The Arrow - The Way of the Bow / Paulo Coelho

Directional Arrow - Avenue du Mont-Royal / Montreal (Thu 25 Aug 2011)
From Paulo Coelho's (*) short story, The Way of the Bow (*)..

The Arrow

The arrow is the intention.

It is what unites the strength of the bow with the centre of the target.

The intention must be crystal-clear, straight and balanced. Once the arrow has gone, it will not come back, so it is better to interrupt a shot, because the movements that led up to it were not sufficiently precise and correct, than to act carelessly, simply because the bow was fully drawn and the target was waiting.

But never hold back from firing the arrow if all that paralyses you is fear of making a mistake. If you have made the right movements, open your hand and release the string. Even if the arrow fails to hit the target, you will learn how to improve your aim next time.

If you never take a risk, you will never know what changes you need to make.

Each arrow leaves a memory in your heart, and it is the sum of those memories that will make you shoot better and better.

Plenty of great metaphors for our life experiences here.

Directional Arrows - East Wacker Drive / Chicago (Mon 05 Sep 2011)

Directional Arrows - East Wacker Drive / Chicago (Mon 05 Sep 2011)

Intersection - S Ashley St / Tampa (Mon 08 Aug 2011)

Intersection - S Ashley St / Tampa (Mon 08 Aug 2011)
Walking back to the Hotel at the end of the last day of the Regatta, I saw this scene and captured this photo. To me it marked the end of the campaign (*) and maybe the directional arrows on the road meant something to me as I pondered the reality of my experience in Tampa.

Almost 3 months later I have had plenty of time to reflect on my - our - experience and I move forward enjoying my paddling.

I just read the following quote by Kirk Tuck (*) in a great article (*) about doing the things you love ..

Intention? That has to come from you. But I would suggest that, as a functional person, you no doubt find things in life that spark you up. Give you pleasure, satisfaction, happiness. That inflate your will to live. Distill down to those things and make them the base of your art. Then the intention will drive everything else.

From Developing muscle memory and fluid technique is almost as important as developing a sense of purpose (Kirk Tuck - Wed 28 Sep 2009) (*).

It is a great article (*) from a great blog - The Visual Science Blog / Kirk Tuck (*). Not a bad way to look at things.

Floating Reeds - Water - Fraser Island (Sat 27 Apr 2002)

Floating Reeds - Water - Fraser Island (w) (Sat 27 Apr 2002)
One of my all time Favourite Photos. The arrow like formation provides a strong focal point and there are lots of little details worth looking for if the time is taken to explore the rest of the photo. In particular, the reeds floating on top of the reeds such as the two in the lower left forming an X. Also, love the fact that this photo was taken during the middle of the day, so it did not have the light working for it. Just goes to show that the early morning and late afternoon sun (so often sought after by landscape photographers) is often not needed to get the lighting right for a photo.

Favourite Photo - Bridge Work - Magdalene Street/Cambridge/UK (Thu 03 Sep 2009)

Magdalene Street Bridge Work - Cambridge/UK - Thu 3 Sep 2009 - (see picasa)
As mentioned earlier, I very much like the work of Jeffrey Smart. This is another photo that was inspired by his work.

We spent a day in Cambridge (UK) during our Europe 2009 Trip. Traveled by train for the day from London and had a really nice day exploring this historic university city. Was separated from the others for a while and was a little lost, but stumbled across this scene and still had time to capture this photo. Stood back a little and zoomed right in to effectively enlarge the background.

Enjoy the composition and colours (the reds, yellows, oranges, blues and whites) in this one. Also the white arrows on the blue signs work well and are definitely Smart inspired.

Finally, often a photo has something little to find and entertain. In this one I really like the bike (a signature element of the university city) which is elevated and chained to a post on the side wall of the middle of the Bridge (see upper left corner).

Favourite Photos - Intersection - Singapore - Sep 2009

Intersection - Central Boulevard/Raffles Quay - Singapore - Mon 28 Sep 2009 (picasa)
As with most of my Favourite Photos, it just comes down to colour and composition. The yellow lines of the intersection come together to form an apparent big yellow arrow. Like the effect of the painted over lines.

Reminds me of a scene that Jeffrey Smart might paint (examples). I enjoy his work and have a few of his books which have provided much inspiration, particularly while travelling. It is fun to make a photo with good composition and colour, from nothing. Will put up a selection of my favourite Jeffrey Smart influenced photos with time.

Found a couple quotes I liked about Smart's work ..

Indeed, Smart's conception of what he does is thus - "My only concern is putting the right shapes in the right colours in the right places. It is always geometry." [..]

Smart's subject matter is very urban and in many ways, mundane and often bleak, but he treats it in such a way as to make it almost special, using colour and light to make the urban landscapes/objects themselves scapes to be admired for their honesty.


Screenshot - Google Images - Jeffrey Smart Paintings