Haiga 450 Photograph and Haiku

Haiku by Kuniharu Shimizu. Photo by Paul Nicklen.

In this photo, the focal point is the polar bear. Expanse of the icy sea is the background. Bear and the icy sea are juxtaposed, and well composed, which make the photo a strong visual statement, both structurally and poetically. An icy sea without the bear would have made a weak photograph (see Haiga 450 Supplement).

In the haiku, the first line mentions the background, and the remaining two lines about the bear. Two things are juxtaposed.
In haiga, the haiku and the photo are also juxtaposed. In this case, the two are rather too closely related. There should be a bit more distance between them so that the effect of juxtaposition would be greater. But to make the point of the importance of the focal point, this example serves well.