Tag Archives: Portland Japanese Garden

Water Strider

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WaterStrider5719click to enlarge

In the Portland Japanese garden, way in the back, there is a path that will take you down into a ravine that has a small stream running through it. The path is made up of bluish-gray granite slabs set one above the other to form steps and curves down like a huge open air spiral staircase with no railings. As you descend further into the ravine the trees close in overhead and ferns begin to creep out next to the walkway until you’re finally standing down at the bottom in an emerald-green room that is reflected onto the surface of the small pools that form along the stream bed.

The stream is crystal clear and so are the small pools that fill the rock lined banks. It is quiet here. The sounds that are so clearly heard in other parts of the garden are muted and faint as if the little glen absorbs them. There are sounds here of course, if you sit still and listen you can hear the leaves gently rubbing together above, the stream makes a small splashing sound as it courses over the rocks, tumbling quietly, creating bubbles that float along the surface until they pop leaving the surface bare again. Leaves are carried downstream, floating majestically, swinging back and forth on the water’s surface, some staying in the middle of the stream until they float around the curve formed as the water makes it way around a larger boulder, others getting caught by the overhanging foliage until waterlogged they sink to the bottom.

Occasionally a bird will flit into the glen, rustling the leaves as it makes a quick check for something to eat, then leaves again as quickly as it arrives. Sometimes a low scurrying sound can be heard in the dry leaves as some little denizen of the garden goes about its life. As you sit and take in the slow rhythm of this little oasis you will see one of the remarkable creatures that make these smalls ponds their home. It is the Water Strider, a small insect that is so light that it can stand on the surface of the water and move about without sinking. Its feet barely cause an indent in the water surface. Sometimes it will move out to where the sun will cast its shadow into the stream bed, then you will see the water striders mirror image on the bottom, the dark shadowy rings of the indented water surrounding its feet appearing to be the size of a dime or larger. These shadows moving across the bottom of the pond were what drew my intention to it in the first place. Once seen you soon become mesmerized by its small darting movements and it is difficult to take your eyes off them. One can spend hours down here in this green wonderland.

If you love Japanese gardens, then you must place the Portland Japanese garden on your bucket list. It is truly remarkable.

Sometimes Simple Is Better

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Temple Broom5798

Portland Japanese garden

As a photographer one of your jobs is to always look for the different view, the unnoticed detail, the obvious seen in a new light. But that isn’t always simple or easy. We get trained and accustomed to seeing the overall picture, the big view and forget that it is the details that add life and meaning to what we’re seeing.

While visiting the Japanese garden in Portland a few weeks ago I found myself after two days of intensive shooting realizing that I had spent most of my time getting the big picture, the wide views of the ponds and paths and trees and the larger scenes the gardener had designed for us to notice as we strolled through the garden, and although they were breathtakingly beautiful I found that I was seeing the garden from a distance, I was missing the details that add character and texture to the garden. I wasn’t as immersed in the experience as I wanted to be.

I needed to go back through and find the small things that made this extraordinary place unique. I needed detail. When you’re visiting a place like a Japanese garden there is so much going on that everything you see is blended together. The overview and the details are blended together in such a way to make the total picture complete, that you don’t focus on the small parts that complete the view, they’re just there. There would be an empty space you would feel more than see if they were gone, that is by design. Yet that is part of the photographers problem, he has to be able to notice those details then isolate them in a meaningful way. That’s where the photographer’s eye comes in.

To do that we have to borrow a phrase from the politicians handbook and use the “KISS” method, or “Keep It Simple, Stupid”. All this means is that as you observe various details that your eye may have glanced over before, you begin to isolate that particular part of the overall view and try and present it in a way that makes it meaningful and interesting at the same time. And the best way to accomplish that is to keep it simple. Remove anything that may distract the viewer from seeing the essence of the detail and let it speak for itself. The resulting picture can often give the viewer an emotional connection to the place that isn’t always in the larger views.

I chose this image of a broom leaning against the wall for several reasons. It is iconic to a Japanese garden, I love the mood it sets up against the wall, and the third is for a more personal reason. When I was in Japan visiting the various temples and gardens there, I would notice the monks sweeping the temple grounds with these brooms. It was usually an older monk or a very young one doing the sweeping. Never a monk in the middle, if you will, I asked one of them about it and was told that they didn’t use a younger man because they did too good of a job. The result was too perfect, there wasn’t the missed leaf laying against the stone to catch your eye and draw it to the beauty of the individual, or the build up of them along the walls and walkways left there by the sweeper as he made his way along the path. The details that we would take in but not see if you will, but made the whole better, more complete. The older monks knew it didn’t matter if they missed a few and the younger ones didn’t know the difference yet. The overall effect completed the harmony.

Seeing that broom against the wall brought back those memories. A simple view but a good one.