The longer I study and practice photography the more that I learn that there is a difference between
Looking and Seeing
and every person sees the world through a slightly different lens.
A photograph is an invitation to look — and to look at looking. Looking and seeing are two different things.
— John Paul Caponigro
Before I fell in love with photography I saw the world differently than I see it now. I noticed far less beauty in ordinary scenes. But as I began looking for beauty in the world around me I began to find it everywhere I went. My life became filled with a sense that everything is alive and sacred. I believe that this sense of the ineffableness of the world is available to anyone who slows down and seeks to see and experience beauty.
What I see and experience will be different from what anyone else sees or experiences. But by choosing to see beauty regularly in ordinary life, anyone can expand and enrich their life.
Different people can photograph the same things with the same tools and create such different images. We are the strongest filter we can place on any lens. We always point the lens both outward and inward.
— John Paul Caponigro
Ask a group of photographers to go on the same photo walk and to make photographs of what intrigues them along the way. Then look at the photos that they make. If they are experienced photographers, confident in their photographic vision, their photos will be wildly different. What they notice, how they frame their photos, what is in focus, what is not in focus—all will be shaped by the way they encounter and experience the world and what matters to them.
When I first began making photographs I loved going to northern Minnesota to photograph the landscapes there. While I still love to go up north to make photographs, I no longer seek out the well-known landscapes along Lake Superior. Instead I look for small scenes of grace that speak to my heart. If I were to take the same hike every single day for a month I believe that each day I would see and photograph something different.
Even if you’re not a photographer you can choose to slow down and see beauty in the world around you. During these gentle winter days before the hard winter arrives, take a walk in nature and look for the beauty hiding in plain sight all around you. Remember, there is a difference between looking and seeing.
May you walk in beauty.
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