landscape

lens-artists photo challenge: special moments

“…each moment gives rise to the next, this is because that is. We do not exist in isolation; there is nothing that exist by itself alone.” (cited: Brother Phap Hai, Nothing to it.

On a pitch-dark

night road

I get lost

watching the moon

set behind the faraway mountain. Ryokan (cited: Trans. K Tanahashi, Sky Above, Great Wind)

Clouds drifting off:

the sight of

moonlit heavens ~Kizan (cited: Trans. Y. Hoffman, Japanese Death Poems)

Even more

because of being alone

the moon is a friend ~Buson (cited: Trans: Y Sawa & E M Shiffert, Haiku Master Buson)

This week’s lens-artists photo challenge is hosted by Tina (Travels and Trifles) who invites us to share some of those special moments that have taken our breath away.

be safe, be well, and be sage.

the beauty within the mundane

Stay at Home Order … day 18 plus 14 seclusion retreat days

pink!!!!

Nikon D750 f/1.8 1/4000s 35mm 200 ISO

Northeastern Colorado’s mundane landscape that speaks of the transition of spring’s awakening from late winter’s fading is a time in which I find myself yearning for colors other than the various shades of browns, yellows, and blue skies.

Nikon D750 f/1.8 1/4000s 35mm 200 ISO

After reading Fletcher and Hewitt’s ebook (A Journey in Composition) I set out to explore if I could open myself to the beauty within this time through various compositional elements of photography: leading lines, repetition, points of interest, complementary colors, and vanishing points.

Nikon D750 f/1.8 1/4000s 35mm 200 ISO

Nikon D750 f/1.8 1/3200s 35mm 200 ISO

A Journey in Composition, an ebook written by photographers Christian Fletcher and Tony Hewitt, outlines their travel across the western United States. The ebook covers fundamental aspects of composition, including color and interpreted composition techniques while paying homage to the techniques of the old masters – Stephen Shore and William Eggleston.

a shell of a thing came to be

The storm came one night, you see

The thunder came and fell the tree.

Falling, falling became the tree.

And a shell of a thing came to be.

A small shell of a thing, you see

Flying high above the sea.

There is no alighting upon the sea, you see

For a shell of a thing above the sea.

Searching, searching for her tree

That fell the night she became to be.

Weary, tired – flying, flying above the sea

Wishing for all to see.

Oh how brave, how marvelous she is to be!

As she flies so high above the sea!

Blind to their eyes, she is to be.

Wings flying, trying so hard to be,

Above the torment of the sea.

For there is no rest above the sea.

Only the falling, falling tree, you see.

lens-artists photo challenge: favorite photos of 2019

2019 in review…

As I was reviewing 2019 images within the WP media library, I notice these two images side-by-side. While not my favorite images, together they create a unique perspective and invite contemplation.

transforming

As 2020 unfolds, present moment by present moment, may you and all your loved ones awaken to life’s mysteries and know joy.

Images submitted for Patti’s lens-photo challenge – favorite photos of 2019.

a lone

on a tree standing

by the cliff in an old farm

a dove –

how lonely his voice

calling for a friend this evening

~ Saigyō (cited: Makoto Ueda, Far Beyond the Field)

“Of course you must know that every letter of yours will always give me pleasure, and only beat with the answer which will perhaps often leave you empty handed; for at bottom, and just in the deepest and most important things, we are unutterably alone…” Rainer Maria Rilke, Letters to a Young Poet.

lens-artist photo challenge: layered

Ceaseless tears–clouded mind: 
Bright scene–moon-shadow.

~The Sarashina Diary

(cited: Trans: AS Omori & K Doi, Diaries of Court Ladies of Old Japan)

Cameron Pass, Colorado 2018 Nikon D750 f/4.5 1/800s 24mm 100 ISO

Image and poem submitted in response to Lens-Artists Photo Challenge: layered