Archives for the month of: November, 2006

Kitchen Photography

November 23, 06 //
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Magic Mint Tea

There were a couple of ideas that came my way this week that lead to this image. I’ve been following The Strobist (David) who is sharing his knowledge and skills with small flash devices. The above was cross lit – flash on the left and window on the right. Should have tried this with hard light rather then diffuser on the flash.

-Canon Speedlite 430ex set to -1 stop (with white Omni-Bounce attached)
-Attached with Canon off-shoe cord
-Flash handheld left of subject…maybe 1 ft away.

The other part of the inspiration for this image came from a photographer I found on Flickr. Nigel (at least I think that is his name, fun how the internet is) is from England and is a great photographer. I plan on doing more of this kitchen photography, it is real fun.

Wenatchee Ferry

November 14, 06 //
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The Wenatchee Ferry

It is a quiet morning. The wind has blown in different air. Sitting this morning, the brass wind chime on the porch struck a particularly inviting note. Several moments after the bell I noticed my mind was trying to assign meaning to it. The sound was gone, back to where it came from yet there I was, feebly grasping to it. This time I noticed that there was a small glimpse of silliness. Silly to struggle to make real what is gone. Thinking about the sound sort of denigrated it, made it less than it was. All this is not earth shattering but in a small way points to the mind works. See how the mind works in this microcosm helps to see it try to orchestrate life’s experiences in the larger realm.

“… Sounds are a true picture of the nature of things, We cannot hold onto them. And memory is pale in comparison. Yet there they are in our experience. Direct, they lift us up, yet leave us just instantly.”

So Daiho Hilbert

Walking Rain Sesshin

November 12, 06 //
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Indianola, Washington

First picture from my new camera. A Canon SD800. It is a great camera. I followed the advice of Ken Rockwell and picked the SD800 over the SD700. Thanks Ken.

Also my first sesshin. It was a time. The people were great, the food was great, the weather was great (really stormy) and the facilities was so-so. Best of all the quiet time put me in a centered place. When we were done, I was ask by several people if I had any problems sitting for so long. “No. No more than usual.” Is a sesshin hard? “No. If you can sit for 25 minutes, you can sit for a whole sesshin.” (A sesshin is made of a lot of 25 minute sits all strung together with a 5 minute walking meditation interspersed (108 – 25 minute sits in 7 days). Now I’m preparing for a little shorter retreat in Spokane. This one will only be five day and will have longer rest periods and longer work periods. Yahoo!!