PhotoTao Card #23...

Card #23

Apprehending the Supreme

There are 4 levels in Tao - the Human Being,
Nature, Heaven, and the Tao.  It is the material,
  the emotional, the spiritual, and the unknowable.
Become comfortable with each. 

- Exercise -

Look beyond the merely superficial quality of
a subject.  Take a more emotive or spiritual 
approach.  Experiment with lighting, angles
and cropping.  This is a time to experiment with
filters and to give your imagination full rein
when you work in the darkroom or with Photoshop. 

When You Can Go No Further....

      It is very easy to photograph the material essence of a subject...what is there, right in front of you.  So much more difficult to perceive the the other levels of your subject but they are there.  

   My friends and I had stopped at this lake in Connemara...stunning in it's stillness.  But it was when their daughter walked out to the end of the partially submerged pier that I saw my emotional connection to the landscape.  She stood so still at the end, just gazing at the water.  She could go no further.  It was one of those serendipitous moments that I love and which can have such a profound effect.

   What do you do when you think you've done all you can with a landscape, photographically speaking that is?  Where is there left for you to go?  When do you know, really know, that you've seen it all?  I guess the answer is you never do.  Go beyond the material...keep seeking the emotive, the spiritual and the unfathomable...