The Zen Art

Tried a few droplet refractions recently. A lot of this is inspired by the work of Brian V - who is truly a master at this.

Recently "experimented" with Floral Abstracts. I am liking this genre - looks like it has a lot of potential to bring out the aspects of the flowers which we normally miss out on. The shallow depth of field localizes the area that grabs our attention - something that we can't "see" normally otherwise.

These were deliberately shot wide-open (around f/2.8) to get smooth/dreamy feel.








Do these kinds of images work for you?

I recently lost my StoFen clap-on type diffuser and based on advice on forums, ended up buying one from lumiquest (this model).

I took the following test shots with it, it does look better than the Stofen. In fact the clap-on kind diffusers probably don't do much since they hardly increase the size of the light source. This one on the other hand does diffuse some light.

Any comments/opinions on lighting?

This tree is next to where I live - the new spring leaves were still too small to be noticed in the shadows. I am starting to like black & white or sepia tones - converting to monochrome is a powerful way to make the viewer not focus on "distracting" elements and that can help make the presentation more powerful and targeted.

It's easy to figure out that there is more to taking great photographs than just being at the right location at the right time; a great photographer and a novice both with same exact equipment at the same place at the same time can't produce equally good phtographs.

What prevents most of us from capturing a great photograph even if we are at a great location? It's the ability to really "see" the things around us. This seeing is different from just looking at the things in our surroundings - we all know how to do that. But this art of seeing I am referring to goes a level beyond just looking at something.

When we look at something, our mind comes into play and puts a label on it based on what we have learned and studied about the subject in the past. For example, one may look at a bird and know right away that it belongs to species x. This habit of mind to analyze things in front of us and putting label acts as a barrier between us and the what we are seeing. The bird in this example just becomes just one of the millions of birds belonging to species x and after realizing this, the mind moves on to look out for something more "interesting".

In fact, the more we know and have studied about thing being looked at, harder it is to really "see" it since there are more labels and images for the mind to overcome. That may be counter-intuitive to some, but think of two people looking at a bird, one who is a zoologist who has studied everything about it and second one is a person who has never seen that bird in past. Who is likely to really see this bird in detail, its color, the texture of its features and so on? For zoologist, it's just another bird that he already knows everything about from analytical and logical perspective, so his mind makes him think there is hardly anything there to see for him! This is how knowledge acts as a barrier to seeing.

(Please note I am not trying to say that scientists can't be artists - the zoologist in this example is just to represent someone who primarily looks at things in an analytical way which may not be true with many scientists.)

When it comes to being able to truly "see" things around us, an analytical mind does not help us - a Still mind does! Only when our mind is still, can we start to become aware of the beauty in simple things around us in everyday life, things that our mind would have ignored otherwise.

Many a times, the tools which are supposed to help with doing something actually become obstacles to it. It may not be obvious at first, but repeated patterns over a period of time help observe this phenomenon.

Here is an example of what I am trying to say. I have noticed that activities like fixing the layout of the blog site, playing with different themes, adding and removing widgets on the page etc appear more interesting than actually blogging. this can be extended to other things in life. I have seen people be very excited about buying all sorts of accessories to be used for workouts, but when it comes to regularly going to the gym, that's a different story...

After writing so much I am realizing this is starting to sound like my previous post on gadget mania, at a deeper level they indeed are similar phenomenon.

Being aware of this mind behavior should help us focus on the actual work instead of staying stuck in the pattern of just satisfying mind temporarily by acquiring new tools and gadgets.

Looking closely on the window pane revealed some interesting patterns in the ice/frost.
Someone commented that the first one looks like a family of father - scratching his head, mother and the kid :)








Hope you like it. Comments welcome.

I wanted to write a post on why the site is called "The Zen Art" and what could Zen have to do with Art. And while I was still thinking about this post, I came across this quote from Eckhart Tolle that sums up nicely what I wanted to say:

All true artists, whether they know it or not, create from a place of no-mind, from inner stillness.

Zen (which is an offshoot of Buddhism), along with branches of Hinduism stress on the state of chatter-free mind and present-moment awareness which Eckhart Tolle highlights in this quote.

Many a times I have noticed that when I am either too worried or even too excited about taking a great photo, it's almost impossible to "see" the photographic subjects even around supposedly scenic surroundings, while some good photographers can make great photographs even in a rather mundane setting.

I have really started to believe that what sets a great artist apart from the rest is not how a great photographer "thinks", but rather the fact that he or she can stop his or her mind from continuously "thinking" and worrying about making a great photograph. Only in this state of such stillness can a photographer produce a work of art that can have a lasting impression...

These flowers are quite small - roughly 2-3 mm in diameter. In fact they were so small that I probably won't even have noticed them as something to photograph, but due to bad weather I tried to find something interesting indoors and ended up with this :).

Will be glad to hear feedback.

I guess I am not alone when it comes to the urge of getting latest-and-greatest gadgets, be it for photography related equipment or anything else. I am a regular visitor at forums like fredmiranda and Canon POTN and till a while ago used to visit the camera equipment forums quite frequently.

Recently however, I realized that I was over-doing it! I took a step back and tried to think why do I spend more time looking at the specs of newly released cameras, or even the rumors of the expected models than learning what to do with these equipments. I am definitely not exhausting the possibilities offered by my current camera gear so why spend time and money on new models which may only offer more of such features that I won't end up using?

Looking deeper, I think the reason for this behavior is twofold. Firstly mind gets bored too quickly with what we already have and wants us to get new things to make things "interesting" again - even though that state does not stay for too long (I am sure most of us will agree to this). And second reason, which is not too different from first, is that by keeping us engaged with the latest gadgets, it can make us stay away from engaging in relatively "boring" stuff like learning how to shoot better pictures, or even go out in rough weather and take some shots. So essentially, pursuit of new gadget actually provides a escape route from the act of really things that matter the most!

I know some of this may sound weird, but on introspection many of us would find something similar. Just to clarify, I am not talking about situations when we genuinely need new equipment because it either addresses a problem or makes a tangible difference in the quality of art we can produce.

As a result of this "introspection", I find myself spending more time on learning new techniques and reading books than simply comparing spec of my camera with a new model that supports more mega-pixels or more fps than I will ever need! Hope it stays that way :)

Do you agree or disagree? What else do you think makes us want the new gadgets that we don't really need?