David W. Shively has been working with photography and video since the late 1960s. His professional career involved production of media-based continuing education for engineering, medical, and education professionals. He bought his first DSLR in 2005, and has since become an avid amateur photographer. He has learned from workshops with National Geographic photographer John Shaw, and with New York-based photo artist Jean Miehle. His work spans three principal areas: international cultures; wildlife—particularly sea birds; and images that evoke the life and history of the small, southern towns he has discovered since moving to Georgia. He is co-coordinator of the Griffin chapter of the Georgia Nature Photographers Association and a member of the GNPA board of directors.
About Samurai Pathway
I made this image on a misty morning in the Chiran Samurai Residence Complex—a well-preserved samurai settlement dating from the Edo period in the nineteenth century. The village—a collection of houses and gardens—is located outside Kagoshima, at the southern end of the Japanese island of Kyushu. It is a wonderful example of the Japanese aesthetic, in which each garden must contain an element that is growing, and element that is decaying, and an element that is static. Meticulously maintained, it presented a striking collection of shapes and lines that were a delight to photograph.
