This morning I spent some time
Looking Deeper
into images I made earlier this week. They were the ones that didn’t catch my eye or didn’t seem as “good” as the ones I chose to work on initially. And interestingly I found several that intrigued me enough to give them a second look. For example I remember being very interested in the willow tree shown above when I photographed it at the edge of the lagoon near Medicine Lake. But when I looked at it afterwards it didn’t have the grace I remembered being struck with when I made the photograph.
This morning I began editing the photograph in Adobe Photoshop and Topaz Impression and got the soft impressionistic look that my first glimpse of the tree had evoked in me. I like to think that photographs should look the way that my original view of the subject made me feel. And when I gaze at this image I feel the feelings I felt when I first looked at this willow tree.
The image above is a single image duplicated and edited with different color treatments. I then combined them together in this quilt of images. I often use color to suggest mood but it can also help emphasize or de-emphasize portions of a photograph. Though I originally put the different images together into the “quilt” of images to show how different color treatments changed the mood of an image, I discovered that I liked the “quilt” itself as well as some of the individual treatments of the image.
Whatever We’re Doing or Creating
It isn’t only in our creative work that looking deeper is helpful. I am certain that we need to look more deeply at everything we do, create, and support. What are the underlying beliefs or values that a particular choice is based upon? Does the choice (or invention or new product or action) support all of life? Who or what are we ignoring? What harm will this choice/invention/product/action cause?
What I Have Learned So Far
Meditation is old and honorable, so why should I
not site, every morning of my life, on the hillside,
looking into the shining world? Because, proper-
ly attended to, delight, as well as havoc is sub-
gestation. Can one be passionate about the just, the
ideal, the sublime, and the holy, and yet commit
to no labor in its cause? I don’t think so.All summations have a beginning, all effect has a
story, all kindness begins with the sown seed.
Thought buds toward radiance. The gospel of
light is the crossroads of—indolence, or action.Be ignited, or be gone.
— Mary Oliver
I believe that looking deeper in whatever we are doing/experiencing/creating will be helpful. We have imperfect knowledge and live in an imperfect world. And everyone makes mistakes. But being humble enough to realize that we could be wrong is the beginning of wisdom I think.
What in your life would benefit from your looking deeper?
May you walk in beauty.
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