Zen of Creativity Chapter 8

[Jishin]

Zen of Creativity Chapter 8

Vulture?

How do you get the amazing contrast on your pictures, Jishin? Is it a filter?

Gassho
Kokuu
-sattoday/lah-

Here is another one.



This one was trickier because of the birds wig. I had to very carefully paint over it, painted the rest of the bird, then overexposed then underexposed the entire picture and voila! Pop! Lots of other things in between though. The editing process for each picture can take one hour. Fun but not easy.

Gassho, Jishin, __/stlah\__

[Jishin]

Zen of Creativity Chapter 8



This one was a difficult one. I spent an afternoon shooting by a local lake and got a few ok shots. This guy was very far away. I had a long reach lens (very heavy), fast shutter speed and was shooting handheld. Very difficult. This is the best I could do. The editing techniques were the same. Not a lot of detail to work with and had to crop some to see the bird. It still turned out ok (in my opinion) because of the contrast of white to black which helps to make up for the lack of detail of the bird. Plus it’s pretty zen. Just a splash on the canvas with the rest unused, like the bamboos in the corner of a Japanese painting and nothing much more.

Gassho, Jishin, __/stlah\__

[Jishin]

Zen of Creativity Chapter 8



This tiger was a blast. He is from the Albuquerque Zoo and this is the first time I found a tiger in a zoo that cooperated like he did. I knew that his stripes would blend in with the black background that I like to use in portraits and could not wait to get home to work on him. He is awesome. :-)

Gassho, Jishin, __/stlah\__

[Kokuu]

Brilliant! Thank you for sharing, Jishin! The tiger is incredible.

In Zen terms, I sometimes think that the fabled one breath images produced by ink brush painters or poems that appear spontaneously without needing editing can be held up as the gold standard for 'Zen' art. However, I know myself that whereas a rough draft of a haiku is more raw, sitting with it and letting it almost edit itself can produce something that is more reflective of the moment.

Likewise, would you say the same about your images, Jishin, that you are trying to produce a photo that captures more of the essence of the creature or moment? Or is it a purely stylistic consideration?

What do others feels about their work in terms of raw freshness and later re-touches, edits etc?

Gassho
Kokuu
-sattoday-

[Kokuu]

Btw, this is a lovely little book on the subject of Wabi Sabi which I enjoyed: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/42190.Wabi_Sabi

I think there is a follow up volume also.

[Jishin]

Zen of Creativity Chapter 8

Brilliant! Thank you for sharing, Jishin! The tiger is incredible.

In Zen terms, I sometimes think that the fabled one breath images produced by ink brush painters or poems that appear spontaneously without needing editing can be held up as the gold standard for 'Zen' art. However, I know myself that whereas a rough draft of a haiku is more raw, sitting with it and letting it almost edit itself can produce something that is more reflective of the moment.

Likewise, would you say the same about your images, Jishin, that you are trying to produce a photo that captures more of the essence of the creature or moment? Or is it a purely stylistic consideration?

What do others feels about their work in terms of raw freshness and later re-touches, edits etc?

Gassho
Kokuu
-sattoday-

Thank you Kokuu!

I go for the essence and the moment and anything else that may make a cool photo. I like portraits because its bare bones with few distractions from the subject. If possible I like eye contact because the eyes truly are the windows to the soul, both with humans and animals.

I think there are debates about photography ethics. How much can you change an image digitally and still call it photography? Some say very very little and some say a lot. The fact is that filters and other techniques have always been used so I would say that a lot of editing is ok.

I am new to photography with about 9 months experience and love learning about it. Each photo and editing session is a learning experience. Always fun. It’s great to compare before and after.



Gassho, Jishin, __/stlah\__

[Cooperix]

Jishin,

This tiger was a blast. He is from the Albuquerque Zoo and this is the first time I found a tiger in a zoo that cooperated like he did. I knew that his stripes would blend in with the black background that I like to use in portraits and could not wait to get home to work on him. He is awesome. :-)

This tiger is a neighbor! And I've not met him. I must get to the zoo soon. Was wondering which zoos you were visiting. I thought maybe Dallas. I love the image of him cleaning himself. It has a soft almost out of focus quality, but when examined carefully, its totally in focus. Odd illusion which I enjoy.

Kokuu, interesting question about raw freshness. I expect it depends on the medium. A calligrapher must go with what goes down, always. Whereas a photographer can manipulate, a painter can work and rework, a writer fiddle with wording, same with a musician. Other mediums to some extent allow for correction some not so much.
But sometimes the first attempt is perfect. Blessed moment.

gassho

Anne
~lahst~

[Jishin]

Jishin,



This tiger is a neighbor! And I've not met him. I must get to the zoo soon. Was wondering which zoos you were visiting. I thought maybe Dallas. I love the image of him cleaning himself. It has a soft almost out of focus quality, but when examined carefully, its totally in focus. Odd illusion which I enjoy.

This year I been to the Dallas and Fort Worth zoo 3 times, Abilene/San Antonio/Alamogordo 2 times and Albuquerque once. I love zoos. I take the kids and give them cameras. I tell them what I am looking for so it increases the chances for good captures and it becomes more of a family affair.

Gassho, Jishin, __/stlah\__

[Meitou]

Btw, this is a lovely little book on the subject of Wabi Sabi which I enjoyed: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/42190.Wabi_Sabi

I think there is a follow up volume also.

Kokuu, stop recommending books that I will love, please!!

The debate about how we treat photographs is an interesting one, and I've veered one way, then the other over this quite a few times. Recently I've come to the conclusion that if I am going to accept that photography can be treated as an art form, which I do wholeheartedly, then as an art form it can be used as freely and as experimentally as I wish. I've recently become aware of a group of people who define what they do as 'phone art', and are producing some great images and abstractions. As little as a year ago I felt differently - the essence of what I do in photography is to attempt to capture the essence of something just as it is in that moment, be it an object or a concept. I was a complete luddite who wouldn't even tinker with the brightness or contrast. I'm playing much more now, but if I use filters or effects I always say so.
What I love about your work Jishin is that by stripping away the background and setting, you bring your beautiful subjects right into centre stage - there is so much more 'suchness' or essence of zebra when there is just zebra against black. The photo of the bird is beautiful for the same reason. It's all bird and nothing but bird.

It's no coincidence that all of my favourite photographers, bar one, Michael Kenna, are Japanese. It was my love of Japanese art and photography that brought me to Zen. One of my greatest influences and inspirations is Hiroshi Sugimoto, whose seascapes take my breath away. I can never hope to come any where near what he achieves, nevertheless I never stop trying to capture the suchness of the sea. Luckily for me, it's at the bottom of my road, as some of you know!

sea 1.jpg

sea 2.jpg

sea 3.jpg

sea 4.jpg

Gassho
Meitou
sattodaylah

[Cooperix]

Paintings, they are like paintings Meitou... beautiful, so pure and serene. Even that gorgeous sea 3 with a stormier sky.
This desert girl wants to step into one to let all that moisture and softness re hydrate. It's almost as if I could. Sky and ocean and nothing but.

deep bow
Anne

~lahst~

[Jishin]

They are beautiful Meitou.

Gassho, Jishin, __/stlah\__

[Risho]

Wow those are awesome Meitou!

Gassho

Risho
-stlah

[Jinyo]

This is an amazing thread - its going to take me a while to work my way through it.

Thank you all for sharing your knowledge, thoughts.

Jishin your enthusiasm is infectious - I love that family portrait by the way.

I'm still battling vertigo so not able to produce any work but this strange and unsettling displacement of body in space is producing ideas!


Gassho

Jinyo

[Jinyo]

ps. there are some great book/art references in these threads - was wondering is it worth collating them together as a sort of library hub?
I always mean to look things up then forget - it would be good to have a central reference point to go back to.

[Kokuu]

That's a really good idea, Jinyo!

Gassho
Kokuu