Blog 2
There is a Mandala being created in my hometown of Traverse City MI this week. So my posts will likely be about that. A traditional sand mandala is a picture that takes days to create and is made of colored sand. This is traditionally a Tibetan Buddhist art form and is destroyed once it’s complete. As I understand it this is to teach the monks to not be attached to their works on earth.
One of my favorite things about art projects is the ability to photograph the utensils that create them. This allows for some more abstract pictures. And that’s what I’m working with today.
Above I have several of the metallic sand “painting” utensils called chak –pur. I love to play with depth of field in pictures like this. I want the pictures here to seem mystical to the viewer. As mystical as they were to me when I was in this presence. This is important to me because no matter what my religious beliefs may or may not be I like to understand that this is a spiritual experience for the monks. They are kind enough to share it with me, I would like to pass it forward and share this art with the world.
Here is a picture of several of their variously colored sands. I’m not sure what is used to dye it, but I know that the colors are lovely. Again I’m playing with the depth of field here. This picture was taken with a tilt/shift lens, which is why the depth of field is distorted here. I’m still learning to use that tilt shift, but I love the effects that it gives. These are only a few of the pictures that I have taken. I may share some more tomorrow.
This last one I included because I like the glint of the metal. The lighting here is amazing. This was enhanced slightly through digital, but really all I did was manipulate the lights and darks in raw. Honestly it's a cleaner image that it would have been.