-made as it all depends on the orientation of these things.” The areas I have circled were noted as over and underexposed by Capture One’s high exposure warning.
raw image with markup
adjusted image
first edited image with markup
Raj noted that the image stilled seemed a bit tilted in the image above. He also noted that the edited image is “kind of overexposed” and recommended that I “carefully check woman’s jacket, it looks kind of overexposed.” Also my editing seemed need a bit more saturation.
The image below was cropped with Raj’s recommendation in mind and I find it to be more focused upon the family dynamics. It also brings attention to Raj’s observation regarding the closeness of mother and daughter in comparison to the actions of the two boys. I also did not attempt to lighten the shadow element of the boys as I wanted the image to be about the family.
While the image below seems to address the overexposure Raj noted in the above image, I’m still struggling with this as the histogram (within both Capture One and Photoshop) as well as the Capture One exposure warning does not indicate an overexposure. So do I rely too much on technological guidelines over my vision?
It took me several tries to address the titling…sigh…
In regards to saturation, could the specifications of computer design as well as color calibration variances result in visual differences between what I see–or think I see–on my computer and what other bloggers see? If so, is there a way to address this? Also, I found that I needed to be very careful in regards to saturation as the image tended towards having a yellowish sheen.
All in all I the second edit does seem to be better.
second edit
monochrome images
first monochrome image with markup
When I compare the above initial monochrome image with the one below, I’m able to more easily see areas that may be a bit overexposed. The woman’s jacket has a burned appearance. The detail in the woman’s jacket below offers a bit of resolution to my question above regarding overexposure…it’s about the detail in the woman’s jacket and the girl’s top.
Since the young boy looking towards the camera suggests a message of interaction, I find that I prefer the lightening in the above image when compared to the one below.
second edit
Again, I wish to express my gratitude to Raj and to all those wonderful bloggers who stop by and visit.
Henri Cartier-Bresson said that photographers deal in things which are continually vanishing, and which no contrivance on earth can bring back again. Not even photography can bring these things back, except in the memory of those who knew them, or in the imagination those who did not.
(cited: J. Szarkowski, Looking at Photographs, pg. 124)
Lumix GX85 f/7/1 1/640s 32 mm 200 ISO
Ólafur Arnalds is a BAFTA-winning multi-instrumentalist and producer from Mosfellsbær, Iceland. Ólafur Arnalds mixes strings and piano with loops and beats crossing over from ambient/electronic to pop.
a meditative journey 
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