Weekly Photo Challenge – Beginning

 “Living is beginning, always, every moment.”

Cesare Pavese

One of my favorite things about photography is the way it trains your eye to see the little things – the everyday, ordinary “stuff” that often goes unnoticed. As we move into 2014, Cheri has asked us to focus on Beginning. So perhaps 2014 should be a year for beginning to look more closely at the smaller wonders of the world around us. Some of those little miscellanies are among my favorite captures from our 2013 trip to China.  So why not? Let’s begin this year’s Travels and Trifles with a post featuring those very incidentals.

SUNFLOWERS AND SEEDS

“Be willing to be a beginner every single morning.”

Meister Eckhart

I loved the way these large sunflower heads were so perfectly placed next to the basket of seeds.  The display was part of a rudimentary shop in Ping Yao, where clearly the customers can be assured the seeds are fresh.

WHITE TEE

“The beginning is the most important part of the work.”

Plato

A simple white tee shirt, hung on a makeshift clothesline, casts its shadow on the wall behind.  Do you wonder who wore it, who washed it, or where it will go once it’s dry and ready?

ANVIL AND HAMMER

“The artist is always beginning.”

Ezra Pound

Above, several tools of the trade stand ready to serve.  I particularly liked the many shades of earth tone in the assembly, and the artistic arrangement which I assume happened by chance.  The shiny, worn surface of the anvil’s head tells us it’s seen lots of use over time.  For what, when, and by whom?

MAN WITH CHICKENS

“He who chooses the beginning of the road chooses the place it leads to.”

Harry Emerson Fosdick

The obvious pride of this man who had brought his chickens to market caught my eye.  He, like most of the Chinese people we encountered, was more than willing to have his photo taken. He’d have preferred, I think, to sell me a chicken but that wasn’t happening!

FISH

“There are only 2 mistakes one can make along the road to truth; not going all the way, and not beginning.”

Buddha

At the same market, fish hung by colorful red ribbons stared glassy-eyed and open-mouthed at passersby.  Somehow they struck me as more appropriate for my lens than my table.

CHINESE CHESS

“He has the deed half done who has made a beginning.”

Horace

We observed many Chinese men focused intently on board games like the one above. This is Xiangqi, the Chinese version of chess. Unlike pieces in the US, the tokens are round and typically wooden. They include Chinese characters as identification rather than being specifically shaped, and the game is played on the lines of the board rather than in its spaces.

TWO PARROTS

“There is no end, there is no beginning. There is only the passion of life.”

Frederico Fellini

Birds in China serve as symbols of many things, including freedom, happiness, love and blessings from heaven. One of our more curious stops was at Hong Kong’s Yuen Po Bird Garden, where older Chinese men bring their pet birds for a “walk” much as Americans walk their dogs.  It is an important area for senior socializing, with bird singing competitions alongside card and board games. Birds, birdcages, birdseed, bags of live insects and other items are sold as well, feeding birds and birders alike.

GRAPHICS

“Knowledge of what is possible is the beginning of happiness.”

George Santayana

The graphics of this simple section of wall appealed to me, with nothing but textures, contrasting tones, and a few lines leading out of the shot. It reminded me of a modern art painting such as might have been done by Mondrian or Bennett Newman in their day.

BASIC SHOWER

“Every new beginning comes from some other beginning’s end.”

Seneca

Speaking of paintings, couldn’t this composition easily hang on the walls of a New York apartment or a Connecticut country house?  The shapes and placement of the elements, especially the rudimentary faucet, called out to me in their timelessness.

BAMBOO MESSAGE

“Let every dawn be to you as the beginning of life.”

John Ruskin

Finally, a stalk of bamboo – carved by an unknown visitor with an indecipherable (at least to me) message.  Who left it, for whom, and what does it say?  To me, it ‘s symbolic of the captures in this post – little messages sent from the subjects to my eyes, mind, lens, and finally post; the better to communicate with you, the reader.  Which, if any, drew you in, and why?  Food for thought as we all search for the most positive ways to implement this year’s new beginning.

Tags: Photo essay, travel, weekly photo challenge

• January 4, 2014
• China, Photography, Travel, Weekly Challenge, Weekly Photo Challenge
• 132 Comments