A Journey into Bonsai

Rocky Mountain Juniper no. 40

Bonsai is something that I’ve been interested in for a really long time. Bonsai are in essence miniature trees. They can be found on rare occasions in nature, such as the one in the image below, when a seed lodges in soil on a rock (or log!) germinates and grows into a natural bonsai. More commonly bonsai are created by growing trees in containers. Bonsai literally translated means tray planting.

Natural Bonsai – Fairy Lake, Port Renfrew Vancouver island

Bonsai really is an art, with the intent to make the trees look as, or perhaps more, beautiful than the counterpart in the wild. All this takes skill, creativity and patience. Bonsai are living things that take time to respond to the shaping, that take time to look ‘natural’. Bonsai trees in museums, arboretums and private collections can be hundreds or years old. One of the trees at the National Bonsai Museum in Washington DC is almost 400 years old and survived the Hiroshima bomb blast. Which makes the artisans that care for them stewards of the trees, taking care of them for the next generation.

Always keen to have a go I dabbled with a few of my own bonsai trees for a while. I don’t really have ‘green fingers’ though and so my bonsai trees ended up being donated to the team at New England Bonsai Gardens. I’m tempted to try again now that I’m older and a little more patient.

Recently I have been enjoying following the work of Anthony Fajarillo, @tonybonsaiko on instagram. He truly is an artist when it comes to training bonsai. To get a sense of his imagination and skill take a look at the windswept juniper before and after in the images below.

Windswept Juniper Before

Windswept Juniper After

I had drifted far from bonsai when ‘The Artisan Cup’ was held in 2015. This competition, really an opportunity to showcase top flight American Bonsai artistry, was the brainchild of Ryan Neil. Ryan is the founder of Bonsai Mirai, where he is really moving the needle for American Bonsai. He is living up to the high Japanese standards he learned during his apprenticeship in his work and expecting the community of craftsmen that provide the essential items such as handmade pots that complete the picture to strive for the same ideal. Get a glimpse of Ryan in action in the two videos below.

I’m disappointed to have missed ‘The Artisan Cup’ and the exhibition guide that accompanied the entries. Take a look behind the scenes in the video below.

The second Artisans Cup was supposed to have been held in Australia in 2020 – we all know how that went – let’s hope that it will be held again in 2025 when it is supposed to be back in the US again.

Looking at bonsai has certainly given me some food for thought and some ideas about how I might photograph full size trees in the wild.

Doing’ it for the ‘Gram

I learn all kinds of stuff by listening to my kids talk to their friends. Some of it immediately, some of it takes me a while to unravel.

It’s snowboard season here in New England which means trips to and from the slopes with groups of high school age kids for me. They are very much into making videos of their exploits to get feedback on how they are doing with learning tricks but also to post on social media. ‘Doin’ it for the ‘gram’ was the phrase used in a rather derogatory tone.

That got me thinking about what I post on social media and why and what are my expectations. I am playing a game with my posts on Instagram, or at least I have some simple rules that I am following. Must be shot and edited on my phone. No wireless transfer of files from any of my ‘fancy’ cameras, no transfer of files from the phone onto my computer for editing. All has to be done on the phone. Also the apps that I use can’t be mobile versions of Lightroom or Photoshop.

This of course is less of an amazing feat now that the phone cameras are so incredibly capable and produce high-res files. It goes without saying that phones themselves are way more powerful computers than the first desktop computers I worked with but then I grew up with a single rotary dial phone in the house if you catch my drift.

The result is a set of photos that are in effect sketches or studies. I’m trying out composition ideas using the phone and quickly processing using filters and effects in a small number of apps – typically Snapseed and VSCO. I’m often accused of being heavy handed with the processing – probably true, certainly lacking the kind of finesse possible on a desktop. Are these the high impact, portfolio best images that will garner lots of ‘likes’ not at all. But that’s not the point.

I’m having fun playing and don’t mind letting people look over my shoulder see my sketchbook develop.

How about you? How do you use social media?

What Would You Do If No One Was Looking? And Oh By The Way They Aren’t!

I woke up thinking about:

‘What would you do if no one was looking?’

And

‘What would you say if no one was listening?’

The answer for me is the same as if someone was looking and was listening. It’s about staying true to your values and having integrity.

About making the things that you want to make because those are the things that you need to make.

There’s freedom and opportunity in such a space. No constraints resulting from the expectations of others. No ties or obligations to what’s gone before preventing you from striking out in a new direction.

Certainly something to think about as we get going this week.

How about you? What you you do if no one was watching or so say if no one was listening?

A Walk in The Woods

I spent an afternoon over the weekend wandering around the local woods. Not hard to do in this part of Connecticut – everything seems to be in the Woods! It’s nice but I find it a little claustrophobic. Fortunately there are lots of ponds and lakes too which breaks up the walk nicely.

The ponds are now starting to catch the falling leaves. It will be snowing soon enough.

Friday Inspiration: Robert Adams

I have enjoyed Robert Adams’ writing about photography immensely. ‘Why People Photograph‘ and ‘Beauty in Photography‘ contain a series of short essays covering topics such as collectors, humor, teaching, money and dogs and discussions of Photographers such as Edward Weston, Paul Strand, Laura Gilpin, Judith Joy Ross, Susan Meiselas, Dorothea Lange, Ansel Adams, and Minor White. His recent book ‘Art Can Help‘ continues in a similar vein and is well worth picking up.

As a photographer however he’s someone that I feel I should like but his photographs just don’t move me. It was interesting then to come across the two videos below and listen to him talk about what he’s trying to achieve with his work.

Check out the videos below and tell me what you think.

Friday Inspiration: Paul Hart

I had a hearty dose of nostalgia when I first came across the work of Paul Hart. I grew up in the north east corner of South Yorkshire, close to the borders of East Yorkshire and North Lincolnshire. The mining village where I lived was surrounded by farm land and so biking out of the village in almost any direction I would see vistas such as the one above.

Paul Hart has published three books of his work – Truncated, Farmed and Drained. Farmed and Drained are the first two books in what will eventually be the Fenland trilogy. Francis Hodgson in the preface to Drained describes his work this way “Paul Hart is a photographer interested in the slow harvesting of hidden truth from the ordinary places that most of us pass by”.

His images have a special resonance with me. I wouldn’t have thought to stop and take photographs of what for me was the everyday but I wish that I had. The view from our upstairs window used to be across a farmers field, the canal and the river with an odd little house on the bank between the two. I have no idea if the house is still there because the housing estate that has sprung up on the fields obscures the view. Paul’s work reminds me that as photographers we have a duty to photograph our everyday as well as the spectacular scenes.

The Bio on Paul’s webpage tells us that he’s working with ‘cumbersome analogue equipment in and unfashionable area’. I’m personally glad that he is and hope he keeps at it.

Check out more about Paul here and listen to him describe his truncated series below.

Friday Inspiration: Ellie Davies

The image above is from Ellie Davies ‘Stars’ portfolio created by combining images of the forests of southern England with Hubble telescope images. For many forests are magical fairytale places for others, myself included, they are dark and scary places. Yet I find the Stars series of images compelling, they draw me in, make me want to step forward and cause me to look closer.

I have been thinking about how a single theme can be developed and extended – Ellie’s projects are a great case study. Silent, Deep and Dark serves as an entry point, both literally and figuratively, into the forests. This body of work explores the forest boundaries – the edge between outside and inside, light and dark. From here Ellie begins to interact with the forest, weaving patterns with wool, highlighting pathways with paint, powder, wool and paper, building structures that are reminiscent of barnacles or anemones, incorporating stars and most recently suggesting the presence of people by the introduction of fires.

Watch and listen to Ellie describe here work below and find out more about here.

G.G.A.S.*: Canon 100-400 mkII

*Galloping Gear Acquisition Syndrome

I am generally happy to remain ignorant of the latest bells and whistles that the camera manufacturers have added in order to sell another piece of gear that no-one really needs. However, of late my head has bean turned by lots of new doodads. The latest in this parade of head turners is the updated version of Canon’s 100-400mm lens. I had the original ‘dust pump’ version of this lens which I eventually retired because it never saw much action and following it’s use I ended up spending a while cleaning the sensor on the body that it was used on. Having said that, there was a certain novelty factor to the way that the lens extended to change focal length. For the weight and number of times I used the lens I decided to leave it on my desk at home and make do with my very much lighter 70-200mm lens.

There are times however when the extra reach can allow you to make the photograph that you have in mind. The image above is a case in point. I’d tried with my 70-200, it really wasn’t working, click on the image below to see what I mean.

While getting closer was certainly an option I had an opportunity to use the new 100-400 lens and made the image below using the same settings as I had with my 70-200mm.

Immediately noticeable on the LCD screen on the camera was that the image made using the 100-400 was sharper than that made with the 70-200 even though all the camera settings and lens settings were the same. This in inevitably led me to wonder what if I dumped the 70-200 and replaced it with the 100-400 lens. That way I’d have a nice sharp lens capable of the extra reach when I need it. My only concern is the weight – a chunky albs. We’ll see how I get on!

Trouble with Tripods – Finale: So Long Old Friend

We’ve been having an odd winter here in New England – lots of snow over a very short period of time. We’ve had about 80 inches (or ~ 2 m) of snow in the last 20 days with more coming down as I write this. During the last storm I made the misguided decision to head out to photograph in the nearby woods. Misguided because the visibility was poor and the snow plows were not managing to keep up with the snow which made driving interesting. Once at the woods the snow was quite deep even on the normally well trodden paths which made for slow going.

Increasingly I will explore ideas with my iPhone before pursuing them further with my DSLR. A couple of the images from my iPhone are above, I was at least thigh deep in the snow in this part of the woods. As I maneuvered my tripod around in the deep snow I heard a funny creaking noise. At first I thought that was the wind blowing the trees, but there wasn’t any wind. Then I thought it must be someone else out and about, but I could see anyone. Very weird. I picked my tripod up out of the snow to get it into a better position and and two of the tree legs came up, the third stayed in the snow. It had come detached where it joined the metal frame. That was pretty much the end of my photography for the day.

I’m not sure if you can tell from the images above but the carbon fiber leg where it joined the frame had delaminated and was soft. It was also crinkled which explained why the tripod leg did not fully close – there was always just a tiny fraction of leg extended. The metal also looks like it is badly corroded. While I may send this old tripod back to Gitzo I’m not holding my breath that they would be able to help me out.

I do have a new tripod that I’ve been using as a travel tripod – a Really Right Stuff 24L. I may now supplement this with the 34L, a beefier version of the 24L. The 24L to me seems a bit weedy, the lower sections of the legs are particularly thin and make me wonder how solid the tripod can really be. I guess time will tell.

On the Road Again

I’m traveling again this week which is unfortunate on a number of levels. I’ve been pursuing a winter tress project over the last couple of years and have been looking forward to extending that project this winter. Unfortunately we’ve had very little snow so far this winter. It looks like that is about to change in spectacular fashion when Juno passes through the area later today and tomorrow.

We’ll see what that does to my travel plans!