how differently
we each perceive moments which
modify our lives
9/11
(click images for larger view)
Leica M8, 65 mm Elmar, Visoflex III with Right Angle Finder
Right angle viewfinders, on both the Visoflex and R8, present me with both a fresh point of view and an unobtrusive, candid approach. And we all need fresh points of view.
sun warms lover’s limbs
seeing — makes a memory
devise memento
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Leica M8, 135mm Elmar on Visoflex III (with right angle viewer)
In an eMail Alan Magayne-Roshak said of my August 24th blog post, “I love it. It’s easy to get lost in it (in a good way). This reminds me of a David Vestal column where he quoted Picasso as saying, “I don’t seek, I find.” ( The column is at home; I hope I got it correct.) I would say this is a “miksang” photograph.”
After searching the term (beyond the wikipedia link Alan provided) I took it as a compliment; and felt surprise in finding that miksang has taken hold, as a sort of “school” of photography, around the world. Miksang: a Tibetan word meaning “good eye” based on the Dharma Art teachings of Chögyam Trungpa, in which the artist’s eye perceives in perfect harmony with a contemplative mind. This type of visual perception, when applied to the practice of photography, produces a particular sort of photograph. Miksang photographs tend to bring the observer back into the author’s original state of contemplation; behaving, in my opinion, in ways similar to haiku.
Mihály Csíkszentmihályi posited that people feel most happy while working within a similar state; which he referred to as a state of flow.
While I have no idea if these photographs qualify as miksang; I certainly felt in a state of contemplative flow as I made them; and believe they do invite the viewer’s eye/mind to return to that state.
(click on images for larger view)
love marks on paper
heat becomes a memory
beach remains in notes
Leica R8/DMR, 65 mm Elmar on R bellows
sit on the porch, watch
it build, then sit, waiting too
hoping for a meal
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Leica R8/DMR, 100 mm apo macro elmarit
(yes. stopping down would have been nice. but for 1/30th @ 2.8. I like it)
dragons love warm stone
as much as to fly from bloom
to bloom — we seek warmth
(click image for larger view – right click and magnify for largest view)
R8/DMR, 100 mm apo macro elmarit, 2X apo
finally
we can take off our shoes
and feel the earth between our toes
(highly recommend you click image for larger view)
Leica M8, 35 mm Summilux Asph
rock, sand, here and now
covered, they continue
to express their form
(click images for larger views)
Leica R8/DMR, 100 mm Apo Macro Elmarit
we all chase something
choosing what, when and where to chase
makes all difference
May we chase and capture that which makes a positive difference in the world in 2010.
“The fact is that relatively few photographers ever master their medium. Instead they allow the medium to master them and go on an endless squirrel cage chase from new lens to new paper to new developer to new gadget, never staying with one piece of equipment long enough to learn its full capacities, becoming lost in a maze of technical information that is of little or no use since they don’t know what to do with it.” — Edward Weston
“This is where the artist comes in, arranging in a frame the scattered elements into a story, anticipating and chasing the light, bringing it all together to create an evocative image capable of communicating the visual experience… . — Guy Tal
(click image for larger view)
Leica R8/DMR, 100mm Apo Macro Elmarit
grand pa and grand child
duets with me on guitar
and she on harmonica
(click images for larger view)
hiking to observation towers
developing the habit of sharing a chocolate malt
between pinball and bowling games
or just talking around the kitchen table
always delightful time
well spent
Leica M8, 28 mm Summicron
father plus son
“Are we not like two volumes of one book?”
— Marceline Desbordes-Valmore
(click image for larger view)
Leica R8/DMR, 350 mm Telyt