water drops

the sound of loneliness

orchidweb12217

Nikon D750    f/6.3    1/50s   35 mm   I00 ISO

Let me introduce you to Hu Ge, one of the top actors in China who has an amazing singing voice.  His role in a series entitled, Nirvana in Fire, has been noted by fans to parallel the leading character’s rise from a tragedy.  In 2006, a serious car accident that took the life of his friend and assistant, resulted in major surgeries which included over a hundred sutures on his face and neck.  It would take him nearly a year to recover.

https://youtu.be/kq-LCfdXJPM

xdrive photo lession – 8 – close up/macros

RAJ’s photo lesson about close ups and macros, encouraged me to create images with my camera set to manual focus, “Remember, only you know the story you are trying to tell, not the camera!”

macrochallenge9517a

Nikon D750  f/6.3 40mm  1/4s  100 ISO

This initial exploration with manual focus brought to mind the summer between the 4th and 5th grade, when I put on my first pair of glasses (Cat Eyes). I can still recall the visual experience of seeing for the first time individualized leaves on trees and multiple shapes and colors of gravel stone…the world, sharpened and focused, was a moment of awe.  Corrective lenses was a means of normalization; yet, there are no words to describe and there are no photographs that can replicate the amazing bokeh of Christmas lights created by astigmatism and myopia.

Nikon D750  f/5  40mm  0.2s  100 ISO

The ease of using auto focus–a reliance upon technology–to create images that satisfy a self-imposed standard has me question if the advancements in genetic, genomic, and reproductive technologies, identified by a UC Berkeley sociologist Troy Duster as a back door to eugenics, to lessen human suffering will also nudge us into a world absent of human uniqueness.

 

Grazing

There is a peaceful community

in a place of burned up hopes,

whiteblossombeside the tracks of dreams 

that drifted away

on the edge of a village

where crowds pass by.

There, men gather in harmony

to gaze like sheep and fawns.

On all the beautiful flowers

a sun comes and goes

through the clouds in freedom.

~Mitsui Futabako*

*cited:

Women Poets of Japan

K Rexroth & I Atsumi

Seeing Differently: “it’s a wrap”

…once someone had been in your life – you could keep that person there despite the agony of loss, as long as you had faith that you could bring the sum of all your hours together in one shining moment.

~Stones from the River, Ursula Hegi

bridalshop2

This image of a bridal shop window is the 15th of 15 images submitted to  Seeing Differently.  Below are some of the other images posted in response to Robyn’s October challenge. Thank you Robyn for this challenging project and your supportive feedback.