Posts Tagged "photographs"
Looking at the world with both my eyes
Whenever I’m faced with a moment when I debate whether or not to pull out my camera, this song pops into my head:
I’m an avid picture taker [not to be confused with photographer] and I’m often perfectly happy wielding my camera to capture as much as I can just so I can go back and look at the pictures later. Sometimes, though, I’m caught without my camera and am forced to just simply experience what is unfolding before me. I say this as if it were a bad thing. I couldn’t help but feel that way this weekend.
There were plenty of moments where I instinctively reached for my camera only to stop myself. Mainly because I knew I would have missed the moment by the time I grabbed my camera but also because I didn’t want to miss it either. While on the plane of Seattle, I looked out my window saw a fantastic panorama of the Bay Area: the Bay Bridge, San Francisco, the bay, Oakland. It was gorgeous and took my breath away. At first I panicked because I didn’t have my camera with me and I so desperately wanted that shot, but then I sat back and just enjoyed it. The image is seared into my brain and while I will never be able to accurately describe the view, I’m pretty sure even if I did manage to take the picture, it still wouldn’t have been as awesome as it was in real life.
It’s a funny catch-22: you take the picture but you’ve taken yourself out of the moment versus being in the moment and not having the picture.
But in reality, as much as I love capturing every moment, there is a decidedly less stressful feeling when you put the camera away and just focus on being in the moment. Gone is the pressure to get the perfect shot. It’s relaxing to see the world past the screen on my camera, to feel the sun on my skin, hear the laughter or feel the love. Having a picture doesn’t validate a moment’s existence.
Until I can hire a full-time photographer to capture every second, I’ll just be content with choosing when to take the picture or when to put the camera down and live.
