Category: Floral

Basil

I have previously posted pictures of this basil plant: it’s silhouette with frost behind, its shadow on the wall or the floor. Here is its reflection in the window in front of which it sits and a fairly straight picture of it in daylight.

Still point of the turning world

In thinking about the haiku form (see last post) I have been considering Japanese calligraphy and images which have a very calligraphic look to them. I also think of various Buddhist concepts, like Eliot’s “still point of the turning world,” in the Four Quartets.

At the still point of the turning world. Neither flesh nor fleshless;
Neither from nor towards; at the still point, there the dance is,
But neither arrest nor movement. And do not call it fixity,
Where past and future are gathered. Neither movement from nor towards,
Neither ascent nor decline. Except for the point, the still point,
There would be no dance, and there is only the dance.

Here is a Bashō (considered by many the greatest practitioner of the haiku form):

One way or another, I think the image selection above (most taken on a walk to Caesar’s Camp in north Farnham) all have a kind of calligraphic, still feeling to them. Click any image to see them all full-sized.

Petals on a wet, black bough

I continue to work on my haiku project. Finding ‘petals on wet, black boughs’ is proving difficult. Above, this week’s selection of ‘leaves on dark backgrounds.’ It is, after all, not necessary to be literal. I can call on poetic license, can I not? Click any image to see them all enlarged.

Here is Pound’s original haiku:

Basil

Farnham, UK

I woke early, thinking about a photo project I’ve been returning to, based on Ezra Pound’s famous haiku. I slipped up to the living room attempting not to disturb my sleeping spouse and saw the security light in the street below shining through the frost on the window and silhouetting the basil plant on the sill. I grabbed my tripod and took a few pictures at different distances and heights, this one at 1.3 seconds at f2.8 (and the Fuji base ISO of 160). It looks a little zen, no?

Autumn Leaf Bouquet

Farnham, UK

I had already passed by this woman when it registered that the bouquet she was holding was made up not of flowers but of Autumn leaves. I asked her if I could take her picture with the leaves an she agreed. We chatted very briefly about how beautiful they were and I asked her if they were for a project and she said yes. Then I was on my way.