Quote of the day: “Taking pictures is savoring life intensely, every hundredth of a second.” ― Marc Riboud
My Initial Look at this Parking Lot and Surrounding Buildings said “Ugly!”
I return to my personal photography learning lessons after a 3-month hiatus. This week my goal was to fulfill an “assignment” that I drew randomly from Doug Beasley‘s Vision Quest Cards: Photo Assignments For Personal & Spiritual Growth.
The assignment was to “Go somewhere you don’t like. Find the beauty and make beautiful photographs.” I drew this card over 2 weeks ago and it sat and sat and sat on my desk without me acting on it. Each time I walked by I would remember, “Oh yea, I was going to do this.” But then I would go on to other tasks and forget about going somewhere I don’t like to make photographs.
Finally I realized that I was resisting this assignment Now I’m old enough and wise enough to realize that those things I resist are often where my growth edge is. I made a commitment to myself to finish this assignment THIS WEEK. So I stepped out of my comfort zone and went to an old parking lot that I thought was an ugly eye-sore in the pretty little town of Excelsior. From what I remembered it was old and crumbling. I don’t like parking lots, I like parks and gardens and nature. So this was a good challenge for me, somewhat out of my comfort zone, but not too challenging. Photographing a parking lot in downtown Minneapolis would have been more challenging — hmmm, I may just do that some evening this week. But I digress.
When I first arrived in the parking lot it was raining a little bit, the sky was grey, the surface of the parking lot was grey—all I saw was ugly grey. I made a few photos of the parking lot and it’s surroundings. Yup, this is what I imagined it would be—ugly.
Then I slowed down, breathed, and began letting my feet and my eyes wander and wonder what might be hiding in plain sight. When I let go of my pre-conceived judgment about parking lots being ugly, I started noticing what was really there.
It had rained just before I arrived and I saw where the rain had hit an oil spot on the black top of the parking lot. The water had spread into designs with smidgens of oil creating interesting patterns and reflections. The water reminded me of the fractal patterns of nature. Look at how the water has surface tension and holds its shapes instead of spreading out to cover all the available surface. Pretty cool.
Rain and oil mix to create patterns
Next I wandered over to a set of doors in the building at the side of the parking lot. The paint was worn and the patterns created by the bricks and wooden doors along with the splashes of color from the sign by the doors and the electrical box intrigued me. I think it’s stark yet beautiful. I want to go through the door and see what’s on the other side.
Classic white with a splash of grey, red, and black – I like it!
Next, I noticed a turquoise door, faded and worn, but beautiful anyway (hey, turquoise is one of my favorite colors!). I like the shades on the worn part of the door. It almost looks like an abstract painting. And the OFFICE sign shouts at me and makes me wonder what kind of office is behind that door.
Turquoise Door
Then I found another door, teal blue. This door invited me 2B Inspired. Hey, I’m ready 2B inspired any time! Doesn’t this sign make you want to walk through this door and find what kind of inspiration lies on the other side of it?
Another door, this one with an intriguing sign on it
As I continued to wander around the edges of the parking lot, I noticed a lovely balcony just above a small area of sunflowers, trumpet vine, sumac tree, and other greenery. Sparrows darted in and out of the leaves of the trumpet vine. Beautiful! (OK, you knew I would sneak some flowers in here somewhere. 😉
A Nature Haven beside the Parking Lot
Between two buildings I noticed a lane complete with an iron arch and a sign announcing MASONIC LANE. Between the colorful awning of a business beyond the iron arch and Tony’s Barber Shop’s striped barber pole, I found the shapes and textures and colors delightful. Masonic Lane invites me to walk down it and past the arch to see what lies beyond.
Masonic Lane
On the other side of the parking lot I noticed a row of garbage bins. Their arrangement in a line but angled this way and that reminded me of a line dance. I can almost imagine the garbage bins dancing in the moonlight until someone walks by and they freeze right where they are.
“Dancing” Garbage Bins
This little corner of beauty was tucked away almost out of sight. I liked the surprise of the tall green stepladder, the pop of red color of the motorcycle helmet and the pattern of the bricks. Why is this tall stepladder standing in this corner? Is there an elopement planned?
A Corner of Beauty
The swags of lights hanging on the brick wall drew my eye into this photo. Then the sign on the near corner of the building pulled me back to view the photo from a different angle. I like it when my eye gets surprised by something and it makes me linger a while longer looking at the photo.
Another View of Masonic Lane
I loved the grain of the wood and the way the edges showed the grain in a different way from the smooth boards. The beer can and plastic spoon make me wonder what the story of these items is. I can imagine so many stories for this photo. But the story that pops up most readily for me is a rather unbelievable tale of a late night ice cream and beer bedtime snack. Wait, that sounds disgusting.
Trash on a bench
I’m not a big flag waver, but recently I’ve noticed American flags hanging in surprising places, like on the patio behind someone’s house, and here on this door overlooking a parking lot. Seeing flags in unexpected places like this makes me value them more somehow than those flags hung up and down main street on Memorial Day. They make me wonder about the person who displayed the flag and what it means to him or her.
Another turquoise door – this one patriotic
Here is another little hidden alcove. I wonder what it’s like to live at the top of those stairs.
Tucked away stairway
This assignment was eye-opening and a lot of fun. Stepping out of my comfort zone was really good for me. I like to say that I see beauty wherever I go and I usually do. But I usually go places where I expect to see beauty. There are some things and some places that I tend to think of as ugly and I avoid them.
This assignment taught me to look beyond the obvious (once again) and to slow down and let the photo come to me instead of seeking it out. If you’ve followed my blog at all, you’ve seen lots of “pretty” pictures of flowers and nature. The photos I made for this assignment feel more real to me than those I usually make. I think it’s because there is a whisper of a secret or a story in each of them.
A picture is a secret about a secret, the more it tells you the less you know. ― Diane Arbus
I’ve drawn my next assignment from Doug’s wonderful creativity jump starts. It is, “Make a self-portrait using a reflection in water or a window (not in mirror) with and without showing your camera.” Sounds like fun. I’ll share my learnings and some of my photos from this assignment next week.
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