Frozen Moments

Im starting to get back into photographing things again, and I think I have an insight into why so many of us like photography, and almost everyone likes good pictures...

I was without a camera for a bit over a month there I think, and initially I missed it a bit and when I saw something pretty or interesting, Id wish I had the camera there to ¨capture it¨. But that passed fairly quickly, and I got used to just looking at the nice stuff and then moving on... I didnt even really feel the need to try to ¨remember¨ it or ¨hold on to" the nice feelings and thoughts that the image evoked... Id just move on with my day.
And I could borrow pictures from the guy I was travelling with if I felt the need to put pictures in my blog posts too, so it was no real problem.

And then when I finally got to Panama, I bought a new camera as Id told myself I would from the day I had the other one stolen back in Ecuador.
But, once I had the new camera, it took me a while to get back into the habit of using it, and during that time, it seemed to me that Id actually forgotten ¨how to see the world¨...

And that gave me the insight...
You see, I actually do think Id stopped ¨seeing¨ the pictures! Id gotten back into the ¨just move along¨ routines of life... and I was thus missing out on all the beauty that is around all the time!

You see, I think what photographs and photography do is they actually help us to see the beauty and ¨poetry¨ that surrounds us in this life in every moment and every place. I think its absolutely always there and available to us at any time, but that we just stop seeing it!

But these images in our lives are very fleeting as we move around and they change with light and position... They are momentary things and thats what makes them ¨hard to spot¨ when we are absorbed with our daily lives and our internal thoughts.

But photographs ¨capture¨ them!
Well at least aspects of those fleeting moments anyway... And they preserve them and then they are available to us when we are not distracted by our thoughts or duties of daily life... And they are not so fleeting either... that gives us the time to ¨see¨ them.

And I think thats why we all love good photographs... They are pieces of the momentary beauty of life that is constantly surrounding us but is too fleeting for us to otherwise see. :)

And that too is why so many of us like taking pictures and why so many people fancy them-selves as good photographers and aspire to make a living from the profession...
Photography helps hone our ¨image instincts¨ into looking for and ¨seeing¨ these moments of beauty!

But weather we see them or not, and weather we try to capture them with cameras or not, One thing I am absolutely sure of is that they are always there... everywhere, all the time!... And the more you decide to look for them, the more you see them... And then the more we give our-selves those nice thoughts and feelings that the images evoke in us :)


... But there in lays the trick!.... You have to ¨decide¨ to look for them!
... and photography just gives us a reason to do that. :)))