Tag: poet

As late as yesterday ice preoccupied
the pond—dark, half-melted, waterlogged.

^{Ice Out -Jane Kenyon}

The local fishing lake – a familiar subject for my photography and after several freezing days, the water was only just starting to thaw. When I looked at the photos later I was disappointed – if I like an image I literally feel its impact in my body. None of these effected me then- so I put them away, on ice as it were.

Reviewing them a couple of days later, I was much more enthusiastic but remembered being pulled by all the different aspects of the lake that I wanted to capture. Should I have stayed with just the one?

first and foremost it was the afternoon light creating silvery blue horizontals

then it was…

the gritty textures and shapes where the thicknesses of ice varied

I also remember being struck by…

the sheer tenacity of life to withstand this icy grip

and then I recalled my current read “The Mindful Photographer” – a slower, stiller approach where minimalism can have an impact:-

Perhaps I was chasing just the one impactful capture – this one was it for me, with its ambiguous surfaces and no immediate sense of up or down

Conclusion: Yes I was probably running after too many aspects, being too hasty and eager perhaps, and then of course I usually photograph the lake with my Panasonic Lumix and 50mm lens – here the Ricoh GRiii created somethings differently. Most of all I could have tuned in more closely to the feeling of the ice and all it symbolises.

Intense cold makes water ice.
Then the hard ice turns to slush
and back to water, so there are three
forms of consciousness: the individual,
the world, and God, which in the sun
of True Awareness melt to one flowing:

^Lalleshari