Here’s Capital Bonsai’s caption for this photo: Three point display with Trident Maple. In training since 1895. Donated by Prince Takamatsu. Mt. Fuji scroll and Japanese Blood Grass.
A few years ago there was a lot of buzz about bonsai being a fine art. Now, the issues seems settled. If you start with the right material and add a masterful eye and touch, both the process and the result can be called art.
Photographing bonsai, when done well, is also art, and the photos shown here are no exception. They are a small sampling (I chose just one tree) from a much larger selection of photos that is featured on Capital Bonsai in post titled 2014 Winter Silhouette Bonsai Exhibition. It’s a click well worth making. Or better yet, a trip well worth making if you’d like to view the wonders of our National Bonsai and Penjing Museum in person and up close.
Close up. I cropped this photo so you can see just the tree and its shadow up close. The other three photos in this post are just as I found them on Capital Bonsai.
Closer still.
Aha! The art of bonsai photography just got a little more daring.
Wayne,
I agree about the value of good photography, but the photographs of stunning Winter silhouette trees At Capital Bonsai was very substandard. Clearly the photographer didn’t know how to handle shadows on the background and it really spoiled some fabulous trees. The trees were in focus, but the shadows made that you could not enjoy the ramifications. A pity.
This tree is probably my favorite in the National Collection. I have seen it photographed in various ways for at least three decades. It is refreshing to see it presented here with the shadows; a very dramatic image.
Shame we can’t compare two photos of the same scene – one with and one without the background shadows. It would be interesting and I suspect we’d find things to like in both photos.
I think that the shadows add a charm to the images because it is emphasising that bonsai are not flat objects; they are three dimensional trees. The shadows are interesting to me because it gives us a view of what the branch structure looks like from multiple angles and what we see are trees that have ramification that is varied and filled with lovely twists and character.
Wayne,
Amazing tree! I have been looking for a tree with a style and dimensions that could accommodate larger-leaved trees such as Liquidambar or Aesculus. This gives me great ideas!
Thanks
Hi Pieter,
I’m not a photographer, so perhaps some of the subtleties escape me, but maybe the point was not to highlight ramification, but rather to explore something else less obvious (I was going to say focus on something else, but speaking of obvious…).
Thanks Todd, Ann, Carl, Owen for your insights.
BTW: the total Bark comments combined from the 4 of you is 99. Way to go!
The second photo “close-up” is absolute amazing as it is in focus and the shadows is like silhouettes.