ku # 149

Mark,

I must ask, as you've posted a lot of beautiful pictures, but what on earth does "ku #" mean? Posting that as a title really tells me nothing

I love the crisp clear water and refelctions with the over all softness else where. Well done!

Definitely a beautiful and peaceful scene

hey chris,

i don't "title" my photographs other than to note what number they are (#) in my ku series.

as for "ku" the word has its roots in oriental culture. it a nut shell, ku is a syllable for sky or emptiness, and i am using the "emptiness" meaning for two reasons -

1. when i photograph i do it with an "empty" mind - no previsualizations, no expectations, no particular point of view in mind. i try to cleanse my head and listen to what nature is telling me, not what i want it to be or make of it. the hiaku master Basho said that we need to learn afresh directly from nature not merely through close observation, but from "immersing ourselves in things" so that there is no artificial separation between the observer and the observed. then things can speak for themselves in their own voices.

as Thoreau wrote, "Sometimes as I drift on Walden Pond, I cease to exist and begin to be." - which is precisely the state of emptiness i try to attain when photographing.

2. when i photograph in a state of ku - letting go of preconditioning, habitual mental sets, biases and stagnant emotive states - i invariably hear the voices of the small and ordinary through which i connect with the universal and eternal.

i then, in as simple and direct a manner as possible, try to capture that connection using the medium of photography. my visual subject is almost always the small and ordinary.

does that help?

Mark, I like this one.

Mark,
I like this one too. Your explanation of how you photograph fits very well with the "feel" of your images. You are accomplishing what you have set out to do.