Around the Yard : Red Oak Calligraphy

This is lovely though somehow odd scene bringing Japan to my mind. Maybe I should take a lesson in Japanese to get the message right? Those tiny white dots up left are good to have along as well. You lucky, having snow there you live (and shoot)! ;-)

Thanks for taking the time to view and comment.

Hi Gordon, How I wished I lived in the snow, especially after seeing this image, but I live in Sacramento valley, Ca and it hasn't snowed here in quite some time. I guess I will have to be content looking at your snow images. This image, as you know, has all the wonderful elements combined to make it intriguing and different. Nice vision on your part.........Sherle

Beautiful composition. I'm not so sure about the title, though.

Gordon.. I like this a lot. Very well seen and executed. I might like to see a line around the image to isolate it from the white background, but not your fault. Photo.net uses white for base..

Bill G

i think it's very well balanced and very well conceived

Your photo is pure poetry, it also reminded me of ancient Hieroglyphics.

 

Regards,

Michael

 

Great continuity for the "leaf" serie. Always pleasure to view your nature pics. Best rgs Tero.

Well Gord, this one reminds me a poet .... it has a form of a Haiku , japanese form of poetry of 5 syllables, very terse. ( the well known poet of this style is Basho, Edo period 1644-94). This tells the change of seasons so well with so little ( ellements)... beautiful.

Beautifully made, Gordon.

Markku;

 

I changed the title a bit to reflect the notion of this being writing and you are not the only one to get a Japanese feel. I like the snow but we do get more than I need for photos. We are currently sitting under a squall which is dumping 30 cm. every twelve hours. There was a 100 car accident on the main highway yesterday. I would have though you would be getting snow in Helsinki in January.

 

Sherle;

 

Some days I must admit California sounds like a nice place to be. I guess its the old " the grass is greener on the other side " syndrome at work :)

 

Amitai;

 

I'm glad you like this. I would be most open to any suggestions for an improvement to the title.

 

Bill;

 

Thanks, I agree about the need for a border.

 

Mary;

 

Good to hear from you and thanks for your generous comment.

 

Michael;

 

It would seem that the notion of poetry and script are the strongest response this image has garnered. Thanks for your comment.

 

Tero;

 

Hello friend! How have you been? Living in the woods it is almost hard not to take photos of leaves and trees :)

 

Pnina;

 

Funny that you should mention Haiku. I am at the moment in the process of looking over the proof of my good friend and fellow photographer and naturalist, Mark Carlson's latest book which is a series of his images of reeds and rushes in the winter landscape accompanied by a number of his own Haiku. I recently sent Mark some of my images to critique and this one above was his favourite. I do not know much about the style but I am now intrigued. Thanks for the information I will search out some works by the poet you have mentioned.

 

Joe;

 

Thanks for the comment. I did not so much make this image as stumble upon it lying there waiting to be photographed.:)

 

Minimalist but very expressive. Winter in an image. Congratulations. Vicente.

Very nice to hear from you and thanks for the lovely thoughts. The snow is a master at minimalism, reducing many scenes down to their essence.

I like this a lot, Gordon. I love that I can see the leaves and twigs through the light layer of snow--it really brings out the icy grain. And then there's that wonderfully curious group in the upper left above the twig--just a delightful detail!

This image has just moved to the top of the list of my favorite Gordon photos! It really is a Haiku about nature. I've tried writing Haiku's but they're difficult. The simplicity of the objects combine to make a very strong composition. Your snow exposure is so crisp I can see the individual grains of ice. A bit of a frame would also anchor this, my suggestion would be to stick to a traditional small black frame, too much frame would overpower the image. I don't often rate but I tried to give this it's well deserved 7/7 only to be foiled by PN's ratings rule.

Dave;

 

Glad you like this one. The snow was very grainy I believe the forecast called it ice pellets.

 

Susan;

 

The odd thing is that I rarely remember to rate images myself but I did remember a few days back on yours. I tend to go long spells without requesting critique either but decided to put some up this week just to test the waters.

 

I've never tried to write a Haiku, although I have been reading quite a few over the last week. I like the immediacy of conjuring mental images within such tightly confining limits. It seems to oblige a degree of distillation of thoughts down to something quite pure and as Pnina remarked "terse " .

 

I like your idea about a frame, I have for the first time been reading up on how to do this and have been experimenting. I have a few shots where the PN background needs to be held at bay and this is one of them.

Hi Gordon,

 

I agree this could be wonderful set with the correct Haiku poem, English really is a poor substitute to the beauty of the Japanese "grass" style of writing when creating Haiku's. Anyway what I wanted to tell you was that in the latest National Geographic, February 2008 there is an article on Basho, it's called "On the Trail of a Ghost." There are a few of his Haiku's in there with accompanying pictures by the photographer for the story. One of the versions of writing Haiku poetry is to have the first and last line out of three have 5 syllables and the middle line have 7 syllables. There are some other guidelines as well, but that's the basic essence of that style of Haiku poetry. .........Have fun! Sherle

Okay, so I have to give it a go... Now I am no master, nor am I very well practiced in the art of Haiku, but I do like trying it, so here goes...

 

Fallen twigs to make

Calligraphy in the snow

Red oak leaves below.

 

Not sure how readable it is here since everything ends up in a straight line. If you copy it elsewhere it may be easier to see the breaks. .....Sherle

Another one I think is excellent Gord! Looking at this I get the smell of mulled wine wafting up my nose with a background smell of burning logs on the wood burner combined with the sound of the scrunch of hard snow and the feeling of cold crisp fresh air.... I could go on...but important matters of changing a pair of brake calipers on my 'bus, servicing a friend's skis, and sending a letter to Brighton and Hove City Council Planning Department are dragging me away......

Thanks for the tip I will look up this months NG. The haiku I have been reading this week are part of a book of images a friend is working on, with Haiku along side of the photos. It does make a wonderful combination. My friends poems use the same 5 - 7 -5 rhythm you used.

 

 

 

" Fallen twigs to make

 

Calligraphy in the snow

 

Red oak leaves below "

 

 

 

That is a wonderful poem Sherle!

 

PN will not let me centre the type without using HTML tags which I do not know to do but if you double space with the enter key you can at least change lines.

 

You paint a nice picture with your words. It sounds much like the sort of thing Vida and I do after a long winter snowshoe in the woods. We usually pour a glass of wine fire up the wood sauna and have a good roll in that crispy snow.

Somehow I had missed this exquisite image when you first put it up. It is so fantastically calligraphic -- your title is spot-on! I can't help but see a Chinese brush-stoke written character upon the rice-paper textured snow. The details here . . . lovely.

This is enough to make me sad to see winter fade away this week. Not for long though.

Thank you for mentioning Mark Carlson too. I have spent some of last night and the last 20 minutes or so browsing through his website (I'm assuming it is the same person). I am particularly, and thoroughly enamoured with every single one of the images in his 'Visual Haiku' section.

Coincidentally, I have also been thinking of writing Haiku for each of my images for quite a while. I have long been impressed with the genre and have a few collections of English-language Haiku.

The Wikipedia Article on Haiku is actually fairly informative.

Particularly interesting is the the juxtaposition between Haiku that use the 5-7-5 syllable structure (which is considerably "longer" than the Japanese comparatives) and those that work in a shorter and often free-length structure. I have read many Haiku in both manners and, after perusing a whole body of work, the two read quite differently and leave different impressions. I am personally attracted the increased minimalism of the shorter works.

With what few elements did you take this stunning image Gordon!, in my opinion it's fantastic and balanced very well, I love it the simplicity in it self …terrific! The point that captivate my eyes are the leaves trying to escape of it captivity in the snow.Best Regards

Ian; Thanks for the comment. I did read it, and enjoy doing so, at the time but until now I had not noticed my neglect in terms of thanking you for the information and for sharing your impressions.

 

A friend recently did a book of haiku with winter snow scenes. I will have to find time to look more deeply into the style. I have always loved poetry although it has drifted out of my life in recent times.

 

 

 

Mario;

 

Thanks for the comment . I am glad that this appeals to you. One of the joys of winter is that minimizing blanket of snow which reveals and conceals different aspects of the world each day as it shifts across the landscape.

!!!!