Creative Photography: How good are you in photography? 10 Photographs to ponder.

Creative Photography: 

How good are you in photography?

10 Photographs to ponder.

“The whole point of taking pictures is so that you don’t have to explain things with words.”— Elliott Erwitt

Dr Abe V Rotor

LIVING with NATURE CENTER

San Vicente, Ilocos Sur

1. Combining field photo and still life of the same subject gives a complete picture of the specimen - rambutan.  The composite photo shows botanical characteristics of  the fruiting tree and morphological features of the fruit showing the rind and edible pulp.  This technique is recommended for technical photography. AVR

2. Macro and micro photography. Stone covered with green algae (lumot); microscopic structure of Lyngbya crosbyanum, a common green freshwater alga, magnified 50x under the Low Power Objective (LPO) of a compound microscope. AVR

 3. The enduring beauty of Black &  White photography will stay in spite of the breakthrough in digital photography and wireless technology. The tunnel effect towards the source of light gives the needed hope for these children in war-torn Europe during the second World War. (Time-Life)

4. Nature is perhaps the most popular application of photography, surpassing human portraits and events.  Here the details of shy creatures like the land snail, (African snail), and hatchlings soft-shelled turtle are revealed for biological study. 

 5. Skyscape is classified as landscape. The rainbow is perhaps the most photographed skyscape, followed by the many figures created by clouds. These views were photographed on the highway in Batangas at around five o'clock in the afternoon on September 21, 2012, which happens to be Autumnal Equinox. 

6. Halo effect enhances religious ambiance of the stone icons atop UST's main building in modified silhouette through selective photo editing, without erasing the colonial features of the building. Photo by Miss Alyssa Beltran, UST Arts & Letters.

7. Chandelier, stained glass and lantern. Without tripod this night scene can be captured with high resolution camera, within the range of 5 to 8 megapixels. Editing is needed to enhance contrast and colors.  

Humanities holds the greatest treasure of mankind. The 10 Aims of Humanities

  Humanities holds the greatest treasure of mankind.

The 10 Aims of Humanities

Humanities makes a beautiful tapestry of humanity. It presents the wholeness of the human being worthy of "perfection" the Creator conceived of man.

Dr Abe V Rotor

Kids fishing in acrylic by the author

1. Humanities brings out the sense of awe and wonder. “Son, what do you remember as the happiest moment in your life?” asked a dying old man at his deathbed.
“When we went fishing, dad, and caught fireflies on our way back to camp.”
“Thank you.” And the old man smiled. It was a parting sealed by sweet memory of childhood.

Humanities brings out the sense of awe and wonder, specially to the young, of the things around , of life processes and cycles, the passing of seasons and ages. It makes one aware of even the minute existence of things, the transformation of the ordinary into something beautiful.

Wonder the summer night, camping by a lake, home outside of home,
no roof but the sky, no walls, no gate, stars and fireflies mingle as one;
Wonder the breeze blow and weave through the trees, comb the grass,
carry into the sky kites of many colors and make greeting the rainbow;

“The sense of wonder is indestructible, that it would last throughout life, an unfailing antidote against the boredom and disenchantment of later years.” Says Rachel Carson, author of an all-time favorite novel, Silent Spring. It is true, the sense of wonder prepares the young to face and conquer the world.

2. Humanities builds on the framework of truth and values

The Gleaners by Jean Francois Millet

Even with few words the mind is set to explore, giving way to imagination beyond mere reason. Brevity is the framework of the mind, the heart and spirit in the Lord’s Prayer and the Gettysburg Address of America’s most loved leader, Abraham Lincoln. It is also a path to humility in greatness, a union of the classical and the contemporary

If the story of the Creation can be told in 400 words, if the Ten Commandments contain 297 words, if Lincoln’s immortal Gettysburg Address was only 266 words, if an entire concept of freedom was set in the Declaration of Independence in about 1,300 words – it is up to some of us to use fewer words, and thus save the time energy, vitality, and nerves of those who must read or listen. (Jerome P Fleishman)

3. Humanities brings out the human spirit

Guernica, a plaza mural made by the greatest modern painter Pablo Picasso, ignited popular revolt against the Nazi regime. On the huge mural were embedded hidden images that conveyed principles of truth and freedom.

 

A representation of the hands by a UST Fine Arts student (A metaphor to the armless monument of French novelist Balzac by Auguste Rodin)

Similarly, in an earlier era, our own hero Juan Luna painted Spolarium, (centerpiece of the National Museum), a mural depicting the Filipinos under Spanish rule suffering like the gladiators during the Roman times, a visual message for the people to realize their plight. Later Rizal’s Noli Me Tangere, one of the greatest books ever written in the category of War and Peace by Tolstoy, and Les Miserables by Victor Hugo, extolled the coming of a new world order – post-colonialism and the birth of new nations.

4. Humanities brings tranquility in crisis

It may be strange to know that Winston Churchill, the great English hero of WWII, still found time to paint by the bank of the Thames. Arts bring tranquility in times of crisis, and elevate the senses on a higher vantage plane of vision. Putting down his brush and easel, he would then return to the battlefield with greater revolve to save Great Britain from the ravaging war. And to a greater surprise, what was it that Churchill painted? Peace.

Summer children's art workshop at author's residence It was the other way around five hundred years earlier when the great Michelangelo who single handedly painted the huge ceiling of the Sistine Chapel would descend from the scaffolding, exchanged his paint brush with sword and fought side-by-side his benefactor the Pope, and when victory was apparent would climb back to finish his masterpiece. The result: the biggest composite mural that brought God, the angels and saints, down to earth., making the Sistine a microcosm of the Kingdom of Heaven.

5. Humanities is guardian of movements and schools

Nationally renowned authors, poets and dramatists: Sedfrey Ordoñez, Ofelia Dimalanta, Hortencia Santos Sankore, Larry Francisco and Jose Villa

From the paintings of early man in the Lascaux caves in France, to the surrealism of Salvador Dali, humanities has kept faithful to the evolution of human creativity expressed in various aspects of human life, pouring out from palaces and cathedrals to the villages and streets. For arts no longer belong to selected societies and cultures. Impressionism took over Romanticism and translated Realism for the grassroots, subsequently bypassing standards of perception, and permeating into the unconscious seeking expression and catharsis. Expressionism founded by Vincent Van Gogh opened a wider door to abstractionism that subsequently spilled into post-modernism.

Forest and Creation, impressionistic and abstract paintings by the author

“What’s abstract? a young art enthusiast
once asked, dutifully I answered:
“When you look through the window of a car
running so fast that views are blurred.”

“What’s expressionism?” an elder one asked;
“When the car stops, or just about,
yet still running inside, seeking, searching
for the spring of life to pour out.”

“And what is impressionism?” a third asked,
and I said: It’s sitting on a fence -
On one side Amorsolo, the other Ocampo,
It’s the spirit of art past and hence. ~

6. Humanities aims at goodness and peace

Peace through dance and music, a stage presentation, SPU QC

Propagandism and license are perhaps the greatest enemy of Humanities. The world plunged into two global wars, followed by half a century of cold war - the polarization into opposite ideologies that froze mankind at the brink of Armageddon, awakening Humanities to a new dimension - the search for peace.

And as in the Renaissance, Humanities centered on rebirth and renewal of man’s faith in his destiny. Peace reigned the longest in contemporary times in spite of local conflicts. And for a century or so Humanities blossomed into wide popularity and acclaim, and rich diversity today, dominating media, commerce, industry and in practically all aspects of life, which often venture on the boundaries of humanities itself, among them pornography, religious extremism, acculturation, among others.

7. Humanities is keeper and pioneer of the arts

The Jeepney, people's art

Humanities gave the world the finest of human achievements and continues to do so - timeless classics from novel to cinema, painting to photography, colonial design to high rise structures, stage play to TV and Internet show. Man’s glory is akin to humanities - Venus de Milo, Taj Mahal, Borobudur, Eiffel Tower, Hallelujah, Romeo and Juliet, West Side Story, The Little Prince. to name a few.

Humanities discovered superstars like Elvis Priestley and Michael Jackson, and our own local sensation Leah Salonga.

8. Humanities faces challenge of the cyber age
But arts has also plunged into a deep and unknown global pool bringing across the world cultures heretofore unknown and appreciated, and riding on postmodernism into the chartless world of cyberspace. Which leads us to a puzzle, Quo vadis, Humanus?

9. Humanities elevates reverence for life and Nature

 

Pinsal Waterfall by the author; Philippine Eagle, La Union

And yet humanities is anchored on a strong foundation, none other than the place of his birth and his ascension into Homo sapiens - Nature.

Reverence to Nature is reverence for life, the highest expression of man through humanities. From this relationship he finds inspiration in his arts and technology, in seeking knowledge and wisdom, and in enhancing the unity and harmony of creation, and among mankind into a living network.

10. Humanities is the custodian of the network of humanity
We are the World – the song that united the world by the compassion it created for the dying is perhaps the greatest humanitarian movement in recent times, originally USA to Africa in the eighties, and was repeated during the Haiti disaster twenty years later. Translated by different races, beliefs, ideologies into a common call, it brought consciousness to the whole world, that humanity is a network, a closely knit fabric beautifully expressed in the lyrics of the song - Stone eagle, monument of the endangered Philippine eagle.

There comes a time
When we heed a certain call,
When the world must come together as one.
There are people dying
And it’s time to lend a hand to life,
The greatest gift of all

[Chorus]

We are the world
We are the children
We are the ones who make a brighter day
So let’s start giving
There’s a choice we’re making
We’re saving our own lives
It’s true we’ll make a better day
Just you and me.

It is a most fitting tribute to mankind through this song, that no man is an island, that when somebody dies, a part inside each of us also dies, and for every man’s victory, we too, feel triumphant. Humanity is a beautiful tapestry, and Humanities is Arachne on the loom.

Humanities makes a beautiful tapestry of humanity. It presents the wholeness of the human being worthy of "perfection" the Creator conceived of man.

In summary, Humanities

- is a beautiful tapestry of humanity
- brings out the sense of awe and wonder
- builds on the framework of truth and values
- brings out the human spirit
- brings tranquility in crisis
- is guardian of movements and schools
- aims at goodness and peace
- is keeper and pioneer of the arts
- faces challenge of the cyber age
- elevates reverence for life and Nature - is the custodian of the network of humanity.

And the greatest masterpiece is made by Nature such as the diatoms shown in this microphotograph.

The KRAKEN exists - do you believe it?

 The KRAKEN exists - do you believe it?

Giant and grotesque creatures of the deep are emerging lately with the series of earthquakes occurring in different parts of the world. People are asking whether their emergence is prediction or aftermath of force majeure. Exobiology is searching and studying life in the cosmic and abyss. Among these mysterious giants known largely in fiction are sunfish, oarfish, and the legendary kraken - monstrous colossal squid or octopus.

Dr Abe V Rotor

Living with Nature - School on Blog [avrotor.blogspot.com]

Author displays rare specimen, giant in size compared to commercial squid.

  

 

Nearly six kilos, and 1.5 meters long, this giant squid was flushed out of the deep off the coast of Pasacao, Camarines Sur, following a mild earthquake that shook the area. It is one of several others,  some weighing more than ten kilos. Their tough and thick skin protects them from extreme pressure at hundreds of meters on the ocean floor where few creatures can tolerate. Here they prey on deep fish and marine organisms such as crustaceans and other mollusks.  They rid of the sea of aging and injured organisms as sharks do on the surface of the sea. 


In Jules Verne's novel, Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Sea, the giant sea monster is an octopus (left photo)  so huge it nearly wrecked the prototype submarine Nautilus of Captain Nemo. High voltage electricity was applied to release the monster's crushing grip. The other picture is the legendary kraken described by sailors as far back as in ancient Greece. 

In John Steinbeck's less popular book, "Where have all the sardines gone?" there is a photo of a giant squid washed ashore along San Francisco, California.  From the looks of the B and W photograph the creature could weigh half a ton. This is not an isolated case; several specimens were caught or discovered as carcasses in many parts of the world. 

Just after the tsunami that occurred in the Indian Ocean in the early part of this decade, my son, Marlo and I saw two giant squids being sold in a wet market in Fairview, QC. They are twice bigger than the specimen shown in the first photo. 

Indeed monsters lurk in the dark, deep ocean.  And considering the fact that the earth's surface is three-fourth ocean with an average depth of nearly four kilometers, plunging to more than twelve kilometers in Marianas and Philippine Deep, there are indeed countless of unimaginable monsters down there.  They continue to build legends that became part of mythology, fiction stories, and lately, scientific discoveries.~  

 

 Mysterious Giant Squid stranded on Spanish coast. 

 

Giant squid attacks Russian sailors.  Rare Sunfish weighing 

1.5 tons found by Indonesian fishermen.

Giant oarfish (Regalecus glesne) caught in the Philippines after an earthquake. 

"Over 60% of our planet is covered by water more than a mile deep. The deep sea is the largest habitat on earth and is largely unexplored. More people have traveled into space than have traveled to the deep ocean realm." - The Blue Planet Seas of Life ~

Arts in Teaching Aids and School Projects

             Arts in Teaching Aids and School Projects

On display at the Living with Nature Center

San Vicente, Ilocos Sur

"The future belongs to young people with the imagination to create.” 

– Barack Obama

Dr Abe V Rotor

 

Left, Entomology (study of insects): A pair of butterflies mounted and "plasticized" for study and wall decor. Right: Relief painting of white doves, guided by sunlight, fly to  war-torn Gaza, Ukraine, and other trouble areas of the world.

Specimens for study and decoration,

function and beauty in combination;

their message draws man's action,

to learn, love and revere Creation.

 

  

 

Calabash (Lagenaria siceraria), also known as miracle fruit, bottle gourd, studded with pearl-like glass marbles, makes a unique chandelier or table lamp and convenient receptacle office and school items.. 

Hard shell of upo for head gear,

in old days, a gentleman's wear;

with marbles like stars shining.                 

made anew today as chandelier.

 

 

Rocks as specimens and table top decors in one.

 

Limestone - precursor of marble through metamorphism.

 

Igneous rock undergoes fragmentation, often in cleavage (left).  

Right, constant abrasion along a stream results in the making 

of this spherical shape rock used as protype canon ball.  

 

Fragmentation is key to weathering, and the formation of sharp rocks such as flint, 

man's earliest hand tool. 

Three general kinds of rocks: igneous, sedimentary, and metamorphic,

 mounted on artistic base and/or frame, make the subject geology 

an inspiring study and hobby.  

Precious stones are not only mined but found

unconsciously in many places of Nature;

next time you go outdoor or simply walking -

who knows you might discover a treasure!

Green mussels' beam into blue-green hue is restful to the eye.

 

 

"One cannot collect all the beautiful shells on the beach. 

One can collect only a few, and they are more beautiful 

if they are few." -  Anne Morrow Lindbergh

 

Make use of the natural beauty of shells in various art expressions. 

"Sea shell, sea shell, sing me a song, O please! A song of ships, and sailor men, And parrots, and tropical trees" - Amy Lowell's poem Sea Shell,

 

 

  

Driftwood is remnant of a once mighty tree yearning man's attention.

 

"A driftwood found a place in the heart, 

    indeed the magic and message of art." 

- AV Rotor