This challenge comes with a wide angle and any filter of your choosing.
SIDE NOTE: I will be visiting family in Cape Town on the weekend this prompt airs, so my apologies in advance for only getting to commentary at a later stage.
“A true photograph need not be explained, nor can it be contained in words.” - Ansel Adams
That quote is so true, but we who write poetry can find words when there are none. Today I am honored to provide the photography of my friend, Douglas Salisbury, as inspiration for your verses. Douglas is an awarding winning photographer living in Beaumont, Texas. He often writes and speaks of life as an adventure which is reflected through his work with a lens.
Photo - Douglas Salisbury
"Look, the trees are turning their own bodies into pillars of light"
In Blackwater Woods - Mary Oliver
Photo - Douglas Salisbury
"The Lighthouse lifts its massive masonry,
A pillar of fire by night, of cloud by day."
The Lighthouse - Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Photo - Douglas Salisbury
“If you take a flower in your hand and really look at it,
it's your world for a moment.” ― Georgia O'Keeffe
Photo - Douglas Salisbury
“In order to see birds it is necessary to become a part
of the silence.”
― Robert Lynd
Photo - Douglas Salisbury
“My truck is the size of a green wheelbarrow full of dead horsepower.
I dug it up in the cemetery. ” ― Jarod Kintz, Sleepwalking is restercise
Photo - Douglas Salisbury
"When I have a camera in my hand, I know no fear."
Alfred
Eisenstaedt
Photo - Douglas Salisbury
“Time goes faster the more hollow it is.
Lives with no
meaning go straight past you,
like trains that don’t stop at your station.”
― Carlos Ruiz Zafón, The Shadow of the Wind
I must admit I am a bit starstruck by Douglas Salisbury's talent to capture such incredible images. You can find more of his work at Moments Captured Photography.
For today's challenge choose a photograph and its companion quote (optional) and write an original poem. Remember to credit Douglas if you use one of his photographs in in your post, add your poem to Mr. Linky, and visit your fellow poets to read their work.
I am thrilled to introduce a blogger, with whom we must all be familiar, as our feature artist this weekend.
Portrait of the Artist
Kelly Letky
Kelly Letky is a freelance graphic artist, poet, gardener, photographer, writer, jewelry designer, wife, mother, sister, daughter, crazy cat lady, friend, runner, and knitter, not necessarily in that order.
She lives with her husband, three cats and one dog in the rural countryside of Farmington, NY, beneath a big blue bowl of sky, and enjoys not-nearly-often-enough visits from their three grown children. You can find her writing at Mrs Mediocrity & The Blue Muse.
If you have ever enjoyed a visit to one of Kelly's blogs, you may have come across her amazing fine art photography, as I did, and seen for yourself how poetic vision can be transformed into visual imagery. I asked Kelly if she would be prepared to share a few of her images with us in The Imaginary Garden, and she has generously obliged. More of her outstanding photography can be viewed at Etsy: Blue Muse Fine Art.
Our challenge today is entirely open-ended in terms of execution. Simply select an image which inspires you and write a new poem! You may also choose a different image from those shown here, by following the Etsy link above.
Please remember to acknowledge the name of the artist and provide a link back to her Blue Muse blog or Etsy page.
1.
(of a photograph, film, television programme, etc.) in black, white, shades of grey, and no other colour. "old black-and-white movies" synonyms: monochrome, greyscale 2.
(of a situation or debate) involving clearly defined opposing principles or issues. "it was all grey areas; no black-and-white certainties" synonyms: categorical, absolute, unconditional,unqualified, unambiguous, clear-cut, positive, straightforward
Have you ever been told that you think in
terms of, “all good or all bad”, “all or nothing” or the famous “black and
white”? In Black and White Thinking an individual sees, hears and thinks one
way only. They live in hope or despair, joy or sadness, are successful or
failures… (Source) Of course, such a mindset is not to be encouraged, and one may well ask how could it possibly have any connection to the thinking that goes into the writing of poetry, which surely exists in the grey areas of consciousness. I'll admit from the outset, that this challenge may, in fact, prove impossible but if you'll grant me leave to explain my own lateral thinking, perhaps we could attempt a B&W poem. The idea came to me while I was browsing through black & white pictures on Photopin (an ample source of images shared under creative commons). The photos are lovingly composed, and seem to have an almost unidentifiable quality that goes beyond recording an image to something infinitely artistic and, even, poetic. I wondered if it were possible to translate some of that 'magic' into the written word, so I went in search of tips for successful B&W photography.
The Tips (Condensed)
Our eyes see in colour
but to be successful in black and white photography it’s important to train
them to see the world as tones of grey. The best black and white photography
exploits the differences in tone between elements in a scene. Great black and
white photos also make good use of shapes, textures, lines and lighting, to
compensate for the loss of colour.
Tonal
contrast is important in all types of photography, but especially in black and
white photography. Whether a low contrast image or a high one the contrast
level can have a profound effect on the mood and atmosphere. A natural way to
add contrast to your image is through choice of subject.
The
classic subjects for mono treatment include documentary, landscape and
portraiture. Portraits often look stronger in black and white because, without
the distraction of colour, the emphasis is on character, expression, and
revealing ‘the soul’ of the subject. When reducing landscapes to monochromatic
tones the composition becomes more important than ever. Make the most of your
foreground, remember to include a focal point.
Following
on with the concept of contrast, have a hunt for striking patterns and
textures. Concentrating on interesting shapes can be a great way of crafting a
bolder image. To appreciate an object’s outline there needs to be tonal
variation between subject and background. Reducing your focal point to a
silhouette is an effective method to achieve this. Keep an eye out for
recurring themes.
The
techniques of both high- and low-key lighting lend themselves naturally to
black and white photography. A high-key image is conventionally bright, and
composed primarily of highlight tones. The
opposite is true for low-key images, which are conventionally dark, comprising
of a range of either dark, or completely black, areas punctuated with
highlights to complete images with extended contrast. (Source)
While I was reading these tips, certain words leapt out at me: contrast, tone, mood, atmosphere, focal point, highlight, patterns, textures. Each of these concepts has a place in poetry; they could, in fact, be considered the very foundation of poetic technique. Therefore, I believe it is possible to use the tips provided in our own context, which is the composition of poetry.
If you feel inspired to respond to this challenge, please write a new poem. The post remains available through Thursday, and indeed, will still be on the home page until Saturday. Feel free to post at a later date than today. The terms of using pictures from Photopin insist on the inclusion of the correct link to the photographer's website. The featured photos are used for purposes of illustration, but if you would like to add one to your post, please add the necessary acknowledgement.
Peggy in Southern California here. Today I present two photos as prompts. Write to either one or both. I will not say much about the photos so that you can let your minds go where ever you want to go.
Photo by Peggy Goetz
Photo by Peggy Goetz
Once you have written and posted your new poem on your blog, link it below with Mr. Linky. I look forward to reading what you all come up with.
Peggy Goetz here with a new effort to provide a prompt for fellow Toads and visitors every five weeks. I decided to focus on faces for my column called About Face.
I will feature my own photos in this column and you are welcome to copy them into your own blogs as you use them for poetic inspiration. Please include the copyright information.
We can see fortune and misfortune in a face, circumstance and genetics as well.
This week take a look at these faces. Think about who they might belong to and what they might be thinking or what they may have experienced or felt. Don't worry about who they might really be or where they are from. Just use your eyes and your imagination and write on!
Use Mr. Linky to link up your new effort here so the rest of us can see what you did!
Hi Toads, Kay here, with a bit of fun for you.
This challenge was originally to have been all about this great huge and very big spider that jumped onto the head of my friend Jenn's cat, Daisy, and the interesting, if somewhat gruesome, things said spider has been said to do.
Daisy wonders where it went. Photo by Jenn Jilks
The young cat had been eyeing the spider, which made it nervous, so it jumped up onto Daisy's head and hid behind her ear where she couldn't see it.
Critters who do things like that make me very nervous. Behind her ear. Ugh.
This one is Dolomedes Triton, a six-spotted fishing spider. The myth, Jenn says, is that they eat fish.
The truth is, they eat water striders and other water bugs (or anything else they want to eat, apparently not including cats).
Another myth, and this is why I thought it would make a good Toads challenge, is that the females often eat the males during courtship.
It seems the truth, however, according to a Wikipedia article about Triton's cousin, Dolomedes Fimbriatus, is that females who have already bred will eat males who attempt to breed with them thereafter. D. Fimbriatus is heftier than her cousin, and singularly unattractive, in my opinion. I can't see why anyone would want to get near her, never mind mate with her.
The most interesting thing (again, in my opinion) about the Dolomedes girls is that they carry their eggs around in silk bags in their jaws, until they have hatched, as the ones in the photo below, have done, then leave them to find their way out of the bag and into the world unaided.
Wikipedia photo, Dolomedes Fimbriatus
Photo by Jenn Jilks
Cute, huh? But, in case you don't want to write poetry about spiders (and heaven knows I'd rather not) I'm including an assortment of Jenn's wildlife photos. They live near Perth, Ontario, where the nearby swampy land is a mecca for wildlife. But first, she and her husband live with four cats who seldom gather to eat all at once, so the photo above is considered most unusual, according to Jenn.
Daisy and her sister Dorah love to accompany Jenn on walks, even where the ground is wet. Photo by Jenn Jilks
Canada Goose with gosling. Photo by Jenn Jilks
Tree frog. Photo by Jenn Jilks
I don't want to come out to play. Photo by Jenn Jilks
The baby phoebes in this nest are just beginning to open their eyes. Photo by Jenn Jilks
And, for me, a darlin' duckling. Photo by Jenn Jilks
The Sunday Challenge is posted on Saturday at noon CST to allow extra time for the creative process, so
please do not link up old work which kind of fits an image. This is in
the spirit of our Real Toads project to create opportunities for poets to be
newly inspired. Management reserves the right to remove unrelated
links but invites you to share a poem of your choice on Open Link Monday.
Hi Toads, Ella here. I have a surprise for you-a friend of mine who frequents my blog mentioned she loves photography. I was intrigued and discovered more of her wonderful photos at Deviantart. She is a true talent-a visual poet! I thought how fabulous it would be to have her share some of her art with us. I asked her if she would be interested in seeing her visual eye inspire poetry. She was thrilled and said yes! Let me introduce my friend L. Diane Wolfe. Diane is a professional speaker, author and photographer.
Painted Faerie
Diane tell me how your fascination with visual poetry/photography began?
My fascination
with photography began with my father. He was an excellent photographer,
self-taught as he was in all things he did. He died when I was eleven, so I
never got to learn from him. But I received my first camera a year later and my
obsession began.
The Edge
Diane how did your view developed? Sorry, about the pun.
I took
photography in high school and was on the yearbook staff. After several years
of job and career hopping, I landed a position in the photo department of a
military contract company. It refueled my desire to be a professional
photographer, and I eventually purchased my own darkroom setup.
Tiny Puddles
So, your hobby
became your career? Tell me more... Over the course
of 23 years and thousands of rolls of film, I started making money as a
photographer. For many years I did stock photography, and my photos were
featured in Homes Illustrated and Cat Fancy. I started doing portraits and
weddings, and I even shot an album cover. Eventually other things took over my
life (such as writing) but I continued to take artistic shots for my own
enjoyment.
Elephant Frozen In Time
Amazing-you have a natural talent! Wait album cover? Anyone we might know?! Wow... What is your favorite medium?
The album cover was for a local bluegrass band. I knew two of the members through other business dealings and they asked me to photograph one of their concerts for an album cover. Ironically, the image they selected was for one I took of the band members scattered in seats after the concert was over. It was a sharp B&W shot.
Black and white
photography has always been my favorite. Textures, shapes, and patterns tend to
pop out at me before colors. It can be dramatic or soft and responds best to
contrast. I do enjoy color, too, and watch for those moments of contrasting
colors. And I am drawn to water in all its forms, and a babbling brook or fountain
can provide hundreds of unique possibilities.
Stallions Dreams
I too love B&W photos. What do you love most about being behind the lens?
I’m a visual
person, and my photos are how I view the world. I hope others appreciate the
view, too.
The Mist
I promise, we will! Thank you so much Diane, for being
part of our Sunday Mini challenge. I know your art will inspire wonderful poetry~
If I were to say: ‘Write a poem in 14 lines’, you would immediately think I want a sonnet for today’s Mini-Challenge. Maybe I
do, and maybe I don’t. Maybe I want a poem that is 14 lines long, with no
further stipulation regarding meter, rhyme scheme, divisions, volta etc. Instead, I shall
leave all decision making entirely up to you, because I want to see some
experimentation today. Do not be
restricted by form – let the form work for you.
Those who are
interested in traditional sonnets may find the Wikipedia entry informative, but I would encourage you all to read the innovative approach to 14-liners by e.e. cummings and take a look at what happens when the love sonnets of Pablo Neruda are translated into English and lose their rhyme scheme.
The sonnet has remained a popular form of poetry since it first appeared in the 13th Century and the very fact that it has been constantly innovated has kept it alive. I see no reason why poets should stop now.
Real Toads is featuring the photographic art of our member, Izy Gruye of The Nice Cage Blog. If you upload an image to your blog please acknowledge the name of the artist.
The Sunday Challenge is posted on Saturday at noon CST to allow extra time for the form
challenge. Please provide a link on your
blog back to Real Toads. We stipulate
that only poems written for this challenge may be added to the Mr Linky. Management reserves the right to remove
unrelated links, but invites you to share a poem of your choice on Open Link
Monday.
