January 29, 2013
madness frozen out
bones interred together warmed
peace buds in waiting
Early morning view from my sitting room window: the clock tower – about 1/2 mile away – of the once notorious Victorian “lunatic asylum” at Menston, now luxury flats. Over 2,000 bodies of former inmates are buried, together, close by
November 29, 2012
A deep thought minute
click to click is time enough
the wind raged sea calmed
I haven’t published a haiku, I haven’t written a haiku, for some time.
What I have found is that, for me, composing a haiku requires a certain state of mind, a calm which has been missing from the recent hustle and bussle in my life, mainly catching up on some work projects which had slipped. But there has also been the attempt to get back into film photography, some of the hassles and frustrations of which I’ve been documenting on my other blog, grumpytykepix. And then there are some aspects of everyday life in the present-day UK.
The work catch-up is almost complete. I have finally accepted that getting back into film is not going to be a easy as I thought. And the irritation of so many things imposed upon us, mainly by politicians and the mass media, is being resolved by writing about them (even though my promised ‘grump’ on this blog is, as yet, only in draft).
I’ve been fascinated by a picture published some time ago on one of my favourite photo blogs, ‘Shimmering Grains’. It showed what seemed to be a calm, almost ethereal, scene of the sea. In fact, it was taken during a gale but the sea has been calmed by a long time exposure. A perfect illustration of the oft mis-voiced ‘quote’ – “As tyme hem hurt, a tyme doth hem cure”, Chaucer; or “Time is the healer of all necessary evils”, Menander.
The picture above is a screen grab; the original picture is at:
http://shimmeringgrains.com/2012/10/23/long-exposures-by-the-sea/
But if you find beautiful photographs of things natural therapeutic, I’d recommend following this Swedish photographer’s blog.
August 9, 2012
Chirruping crickets
All else mute they look to dawn
Winter waits restore
August 3, 2012
Biscuits cut from sky
Baking in the summer sun
Heaven gives look up
Alt for American audience:
Cookies cut from sky
Baking in the summer sun
Heaven gives look up
These shapes immediately brought to mind the tiny ‘biscuits’ which are a part of any celebration in the part of Romania I know well – the northern part. In many different shapes – crescents, stars, cones and many others – they are known as ‘fursecuri’, which I cannot translate but can pronounce: foor-sec-oorr. The only picture I could find of them is:
July 29, 2012
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I said in a post or two ago that I wanted to try to create both picture and haiku together rather than a picture prompting a haiku. Walking through a local churchyard this morning I had the first opportunity. The sandals were not placed there for the picture – I discovered them just as they are pictured. The haiku were not complete when I took the pictures but the idea was there. I worked on them a little once I saw the pictures on the screen.
Both pictures taken on a Panasonic GF1. I’d have preferred black and white film for the first but then I wouldn’t have been able to post it today.
My photo package for Romania has changed a bit since I posted the debate with myself a few days ago. The change was mostly prompted by two almost incredible bits of luck. I was hoping for one of the 100 £1millions on Euromillions on Friday evening and I did win – £2.68! More about the bigger luck at a later date, now I must finish packing.
July 23, 2012
As those of you who read my 1 July post will know, my recent attempt (first for a few decades) at ‘street photography’ ended in disaster but, inspired by
http://lustandrum.wordpress.com
I’m determined to use an imminent trip to Romania (which I know to be a photographer’s dream for almost any genre) to have another go. What is more, away from distractions of work and other things in the UK, I’m aiming to wander further down the path of ‘picture haiku’, trying to create haiku and picture at the same time. I’ll aim to post regularly from Romania though I won’t have the opportunity to develop film so I’ll be using the Lumix for that.
I was excited to receive seven B&W 35mm cassettes in the post yesterday morning. If I could have found my reloadable cassettes (buried in the mounds from a house move a year ago) I’d have loaded up from an unopened 50m reel of Agfa APX. As it is, I bought two rolls of Rollei Retro 400S, which I believe is an equivalent, and five rolls of Kodak 400 Tmax.
For the ‘street photography’ the B&W will go in my Bessa-T, most often fitted with a 35mm Voigtlander Color Skopar. I wish I had a longer lens for some ‘studied’ portraits – there are some wonderful character faces in Romania. (But see below for why I’ve inserted the picture above).
Persuaded by Marie in Sweden to take some of my discontinued Astia
http://shimmeringgrains.com/2012/07/07/softly-whispering-with-fuji-astia-rap-100f/
I’m asking myself whether I can carry another film camera for colour. It needs to be as small and light as possible but the Bessa is my only working rangefinder so it’ll have to be an SLR. I’m wishing I’d kept my long gone Olympus OM. But the Contax 139 isn’t so big. If I take that I’m tempted to pack a Zeiss 50mm Planar, either the 1.7 or 1.4, and the Yashica 55mm f2.8 macro and an extension to give me 1:1 (in fact a bit more as I don’t have a 27mm tube, I have a 32mm one).
I’ll be taking the Lumix GF1 anyway and, with 4/3 to C/Y adapter, can use the Zeiss and the Yashica on that, though it will usually have the Pani 14-42 zoom on for snap shots.
Having gone through all that, I just took a break from writing this to look for the Yashica right-angle finder in case I do take the SLR and macro lens. And I came across the Olympus XA, not used for two years as it seemed to have jammed. I knew it had a film inside which had come adrift from a reloadable cassette so, seeing the dark bag also, decided to take the naked film out.
Wonder! The XA is now working. (You may deduce that I sometimes write in ‘real time’, as I did while doing the post on fast food – now a page under the ‘Food’ menu).
Complete rethink. B&W in the XA; with its discrete small size and 35mm Zuiko lens it’s just the job for ‘street photography’. The light seals seem a bit sticky but, with one week to go till I leave, there’s time to renew them.
Now, shall I forget the macro and just take the Bessa, adding one of the only longer rangefinder lenses I have which will work on the Bessa, a Russian 50mm f2 Jupiter or a 52mm f2.8 Fed? The collapsible Industar lenses (which look like the Leitz) will not go to infinity. I can put a cheap C41 film through with the Jupiter and three Feds I have, developed locally in 1 hr, and see how they are. I’ll do the same with the XA to try to ensure it really is working now.
It’s tempting to leave the heavier stuff at home; we’re off to Cornwall in Lofty, the VW camper, for the rest of August when we get back on the 12th. He won’t mind the extra weight and the beach might offer some good macro opportunities.I might change my mind about it all before I leave next Saturday. Any suggestions gratefully received.
July 20, 2012
soul guide hand taken
serene work on graceful curves
symbol stories writ
I haven’t yet settled down to attempt an edit on my first short story of a couple of days ago. It seems to me that to edit is much more difficult than to write first time. Is that generally so?
The idea comes, it pours out onto the keyboard. And there it is.
I tinker with the words. The idea secretes itself among the mocking letters. I turn them over but the idea stubbornly plays hide and seek.
But which idea? There were many (and many more as yet unwritten).
To hell with it; I’ll write a haiku around one of them.
July 15, 2012
imagine differ
climb out of the commonplace
halt think free proceed
Browsing around looking for inspiration I came across a site which, weekly, gives three words as a prompt to write something. This week’s three words were ‘imagine’, ‘differ’ and ‘halt’. The site is
http://www.threewordwednesday.com/
I thought I’d see if the words would prompt a haiku. They did.
In my previous post I said I liked the discipline of the 5-7-5 haiku. I also like the discipline of having to include a given three words, just from time to time.
I haven’t given up on the picture haiku, marrying up a photograph and a haiku, or just creating a ‘haiku’ from 17 pictures, as I did in my first effort – I find it very appealing and my efforts seemed to prompt quite a few ‘likes’ and ‘follows’, so I will persevere.
I find Romania inspiring so I’m hoping to find some haiku inspiring pictures there in August. There’s a little place called Sadova near which, several years ago, I experienced the greatest feeling of peace ever. I hope to go there and maybe recapture that. Just the thought of it has given me an idea for a short story – which will be my first ever if I can complete it (in fact it will not be my first; I’ve been told I wrote a lot of stories as a child. Somewhere along the way I lost that).
Another idea I’ve picked up from another blog, and I’m very sorry I cannot find it again to give a credit, was to assign a day of the week to each of various subjects. For me this might be a great idea as although some people seem to run a multiplicity of blogs, each for one of their interests, I cannot imagine being able to do that. One is hard enough. It might also help with keeping up with a post a day. I’m working on it. I guess it might help followers who find one of my topics interesting but not others.
I haven’t yet signed up to threewordwednesday but maybe I’ll work out how to do the link and make it.
July 12, 2012
one destination
straight curious meander
we wonder and wait
This is the last of my existing pictures which immediately prompted a haiku. The exercise has had an interesting result: now I’m looking for the picture and the haiku at the same time. I’ve not yet had time to indulge that.
Since I got into this I’ve read a bit more about haiku; it seems there are all sorts of combinations which are considered to be ‘haiku’ – even a single word.
That doesn’t do for me. I like the discipline of trying to marshal my thoughts into the 17 syllable, 5-7-5, formation. Though I was glad to learn about the use of space as a kind of punctuation – as above.
Perhaps liking the discipline comes from learning, as a journalist, to make a ‘story’ fit into pretty much an exact number of words, or a similar discipline as an advertising copy writer – in general with far fewer words to play with.
In just the same way, I like to marshal my photographic thoughts with the discipline of using film. However, I’m quite happy to use the ‘indiscipline’ of digital photography for other projects, and I’m looking forward to having the creative inspiration to compose many more words in a single piece of imaginative writing – if it ever happens. But I won’t tag it as haiku.
July 9, 2012
my long fallen friend
hacked down from your majesty
rest awhile with me
