It’s grasshopper season and things are really hopping at Huntley Meadows Park. Every step that I took through the tall, dry grass earlier this week produced a small cloud of flying grasshoppers. Most of them settled back down in the tangled undergrowth, but occasionally one would perch on a stem for a moment, giving me an unobstructed view.
As I was going over my photos, I was struck by the diversity of sizes, shapes, and colors of the grasshoppers that I found in a single small meadow. Most of the time I try hard to identify the species of my subjects, but this time I simply want to celebrate their beauty and the amazing details of their bodies.
The word “grasshopper” is special to me also because it is the term of endearment that my photography mentor, Cindy Dyer, uses for me. You have to be pretty old to remember the old television series “Kung Fu” that was set in the Wild West that starred David Carradine as Kwai Chang Caine. As a child, Caine studied to be a monk at a Shaolin monastery, where Master Po referred to him as “Grasshopper,” in reference to this scene in the pilot episode, according to Wikipedia, a scene whose message I have always liked and try to remember.”
“Master Po: Close your eyes. What do you hear?
Young Caine: I hear the water, I hear the birds.
Po: Do you hear your own heartbeat?
Caine: No.
Po: Do you hear the grasshopper which is at your feet?
Caine: Old man, how is it that you hear these things?
Po: Young man, how is it that you do not?”
Young Caine: I hear the water, I hear the birds.
Po: Do you hear your own heartbeat?
Caine: No.
Po: Do you hear the grasshopper which is at your feet?
Caine: Old man, how is it that you hear these things?
Po: Young man, how is it that you do not?”
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved
Mike Powell 