When you take a photograph, you are expressing yourself, often unknowingly, and it shows in the final image. I am a zoologist and am certain that interest itself in the images I shoot, whether they are of wildlife or of people on the street. But people are complex beings and all of what makes you who you are, shows in the final image. Images, then, are mirrors of who we are.
Photography can be about the camera and what the camera can do. But for me, the camera is there to catch what I see. The photography of Henri Cartier-Bresson is also all about seeing and he is a great inspiration to me.
Here is the fifth series of images from my trip to Japan in July. These images were taken from the region within the Japanese Alps, where my partner Sue and I hiked for four days. When I arrived in Japan I had an image of what the landscape may look like, the type of scenery I might be shooting. However, to see the rawness of this place, all expectations had to be dropped…
“Every moment we might be doing the same things—brushing our teeth every day, combing our hair every day, cooking our dinner every day. But that seeming repetitiveness becomes unique every day. A kind of intimacy takes place with the daily habits that you go through and the art involved in it. That is what is called art in everyday life.”
in Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche True Perception: The Path of Dharma Art, page 27.
This quote describes well the wonderful sights that are around us everyday, and that paying some attention to that reality allows one to see the beauty in our world.
Here is the fourth series of images from my trip to Japan in July. These images were taken from the region within and around Kyoto and close to the Japanese Alps. We hiked in the Alps for four days; those images will appear next week.
Silently a flower blooms,
In silence it falls away;
Yet here now, at this moment, at this place,
The whole of the flower, the whole of the world is blooming.
This is the talk of the flower, the truth of the blossom.
The glory of eternal life is fully shining here.
Zenkei Shibayama
Here is the third series of images from my recent trip to Japan in July. These images were taken from the region within and around Kyoto.
Here is the second series of images from my recent trip to Japan in July. I have noticed that these images are very fresh to me. This really helps with choosing the images that really speak. So, for me, it absolutely pays to let images sit. These images were taken from the region within and around Kyoto.
In July I spent a couple of weeks in Japan and of course my camera was with me. This is the first of a series of images from that trip.
