BAMBOO LEAVES LIKE COLORFUL BRUSHSTROKES

I am used to seeing elegantly simple ink drawings of bamboo leaves by Japanese artists and find them to be the epitome of observation and design from nature. As a photographer, my compositions will never be quite so bare boned, but I can work with color and line and simplicity to created a photographic rough equivalent. In this photograph I chose to emphasize sharpness in some of the foreground leaves while letting the distant background become a wash of autumn color and sky. I’ve been working with this technique for some time and love the feeling it lends.

Location: Yashiro Japanese Garden, Olympia, Washington State, USA