June 19 - Curtains Down

I took this picture from the outside of the house but the light coming in makes it just as lovely from the inside. The shadows reminded me of Sumi-e painting. What I love about Sumi-e and photography is that both of them have a similar trick to them: just relax. In Sumi-e you have to let the brush do the work. You inhale and exhale while dragging the brush. You let the ink run or pool or wash as it wants to. Photography is similar in that you can seek out light, but you have to give your image over to the light, you let it shine or shadow or flare as it wants to. If you try to control too much you will miss the shot. And before you shoot, you take a breath to steady yourself and your camera and then finally you capture your image. One is ink and paper and the other is light and pixels, but the act of creating them is similar.