Quote of the day: “In the act of deeply seeing, we transcend the boundaries between the self and the otherness of the world, momentarily merging with the thing seen.” ~ Alex Grey
Beauty, in the cracks in the sidewalk
I fell in love with photography a couple of years ago—madly, deeply and completely. What started as a desire to photograph my grandchildren with a new, easy-to-understand point-and-shoot camera, became, “Now that I finally understand what depth of field is, I can’t set the aperture on this camera. I wonder if I could take a short photography workshop to decide whether it would be worth it to invest in a camera that let’s me do more and control more.”
During that first photography workshop, I fell in love with photography. I don’t think it would have been the same if digital technology hadn’t come so far. Today’s cameras give almost instant feedback. I can take literally thousands of photographs with little or no cost (over initial equipment costs) and the speed of feedback/learning cycles boggles the mind.
Becoming a photographer changed how I see and experience the world. Now I feel as if wherever I go I am chased by beauty (hence, the title of this blog). Experiencing everything and everyone as beautiful has filled me up to the brim with joy and gratitude. This morning I counted 6 gifts from the universe before breakfast! (soft pinky pre-sunrise sky, amazing tree silhouette in dawn sky, a mouse that peeked out at me from under a railroad tie, the way the tile lines in the pool rippled and waved with movements in the pool, big, fluffy snowflakes falling outside, the lovely smile of a person I passed as I left the pool today!)
The smallest things bring me infinite joy—a certain shade of pink in the sky, the way the light reflects from a puddle of water, grass peeking through a crack in the blacktop—and my days are filled with ordinary miracles.
Since I’ve begun making photographs of people I meet and see, I’ve also become more of an extrovert, making little connections with people wherever I go. For me making photographs is a way to connect with the part of each of us that transcends our little selves. Seeing beauty in everyone I meet makes me see beauty in myself as well.
I know this may sound “Pollyanna-ish” to you, but I ask you, would you rather walk around being chased by beauty or being chased by what’s wrong with the world? I truly believe that one of the most revolutionary things any of us can do, is to find what we love and do it and then to live in joy and reflect that joy out into the world.
Try seeing the world through eyes that are chased by beauty…it’s a wonderful way to be.
A certain shade of pink in the sky
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