Photographer's Journal

                                            
                                                  
Hundreds of Ways

                                         
                                           
I am and have always been a documentary photographer. I take pictures to show myself and others the world as it is, in all its beauty especially, but occasionally in its ugliness as well. That means my photos are usually sharply focused with good depth of field and colors as realistic as I can make them.

Of late, however, I have been inspired to play with various ways of processing photos--ways that have become so much easier in our digital world--that make them bit less "realistic."

So here's a current experiment: A close-up shot of the heart of a yellow rose. But I've amped the color a couple of notches. Now it is YELLOW, not just yellow. And I increased the "noise" level--yes, pictures have noise--and that makes it grainer. It emphasizes the fact that whereas the leading edges of the petals are in sharp focus, the remainder of the flower and especially the heart are not.

The title comes for a Rumi poem: "...hundreds of ways to kneel in prayer..." I thought it relevant here because experimenting with ways of showing beauty is, to me, experimenting with ways to pray!

I kinda like it. What do you think?
                
                    

iPhone Diary Series

                                                
                                             
iPhone Diary: 9 October 2010 (Theologic Wars)

                                                   

Blind Men and the Elephant

It was six men of Indostan
To learning much inclined,
Who went to see the Elephant

(Though all of them were blind),
That each by observation
Might satisfy his mind

The First approached the Elephant,
And happening to fall
Against his broad and sturdy side,
At once began to bawl:
“God bless me! but the Elephant

Is very like a wall!”

The Second, feeling of the tusk,
Cried, “Ho! what have we here
So very round and smooth and sharp?
To me ’tis mighty clear
This wonder of an Elephant
Is very like a spear!”

The Third approached the animal,
And happening to take
The squirming trunk within his hands,
Thus boldly up and spake:
“I see,” quoth he, “the Elephant
Is very like a snake!

The Fourth reached out an eager hand,
And felt about the knee.
“What most this wondrous beast is like
Is mighty plain,” quoth he;
” ‘Tis clear enough the Elephant

Is very like a tree!”

The Fifth, who chanced to touch the ear,
Said: “E’en the blindest man
Can tell what this resembles most;
Deny the fact who can
This marvel of an Elephant
Is very like a fan!”

The Sixth no sooner had begun
About the beast to grope,
Than, seizing on the swinging tail
That fell within his scope,
“I see,” quoth he, “the Elephant
Is very like a rope!”

And so these men of Indostan
Disputed loud and long,
Each in his own opinion
Exceeding stiff and strong,
Though each was partly in the right,
And all were in the wrong!

Moral

So oft in theologic wars,
The disputants, I ween,
Rail on in utter ignorance
Of what each other mean,
And prate about an Elephant
Not one of them has seen!

poem by John Godfrey Saxe (1816–1887)