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Trees No. 3 ~ Summer 2009 Last Fall I decided to document this particular stand of trees in Fall. Winter, Spring and Summer. I have now nearly accomplished that process. The only image missing is the early Spring shot and that is because during the period in which the leaves were just emerging we experienced [...] Perhaps the sub-title of this piece might be “Flight of the Bumble Bee.” I caught the bee in flight between the two yellow blossoms as he was going about the business of being a bee in a perfect symbiosis with the flowers. The bee behaves as if he were in a zone, focused on the task at hand without regard to time, place or, for that matter, any other mitigating factors that otherwise surround him. The bee functions in the moment doing the thing he does thereby bringing food to the hive and helping the plants to reproduce. The bee, in this sense, is a dual survival machine. There is a Zen story that goes something like this. A young novice found enlightenment elusive. He went to his master complaining about his ineffectiveness. The master told the novice he could no longer help but there is one who lives far away across the river, through the woods, across the desert, over the mountains but if the novice could possibly travel to the master he surely would find enlightenment. So he crossed the river, traveled through the woods, made it across the desert, and climbed over the mountains. When he arrived at the master’s monastery he told the master of his journey and the words of his old master. The novice pleaded, “Where can I find enlightenment?” The master quietly listened and then responded, “Where can you find your clothes?” The novice was immediately enlightened. In my backyard I have a patch of garden that seems to be a haven for wild flowers. They are overtaking the plants I planted making me wonder a bit about how much control I have over anything. The plant most prevalent in this patch of garden is the one pictured in this blog. I have absolutely no idea what this wild flower is but I think I would plant it if it didn’t grow wild in the yard. The other day I was photographing wild flowers when I came across this stand of cattails on the banks of a pond. There they were, tucked in amongst their leaves as if they were hiding but hiding from what? Or, perhaps the opposite is true, that the cattail provides a hiding place for creatures living in or around the pond. So I did some research and what did I find…The cattail is a most useful plant, a grass related to the very grass I grow on my lawn. If all I can rely upon to know is my own experience, what counts as experience? This question was addressed by John Dewey over 100 years ago and he concluded basically that the experience contributing to one’s knowledge base had to be transformative in the sense that the experience itself contributed to a life changing moment. So what is, in this sense, life changing about an experience? For sure one can discount habitual behavior or anything that is repeated as if by rote. No, the life changing experience is one that causes one to pause, to take notice, to breath in the moment, to embrace the now of the moment as if to savor the whole. One’s senses are heightened, one loses a sense of time or place while retaining a sense of awareness of both time and place. One might say that one is in the zone while in the flow of the transformative experience. I have a relationship with wildflowers. I developed this relationship recently mainly due to the fact that I live quite close to a forest preserve/prairie in Northeastern Kane County. In this preserve both Northern Illinois forest land and Illinois tallgrass prairie is preserved. Walking through this preserve in the summer is to experience an extraordinary display of color along with the accompanying perfumes of the blooming wildflowers. Taken together a walk through these woods is to return to a time when, unlike the crazed pace of urban life, one can literally stop and smell the roses. I had breakfast yesterday morning with a friend of mine who is beginning an undergraduate degree in photography. She shared a number of images with me, each of which demonstrated a real sense of composition and design. I really enjoy looking at the work of others. I especially relish the opportunity to look at work that is fresh and new. I had that opportunity yesterday. The story is told that the Zen novice was unable to find enlightenment. Try though he might enlightenment simply eluded him. One day he went to his master and complained about his prediciment. The master inquired, “Have you eaten your supper?” Confused, the novice responded, “Of course.” The master then quietly suggested, “Now it is time to do your dishes.” Then novice was immediately enlightened. Photographing flowers as landscape presents one with an opportunity to discect, to cut away the whole, to explore the parts. Using a wide open lens (in this case f2.8) to assure focus on that area being visually explored and a sturdy tripod to insure the stability of the image, relying on a calm day and adjusting for lighting conditions, one is able to make powerful images that freeze time, thereby creating potential in the artifact preserved. |
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