Greg Molyneux Photography

Tag: daisy

  • The Way of Walking Alone

    The Way of Walking Alone

    100mm macro photo of a dutiful bumblebee collecting pollen atop a fresh daisy blossom. The image is cross processed to give it a more moody tone.
    The Way of Walking Alone — 100mm | f/3.5 | ISO 100 | EXP 1/1000

    Or The Way of Self-Reliance (Dokkōdō).

    I’ve started listening William Scott Wilson’s translation of Miyamoto Musashi’s The Book of Five Rings on Audible. As something of a budding Japanophile, and a person long into all things history, the study of The Way and Samurai culture rings true to my soul as a monk’s bell meditatively struck in morning. In the forward, Wilson translates the final lesson handed down from Mushashi to his disciples: 21 precepts outlining The Way of Walking Alone. The teachings of Japan’s sword-saint are open to us all, and I thought I’d share a bit here.

    • Do not turn your back on the various Ways of this world.
    • Do not scheme for physical pleasure.
    • Do not intend to rely on anything.
    • Consider yourself lightly; consider the world deeply.
    • Do not ever think in acquisitive terms.
    • Do not regret things about your own personal life.
    • Do not envy another’s good or evil.
    • Do not lament parting on any road whatsoever.
    • Do not complain or feel bitterly about yourself or others.
    • Have no heart for approaching the path of love.
    • Do not have preferences.
    • Do not harbor hopes for your own personal home.
    • Do not have a liking for delicious food for yourself.
    • Do not carry antiques handed down from generation to generation.
    • Do not fast so that it affects you physically.
    • While it’s different with military equipment, do not be fond of material things.
    • While on the Way, do not begrudge death.
    • Do not be intent on possessing valuables or a fief in old age.
    • Respect the gods and Buddhas, but do not depend on them.
    • Though you give up your life, do not give up your honor.
    • Never depart from the Way of the Martial Arts.

    Second Day of the Fifth Month, Second Year of Shoho [1645]
    —Shinmen Musashi

    Shout-out to Digital Dao for providing the online text as I did not transcribe this from the audio text.

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  • Bright Spot

    Bright Spot

    White daisy blossoms photographed at 35mm in low key vertical orientation.
    Bright Spot — 35mm | f/1.4 | ISO 400 | EXP 1/30

    Flowers are but a bright spot in an otherwise darkening world. Acrimony, callousness, cynicism, and flagrant distrust envelope our better judgement as a plague. As corrosive distrust and patent injustice unfolds so too do the flowers. Impartial and ignorant to our schemes and machinations, spreading beauty with their grace. Too bad it not up to them to stand in judgement of our folly.

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  • Roommates

    Roommates

    Black and white photo of a Maine Coon cat.
    Roommates — 35mm | f/1.4 | ISO 800 | EXP 1/125

    I present my new partner in crime. Daisy “Chain” Cat. She’s a Maine Coon cat loaded down with fluff and stuff enveloping a pronounced air of dignity. When she’s not traipsing to and fro from food bowl to litter box she’s setting up shop on a comfy bit of furniture near you.

    Daisy is my first pet. The first I can call my own. I grew up with cats and dogs—dogs mostly—but I never had one under my own care. Since my grandmother moved out of my house I have been living along full time since the summer of 2011. Guys, let me tell you, the years of talking to myself has grown stale.

    Enter Daisy, my co-conspirator in indolence and shag floor lounging. She likes to hang and laughs at my poor jokes—OK, she doesn’t laugh so much as offer disgusted blank stares. This black and white photo doesn’t serve justice to her robust mane of hair. And it’s not reserved to her mane, she’s loaded with hair—everywhere.

    Daisy comes to me as a middle-aged dowager feline. Rounding out her back nine I have welcomed her into my home. I will do my best to offer a relaxing, if not glorious retirement. She gets the peace and quiet—dumb jokes aside—she has long sought, and I get a buddy to disrupt my decade of solitude. As an added bonus I now have a ready-made photo subject. Though she has yet proved disposed to the task.

  • Daisy Do

    Daisy Do

    Square format photograph of a sunlit daisy blossom backed by smooth bokeh and soft focus.
    Daisy Do — 35mm | f/1.4 | ISO 100 | EXP 1/6400

    I’ve been having plenty of fun making photographs of my daisies this year. To close out the month of June I put down my macro lens and went with the 35mm aperture set wide open at f/1.4 to keep the depth of field as shallow as possible. By getting my lens as close as possible to the daisy in the foreground—the flower in focus—I was able to facilitate a scene where the area of acceptable focus was roughly one quarter of an inch think. At most. This helps deliver the buttery smooth bokeh that predominates the shot—both the out of focus elements as well as the array of blended circular features milling about the square format exposure.

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  • Stage Left

    Stage Left

    Macro photograph of a blue bottle fly atop a daisy petal.
    Stage Left — 100mm | f/3.5 | ISO 100 | EXP 1/640

    Time is weird, man. While I feel mired in quicksand, struggling to move in chronic slow motion I am juxtaposed by the fast moving reality that it’s July. In 2016. Or so I’m told. Somehow, somewhere, I’m still stuck in April 2006, but hey? Any Multiverse theorists want to take this on? So here I sit watching Nintendo Voice Chat pounding out a post on my computer one evening removed from the Fourth of July—my favorite holiday by the way. Even though overcast skies and incoming rain may put a damper on tomorrow’s firework festivities, I’ll embrace the fact the calendar is turned to the month added in honor of Julius Caesar. We’ve reached high summer—the Saturday of summer—as much as it doesn’t feel like it.

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  • Let’s Pollinate

    Let’s Pollinate

    Macro photograph of a blue bottle fly pollinating a daisy blossom
    Let’s Pollinate — 100mm | f/3.5 | ISO 100 | EXP 1/500

    With summer in full swing it’s high time to get back to my macro roots. In the front yard fresh daisies are in bloom affording the perfect opportunity to return to some good old fashion handheld camera fun. Macro work is a chance to get back to basics—a chance to ditch the tripod, ditch the bracketing, ditch the timer, ditch the routine to make some old school point and click shots. The other day a blue bottle fly came to visit, pollinating away on the fresh blossoms. Not easily scared the fly was more than willing to let me get up close and personal with my 100mm lens; these shots were made at a distance of roughly 12 inches from my subject—allowing me to bring the viewer right into the frame. Now I have to admit, shooting macro far less frequently these days I’m a little rusty, but I still made off with a few decent exposures. Practice, yo—I hear it makes perfect. More to come.

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  • Life Hangs On

    Low key cross processed macro photograph of an insect atop a daisy
    Life Hangs On — 100 mm | f/3.5 | ISO 400 | EXP 1/800

    I didn’t expect to see this today. Despite progress well into Fall I somehow have a path of thriving daisies in my backyard. I spied them unexpectedly today while making a quick pass through back there—about ten blossoms in all. More surprising was the amount of insect life teeming about the blossoms. Bees, flies, and some kind of beetle/yellow ladybug type thing; there must have been a dozen or so creepy-crawlies getting in a late season feed. Or maybe they’re just in calendar denial like me? I’m still wearing flip-slops after all. We’ve already dipped below freezing a couple times so this patch of my yard is demonstrating some unusual tenacity. Or maybe I’ve just never noticed the late season prowess of daisies and the requisite wildlife they sustain?

    Update: Hat tip to Jeff Ruemeli for being googler du jour and identifying this little flying fellow as a hoverfly.

  • Day 1 of 5: Flat out

    A low key black and white macro photograph of a late season daisy in Autumn.
    Flat out — 100mm |f/4 | ISO 400 | EXP 1/400

    Last night I was tagged on Google+ to participate in the #fivedayblackandwhitechallenge that’s been running strong for the past couple of weeks. If nothing else it’s coincidental that yesterday was the first day it popped in my mind if I’d somehow get tagged for this. I was on my way to work. Sure enough that thought was manifest by day’s end. For anyone unfamiliar with Google+ it’s a wonderful place for photographers. It’s where this hobby started for me, and for that alone it will forever be remembered fondly by this guy, ghost towns be damned.

    Onto the challenge: I love me some black and white. I really do. Back in my Studio Art days in high school it was my wheelhouse. Colors were scary. Black and white might as well have been the blanket of one Linus Van Pelt. 15 years later and suddenly into photography, color has, perhaps ironically, taken me by storm. Past inhibitions are strangely gone and color has become a strength. Life is nothing if not odd.

    All that setup being said, black and white remains a passion of mine. As much as I’ve learned to harness the power of color in all its vibrant glory, nothing takes me away (sorry, Calgon) like a stunning black and white. That’s where my envy rears. In that vein I am very excited about this challenge. My inner critic, though, is concerned that it will be hard to make great black and whites on purpose and on demand.

    I guess we’ll see what the next five days have in store.

    Day 1 | Day 2 | Day 3 | Day 4 | Day 5

  • It starts with one

    A black and white low key macro photograph of a single daisy blossom readying to bloom. Shallow depth of field and solemn tones lend mood to the photograph.
    It starts with one — 100mm | f/4 | ISO 100 | EXP 1/400

    The daisy is one of the favorite flowers. Simple, plentiful, hearty yet understated. I have two small daisy patches in my front flowerbed and since getting into this whole photography thing they’ve proven some of my favorite flowers to photograph. The reason? Versatility. From bud, to opening, to full blossom, to death, the daisy’s life is an interesting one. A watchable one. Eminently photographable and pure in its plainness, simple white daisy I will always watch you.

    On a personal note, this kind of photography excites me: black and white, minimal, low key and emotive. It’s a style I wish to further develop. For me it sorta has this voodoo it factor and this is getting somewhere in that realm for me. My thoughts are vauge if only because my vision is as well.