Photo gallery in August is now posted! This month’s theme is “aspiration”

Every month, I post three photos taken by one theme!

To take good photos, it is important to have more people to look at. It is also wonderful to communicate with people through photos that I took. That’s why I post photos every month!

How can I express an abstract theme by photos?

The theme for August is “aspiration”. The theme is abstract but the photo is specific. I needed to express “aspiration” visually.

The clue is “expression by color and light” that we learned in the class.

Colors will totally change impressions. Different colors bring different meanings even in the same photos. The light is the essential influencer over colors when we take pictures.

Imagine you wear a white shirt. The white that can be seen in the bright sunlight of the morning and the white that appears in the darkness of the night are very different. Though it’s the same white shirt!

The color is not absolute, but relative. That’s what we learned.

Happy, sad, angry, joyful, surprised. Color and light deliver the emotion that you want to convey.

The first photo is “aspiration and reality”

This was shot at Ofuna botanical garden’s early open in July. I thought the contrast of the torn leave and the pink lotus flowers were interesting. At that time, I was not so conscious about aspiration.

However, when I looked at this photo at home, this feeling was coming into my mind; “there are things in the life, even if we long for from bottom of our heart, we can not reach” “there is always the reality in front of aspiration”

When I showed this photo to my family, they hardly understood why I chose such a photo.

I took a lot of courage to submit this to the teacher.

The teacher commented, “your originality is shown on this photo” “there is a space left for audience to imagine” “the photo conveys the emotion”

Wow, that’s wonderful! I’m happy with his feedback.

The second photo is “love for Kimono”

Back in ten years ago, I went to Kimono lesson every month for a few years wishing to be able to wear kimono by myself. Sometimes I wore Kimono when I went out with my friends and made them surprised.

Then what I learned for the first time, was that my grandma made lots of kimonos to my mother and her sisters. Most of them are kimono of everyday use made from cotton and wool. Many kimonos were given to me by their saying “please receive, I will not ware anymore”.

I never had seen my grandma wearing kimono except wedding ceremonies of relatives. However I imagine she would wish her daughters to wear kimono for daily going out in neighborhoods, probably.

It’s such a fun to coordinate colors and designs of kimonos and the accessories. I long for the life that people of old times had surrounded by such beautiful designs.

Well, when I was presenting like this, the teacher gave me a calm comment.

“In the photo, the obi looks the leading role, but your presentation sounds like kimono would be the leading role, doesn’t it? When you do presentation, you need to be aware what you like to convey with a photo.”

Every time, I am asked “what is the leading role?”..

The third photo is “let’s talk together”

This is a picture that I took when Kana botanical garden was reopened in June after closing down due to COVID-19. Now we are having difficult time not able to meet friends and family members freely.. I would like to see them and talk with them a lot sitting on the relaxing bench like this.

It may not be an “aspiration” but a “wish” at this moment.