As I played with making photos of the alstroemeria bouquet that I brought home this week I wondered…
How Soft is Too Soft?
Using my Canon nifty fifty f/1.8 lens wide open along with a 36 mm extension tube, I got close up and abstract in much of my work today. Most of the really soft shots didn’t work. But still, it was interesting to explore and play with softness.
I am drawn to softness in photography and in life. I often prefer a soft open lens and a soft open heart to cushion some of the sharp edges of the world.
“Be like water, which is fluid and soft and yielding, as in time, water will overcome rock which is rigid and hard. Therefore, what is soft is strong.”
―
Strength in Softness
Softness can be strong. To stay open and soft, even when everything feels like it’s falling apart does not come easily. And in photography, to bravely let softness speak of grace, mystery, line and color is another kind of bravery.
Wild Geese
You do not have to be good.
You do not have to walk on your knees
for a hundred miles through the desert repenting.
You only have to let the soft animal of your body
love what it loves.
Tell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you mine.
Meanwhile the world goes on.
Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain
are moving across the landscapes,
over the prairies and the deep trees,
the mountains and the rivers.
Meanwhile the wild geese, high in the clean blue air,
are heading home again.
Whoever you are, no matter how lonely,
the world offers itself to your imagination,
calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting
over and over announcing your place
in the family of things.— Mary Oliver
The words and thoughts that are helping me these days are words like soft, open, receptive, and expressive. Soft heart. Open mind. Acceptance. Gratitude. Wonder. Love.
What words help you stay present and open?
May you walk in beauty.
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