Soften, Be Simple

In my work as a photographer I sometimes get seduced by wanting my photographs to be liked and to be judged as beautiful and meaningful by others. But lately I’ve been thinking about how pleasing others is a good way to lose myself. So I tell myself as I begin to work…

Soften, Be Simple…

Do what you love. See the beauty in ordinary life. Share that beauty with others. That’s all that matters.

I realized that I had things in my head not like what I had been taught – not like what I had seen – shapes and ideas so familiar to me that it hadn’t occurred to me to put them down. I decided to stop painting, to put away everything I had done, and to start to say the things that were my own.

— Georgia O’Keeffe

A few days ago the wind broke off a large branch of begonia flowers from the hanging flower basket in front of our house. I rescued the branch of flowers and placed the stem in water, thinking to enjoy the beauty of the flowers for awhile. And I also thought I might spend some time photographing them. Days went by and when I finally decided to make some photographs of them, the flowers were starting to wilt. Still, I saw beauty in them, even as they wilted.

Yesterday I decided to take a walk on the path by Medicine Lake. I brought my camera along hoping to find tiny scenes of grace in this very familiar landscape/lakescape. And I did find beauty in simple things. The soft ripples in the lake caught my eye. With the clouds and blue sky colors reflecting on the water the waves created an abstract design dotted with a couple of water lily leaves.

There is a tall spreading tree that I always enjoy seeing on my walks beside the lake. Yesterday I made a photograph looking up into it’s canopy of branches against the cloud studded sky.

It’s such a lush time of year. June 1 was the meteorological start of summer. So I sadly say “Au revoir” to spring and turn to embrace summer. Soon my peonies will be in bloom. And I will spend time in my favorite flower gardens photographing the lovely summer flowers.