Fernland
Damp, earthy – a faint musk
Cool, verdant
quiet … still
Fractal patterns stretch
Unfolding gently, chaos becomes ordinary
repeated
and repeated
and repeated – seeming endlessly
easy to dismiss, to overlook as all alike
they're copies to a point
each unique – new and ancient both
Reaching for the light
As I to you
unfurling in hope that the light will come
Do you see me here in the fernland?
beneath the trees
striving for the dappled
When I find it I thrive
Without it a piece of me dies
(June 2012)
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I'm not a religious person, let me just state that up front. Sometimes when I look over what I've written, I can see how some of the writing could be viewed that way … all this striving and longing for light stuff. What I am striving for is a completeness that I don't find in my day-to-day life. A feeling that I glimpse every now and again of a natural patterning (and I emphatically do not refer to design) at once simple and mind-bendingly complex. I see it in the sky, in the forming of clouds or the way light refracts through a freshly rained droplet. Or in this case the fiddle-head of a fernlet reaching through the dark. I see them as beautiful but I also have the rationality to know that it's me who's labeling them that way. That they, in all likelihood would exist and go on without my observations … or would they? Sounds like a discussion over a glass of wine (or three)! Anyways, enough rambling. Enjoy!
nice macro shot … very cool pic
Thank you Dennis. Loved those Tall Ships over your way 🙂
It would exist without you Geoff 😉 – to believe otherwise is to elevate the human to a level which it doesn’t deserve, imo. We certainly superimpose patterns on everything we look at – a practice which has many benefits in terms of simplifying the world, creating meaning, etc., and there are real patterns which evolve out of the laws of physics, and thus, a rainbow can be recreated at any time with light and water vapour. Your fern picture is beautiful and I particularly like your second stanza (it could in fact stand alone as a poem). Nice to discuss these things – when I bring them up with my family they get the old glazed eye look – haha
I think so too but I occasionally dream that the reality is but a dream or a series of instances connected only by the perfume of the previous one. Rainbows are intriguing in this sense … precisely because of their physics. The phenomena can only be experienced by the viewer (or party of viewers). Because of the angles and refraction occurring, the rainbow exists uniquely only in the viewer’s eye and it is difficult really to verify it’s existence ‘without’ seeing and experiencing it. I mean you can predict where one will occur (sun angle, rain, wind direction and speed etc) but without actually ‘witnessing it’ it doesn’t exist … or something like that! 🙂
ps Hmmm … I think I’ll make this a post topic all on it’s own and call it ‘On Rainbows’ 🙂
I know what you mean – it’s like colour which exists in our perception by a interaction of the eye and brain with the characteristics of the object. However, the object is still there with it’s characteristics, whether things with eyes see it or not – but the experience of seeing the colours no longer exists. Our reality only exists with our existence, but there are as many realities as there are perceivers, I suppose, and even more if we take space and time into account ;).
But the beauty of the rainbow example is that there is no object. There is no rainbow. There is sunlight. There are myriad droplets refracting light … and we can hypothesize that there will be a ‘goldilocks’ zone to view those refractions but there is no rainbow object per se. It exists only because we are there to see it (or something is). Like sparkles upon the water (cue Days of Our Lives theme) they are seen by our eyes alone … no two people see the same one … even our own eyes see slightly different sparkles (or rainbows) but our brains are very adept at reconciling these things.
Roll out the multiverse.
hahaha – but the rain drop (and collective mist) is the object (nothing is seen without eyes and light, but the stuff outside still exists). Every ‘object’ is made of increasingly smaller objects – atoms, molecules etc., which are perceived as wholes – so the rainbow is similar to other things we see.
But that really begs the question of whether we indeed see an object at all if all we are perceiving is the interaction of light with an object or in this case, uncountable objects.
I love discussions like this, Geoff, and would be right there with you! That age-old question about if a tree falls in the forest when no one is around, is there any sound? HA! I love it.
Your image is delightful, as is your portic tribute. And the thought of fractals somehow made me jump for joy! 🙂
Thanks Ginnie … it’s great when a discussion goes off like that 🙂
Well object is probably the wrong word – ‘matter’ and masses of matter are being interpreted by us, and the matter has the characteristics – eg., with sound we have sound waves and the dimensions or whatever of the sound waves – which is what I am referring to as characteristics (and I know this sounds silly coming from the mouth of Tweetie Pie – bwahahahaha).
Another glass? (sound of cork popping) 🙂
hic!
Moi aussi j’adore ce genre de discussion à la “mords-moi le noeud” (une expression que notre ami Google aura le plus grand mal à traduire selon moi)… mais si je comprends assez l’anglais pour suivre vos débats, je ne suis pas tout à fait assuré de ne pas répondre à côté. Du coup, je vais me contenter de généralités : 1. ton image est superbe et le traitement en N&B est tout à fait pertinent ; 2. moi non plus je ne suis pas une personne religieuse. Ce constat cependant ne me contraint nullement à abandonner le monopole de la spiritualité aux religions.
Google translation inserted by Editor:
Thank you Marco. I think you are right in that the Google translator will have issues with “bite me at the node” 🙂
I think we should discuss this over a glass of something nice!
call it spirituality, that’s what I do, being not religious either. and yes, it’s a discussion one should/could have over plenty of glasses of wine during plenty of evenings. beautiful photo!
xx
I think I’ll open a bottle … care to join me? 🙂
It’s a pity to discuss it virtually and not face to face. But the distance, you know.
I think it’s similar to what I’m looking for staying up before dawn to enjoy the rise of the day in and with nature. Peaceful moments for myself, beginning the day in harmony, seeing / feeling all the beauty that is to find in a small plant, an insect, everywhere.
And although it’s there and to find for everyone (who’s looking for it), it is my feeling, my emotion that makes the moment a special one. And therefore the picture.
And it’s in the eye of an observer to find this in the picture. Or even something different. Depends on what he’s looking for, the mood he’s in, etc.
Coming to your picture, first of all I see a beautyful portrait of a fern. And I love to see it in B/W. Emotionally I feel the beginning of spring (life), light in darkness. And most important, that in this second there is nothing more important than feeling the picture.
The distance … I do know 🙂
I see you ‘see’ too. It’s a beautiful thing to realise when it is happening at the time … that you are in the space to appreciate what you are seeing or experiencing. So very important in our cluttered lives to see the little moments happening around us.
my favorite so far: wating to see what you will top it with, positive you will 🙂
Thank you Roxie 🙂
Funny thing, I very seldom have any idea what’s coming next!
I get it. The recognition of …something, in nature. I’m always reaching to qualify it, or articulate it, or celebrate it. That’s why we make art, I think. It’s all good:)
I agree, I think art is the pursuit and display of that intangible feeling … that something.
I neglected to mention, it’s a beautiful photo and poem.
Thanks Elena 🙂
I’m not religious either, its as though you took the words right out of my mouth. Now if I could only take the images that come out of your camera!
I’d like to pretend that these kinds of pictures came out my camera all the time too … truth is very few do – a lot of them are just plain mediocre and I’ve just learned how to make them appear good 😉
Tolles Foto, ich liebe die knappe Schärfe und die schwarz-weiss Umsetzung. Auf mich wirkte es trotz dem dunkel gehaltenen Hintergrund lebendig, frisch und voller Bewegung.
Einen kleinen Teil Schönheit der Natur., von dir gesehen und von dir umgesetzt. Mich in der Natur aufzuhalten, sie zu sehen, sie zu reichen und fühlen erfüllt mich immer wieder mit grosser Zufriedenheit und Ruhe.
Google translate version: Great photo, I love the tight focus and the black and white conversion. To me it seemed, despite the dark background kept alive, fresh and full of movement.
A small part of the beauty of nature. Of you seen and realized by you. I reside in nature, to see them, to reach out and feel it gives me time and again with great satisfaction and relaxation.
Thank you Claudia. I sought to isolate this fern in capturing the image … to give it a sense of individuality even though the viewer knows intuitively the fern is a pattern repeated ad infinitum 🙂
Google translate version: Vielen Dank Claudia. Ich habe versucht, diesen Farn in der Aufnahme des Bildes zu isolieren … um ihm ein Gefühl von Individualität, auch wenn der Betrachter intuitiv kennt den Farn ist ein Muster wiederholt ad infinitum 🙂
the hue choice greatly increases the appeal of this shot, the soft bokeh effect integrates perfectly the softening composition, technically perfect, wonderful!!!
Love the photography – the tones are perfect for this
Would love the glass of wine and the chat too 🙂
Thanks Ally. Glass and chat any time! 🙂
Just beautiful with this BW; we can imagine the slow growth of this plant. Nicely done!
Have a nice day.