ZEN Garden Photo | TrekEarth

Photographer’s Note

Japanese rock garden

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A Karesansui 枯山水, or Japanese rock garden, is an enclosed shallow sandbox containing sand, gravel, rocks, and occasionally grass or other natural elements. The main elements of karesansui are rocks and sand, with the sea symbolized not by water but by sand raked in patterns that suggest rippling water. Plants are much less important (and sometimes nonexistent) in many karesansui gardens. Karesansui gardens are often, but not always, meant to be viewed from a single, seated perspective, and the rocks are often associated with and named after various Chinese mountains.

yusff23, whereami has marked this note useful

Critiques | Translate

gsimon (387) 2006-06-06 12:18

Great Composition
I was there in October, but the sun was at that angle and my pictures came out extremely overexposed
TFS
Greg

Here is some info on the place

Perhaps the most famous of all Japanese dry gardens is that of Ryoan-ji: the Temple of the Peaceful Dragon. The garden is simplicity itself—fifteen rocks arranged in a rectangle of raked white gravel—but it has provoked much speculation about its meaning, its specific relationship to Zen thought, and even its origins. Although probably created in the fifteenth century, its current form may date back only to the late eighteenth or early nineteenth century. A discussion of its original appearance is included in the history section. Choose a view point from the map or click Tour the Garden for more views of this garden.

yusff23 (470) 2006-06-06 12:36

Hi Erwin,I've viewed a lot of Karesansui Picures coz I 'm Japanese.But there're few karesansui pictures taken by foreign people.So I'm very interested in them.
I think the best way to take a karesansui picture is taking the total garden,not part of that.
Because the karesansui expresses the whole world.
All the sands and rocks make one world,I think.
Every rocks and sands play important role .
So if you can ,I want you to step back aliite bit as you can take all the garden picture in one picture.
But I think your picture is Ok!
Because I can feel the sea and the island ,huge landscape, from this picture.
Could you understand?
Sorry for my poor English.
Thanks for sharing
Yusuke

mbasil (2117) 2006-06-06 12:44

Nice shot Irwin. Is this Nanzen-ji? The shot is nicely composed. It's just a bit dark for me (though I'm looking at it with my work monitor, which I find to be a sharde too dark, too). But I'll post a ligthened workshop.
Best,
Mike

anibal1285 (142) 2006-06-06 13:08

Good composition, nice capture. I am agree with mbasil, about the fact that the pic look tood dark, I dont know if you use Photoshop, but with this program you can imrpove many thinks on this pic, the tonals, exposure, shadows, add a better focus, and if u try to use the sharpening tool on selected areas that will be great too.

Even if you dont like or dont know how to work on PS you can try to take another pic in other time of the day with better natural lighting and know some camera settings could help you a lot too.