A crisp winter’s morning was the perfect time to climb Bluff Knoll; the steep, 3606ft craggy peak in south west of Australia. It was a challenge to keep going but was well worth it. After twenty minutes alone at the summit, we tackled the descent. It was a peaceful, surreal experience. Two tiny people witnessing nature’s grandeur. True beauty and a precious solitary moment.
Descent – Bluff Knoll – Western Australia.
Find out more about the Weekly Photo Challenge HERE.
This week’s Daily Post theme is: Close. I must admit, this is one of my favourite photos. I saw a pot of beautiful Gazanias sunning themselves outside the local bakery and stopped to take a few close up pics. This shot never fails to cheer me up, I love the vibrant colours and stripes. Nature is truly amazing. Enjoy!!
The beautiful striped Gazania
Today!! Is this week’s WordPress theme. The challenge is to take a photo today!
These flowers are from the two grevillea bushes which are in flower right now at the front of our house. It has been a beautiful autumn day with a soft breeze and gentle sunshine. It is a lovely transition into autumn and the grevilleas bring nectar feeding birds to the garden. Large parrots and small honey-eaters take turns to gather and feed on the sweet flowers and shoots.
The grevillea is native to Australia (and New Guinea, New Caledonia and Sulawesi) and is a common species of the Protaceae family.
These two plants are large shrubs, about 3metres or 10feet high. The yellowy flowered bush (I think this is called Moonlight) starts branching out very low down on the trunk and as such, it provides a great ‘wine glass’ shape and a cluster platform where birds build their nests. I daren’t get too close at the moment as there is a lot of activity going on.
They seem to come back year after year and I love to leave out bits of cotton or soft wadding for them to collect and weave into their houses. One year, we clipped our dog and left some of her soft, woolly fur outside. Sometime later I found that it had been used to line a little nest!!! Fantastic.
See my previous entries for the Weekly Photo Challenges HERE
My approach to contemplative photography (or Miksang) has been quite intuitive. I’ve read everything I can find and am developing my ‘eye’ but it’s hard to describe miksang without it sounding like a riddle.
Miksang, or contemplative photography is more of an ‘approach’ or a ‘way’ rather than a set of rules. To me (and remember I’m only learning), it is about going out with an open heart, open eye and open mind. I clear out judgement and expectation and just see freshly and clearly. Think about your trip to work each morning. Whether it is a drive, train trip or walk to your office, there are things you pass every day without even noticing. Miksang helps you notice all around you and see them, without judgement.
I usually take a walk at lunchtime, mostly just to get me out of the office for a while. I don’t go out deciding to do a photo shoot, if it comes, it comes. I just walk, feel centred, wander and look. I enjoy walking meditation rather than being still.
Most times, something will catch my eye, capture me, fascinate, surprise, delight or jar me. It demands a reaction, it stirs an emotion. I stop and often say “Whoa! Look at THAT”. I hold all judgement about whether it is a ‘good’ subject or a ‘bad’ subject, whether the light or angle or distance is ‘right’. For some reason, it has captured me, if not, I move along. I’m look deeply to see what it was that caught me.
Was it the shape? colour? texture? shadow? light? texture? symmetry? asymmetry? space? angle? incongruity? context?
I don’t try to find a ‘better angle, I don’t zoom, I don’t crop, edit, straighten or do any post editing. I shoot what I see. What you see is what I saw and what captured me. Hopefully the shot shows you things that capture my eye, my heart, my mind.
So, that’s where I am on my journey into Miksang. I hope you give it a go as well.
If you’d like to find out more about Miksang and the art of Contemplative Photography, check out these links:
Miksang Institute for Contemplative Photography
Miksang Society for Contemplative Photography
See more posts in this series on my Contemplative Photography page.
Miksang – The Art of Contemplative Photography
Miksang is an art form centred on Contemplative Photography. Miksang is a Tibetan word that translates as “Good Eye” and is based on the Shambala and Dharma art teaching of the late meditation master, artist and scholoar Chogyam Trungpa, Rinpoche.According to the Miksang Institute for Contemplative Photography, miksang “is (at its most basic level) photography concerned with uncovering the truth of pure perception. We see something vivid and penetrating, and in that moment we can express our perception without making anything up – nothing added, nothing missing. Totally honest about what we see – straight shooting.”
My weekly Monday Miksang Offering to you:
“How did it happen that their lips came together? How does it happen that birds sing, that snow melts, that the rose unfolds, that the dawn whitens behind the stark shapes of trees on the quivering summit of a hill? A kiss, and all was said.” – Victor Hugo 1802-1885
If you’d like to find out more about Miksang and the art of Contemplative Photography, check out these links:
Relax. Look. Now what do you see?
I’m taking a break from my Miksang photos to remind you of (or introduce you to) the art of Wabi-sabi. You might find some similarities here.
Wabi-sabi is a Japanese aesthetic that honours the beauty of things imperfect, impermanent and incomplete. It is quite a contrast from the “Western” principles of beauty that often centre around perfection, flawlessness, symmetry and clarity. Wabi-sabi is not purely a japanese version of ‘modernist’ or ‘minimalist’ art, it is a visual and intuitive appreciation of a transient beauty in the physical world. Indeed much of wabi-sabi beauty can be found in decay or decline which brings us to a melancholy contemplation on the seasons of life. Life is transient which makes it all the more precious. In that sense, wabi-sabi lets you find beauty in the ragged teddy bear and that soft and fraying jumper. You can let it be (or can you?). It is perfect in its imperfection.
There is a great introduction to the principles of wabi-sabi at The Hermitary, which outlines the categories of Type, Form, Texture, Beauty, Color, Simplicity, Space, Balance and Sobriety. Fellow blogger “Raw Earth Living” has an interesting post on wabi-sabi if you’d like some history.
For now, here are some of my wabi-sabi shots. See what they stir in you as you view them. Can you find beauty? Can you let them be? Do they jar you? unsettle you? intrigue you? inspire you? bore you? annoy you? Do you long to clean or fix them up? Let your viewing tell you something. Enjoy.
For more contemplative photography – check out my Page of Miksang posts.
See my previous posts on my Contemplative Photography page
Miksang – The Art of Contemplative Photography
Miksang is an art form centred on Contemplative Photography. Miksang is a Tibetan word that translates as “Good Eye” and is based on the Shambala and Dharma art teaching of the late meditation master, artist and scholoar Chogyam Trungpa, Rinpoche.According to the Miksang Institute for Contemplative Photography, miksang “is (at its most basic level) photography concerned with uncovering the truth of pure perception. We see something vivid and penetrating, and in that moment we can express our perception without making anything up – nothing added, nothing missing. Totally honest about what we see – straight shooting.”
My weekly Monday Miksang Offering to you:
“There are no nouns in the physical world. There are no separate things in physical world, either. The physical world is wiggly. Clouds, mountains, trees, people, are all wiggly. And only when human beings get to working on things – they build buildings in straight lines and try to make out that the world isn’t really wiggly. But here we are, sitting in this room all built out of straight lines, but each one of us is as wiggly as all get-out.” – Alan Watts – The Nature of Consciousness
If you’d like to find out more about Miksang and the art of Contemplative Photography, check out these links:
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