Swamp Zen

[BrianW]

One of my highlights last year was hiking though a swamp with waders. My daughter and I had the good luck to help a film crew working on a TV show. They are trying to get a show on Discovery or a nature channel on reptiles and we went with them in search of snapping turtles. I started editing some video I shot last fall with an underwater camera and though it might make an interesting post.

Hiking through a swamp with waders was a fascinating experience, as I found myself stepping on layers upon layers of decomposing organic matter. Made me think about how everything in the swamp eventual dissolves into one, at least for a while….thus, the dichotomy of oneness vs. many-ness (e.g., Sadokai). Of course there is the metaphor of the lotus growing out of the mud of the swamp. The images I've posted are just studies and are really low res.

Gassho
BrianW

[Manatee]

What beautiful photographs! Swamps are very misunderstood and maligned places, but they are very important in the grand scheme of things and have their own kind of beauty. Thank you for sharing.

Nature is full of lots of pattern language wisdom.

Gassho,

Manatee ( a big nature dork for sure

[Taigu]

Thank you for this, BrianW.

Direct perception and insight of oneness.
Taking pictures is like poetry, it brings you in the nowness of now and you pay attention.


gassho

Taigu

[Manatee]

Or as James Brown might say,

Can you see it over there?
Can you see it right there?
Do you see it over here?

There it is!

[BrianW]

Rev Taigu and Manatee,

Thanks for the comments....I will try and post more images as I complete them.

Gassho,
BrianW

[veera]

Thank you for the beautiful images, Brian. I'm looking forward to see more of them.

So very different from the swamps I'm used to going, yet the same.

Veera

[bayamo]

i was raised with the everglades practically in my back yard.. if there is one thing i miss (and there are a handful of things) about florida, its the everglades..
gassho

[BrianW]

Veera and Bayamo,

Thanks! Finland and the everglades....two places I would love to vist sometime. I posted a few more pics, taken in different seasons, from a couple of swamps I frequent. Just straight photos with no photoshop, but perhaps point to "many-ness" By the way we only found a small snapper, but if anyone is interested here is the crew we went with http://www.thereptileshow.com/ Big snappers, which I have seen before, but just not when I had my camera.

Gassho,
BrianW

[Manatee]

:shock: Beauty! :shock:

Isn't it amazing to stand in the presence of some of those animals.

Love these pics. Thank you. Here is one for you, my friend Tim took it:



Mandy

[BrianW]

Nice Frog Mandy....looks like something from a rain forest!

Gassho,
BrianW

[Manatee]

Nice Frog Mandy....looks like something from a rain forest!

Gassho,
BrianW

I think it's just a spring peeper, maybe? You know, the ones that make the peep-peep singing on warm spring nights?

These ones aren't from the rainforest, but from my "home forest"--- eastern deciduous forest of the US. Peep-peep! Their song fills me with awe and love from the tips of my toes to the roots of my hairs...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uVzJ43gJJQE&feature=related[/video]] ... re=related

Gassho, Mandy