A little bit of colour on an exceptionally grey and foggy day…
One of those lightbulb moments…
you know the kind right? When all of a sudden it just falls into place. Sometimes we need one of those moments to get us going or we might have one of those moments when we are beginning to loose heart. I had a significant lightbulb moment about 6 years or so ago which has slowly made some real changes to my life. That moment was this picture:
it is my daughter who at the time was just 2. It was this photograph of her that made me realise how powerful an image can be. To me, this shot captured so much of her character, her soul and spirit. As her mum obviously i may pick up those intuitively.
But those things are greatly facilitated by the photographer. Like a storyteller, gently leading the viewer’s gaze to settle on the parts of the image that you want to pull their heart strings, capturing a moment in time so truthfully that the you are somehow ‘there’ in that moment once again. Whenever i look at this image I always feel that. My shy, sweet little girl who was unsure but quietly confident. I think i said to the photographer at the time that he had captured ‘just her’
I didn’t know much about photography then. Once I started getting interested in it and understood the principles of portrait photography I frequently came back to this image and would always strive to ‘find’ that image that captures a personality so well. It is one of my favourite shots of my little girl and probably always will be.
Yesterday…the man who took this beautiful shot of my daughter, a talented and generous photographer and friend tragically lost his 5 year fight against the evil that is cancer.
He was the same age as me.
This week is dedicated to him. thanks so much for the inspiration…..
The daily shutter
We went off to the lovely Beacon Fell in Lancashire yesterday. It was a lovely day, the walk was nice, very muddy and we managed to find a few sculptures along the way. My son asked me if he could have my camera and take a few pictures. Making sure he had the strap wrapped around him very tight, setting to auto and lots of ‘don’t run’ ‘remember if you squat down the camera will hit the floor’ warnings. I pretty much left him to it. It was interesting to see what he had shot when i got back. He did pretty well. I did explain to him once or twice about allowing the camera to focus on something and then keeping still otherwise it will blur. Ive chosen this as my favourite, even though i think he focused and then moved as there is no point that is sharp..but i love the composition of it and the fact that we are all in it…just a bit fuzzy..but i think it adds to it. At the start of this little path we had spoken about the difference between light and dark and i think he had listened and was trying to get the feel of going to the light.
good job son.
its a new year #satcap day..
Last night i was flicking through some pics and came across this, made me laugh out loud! So back in the saturday caption chair this week. Bring it on and click on the link to go and see some other howlers!
Finding the gold…iphone edition..
Finding the gold: When old prospectors would look for gold they would take large pan and grab up huge loads of gravel and sand, shaking it backwards and forwards to encourage the heavier gold to the bottom of the pan, at the same time the lighter materials which are worthless are worked up to the surface and swept away. This process is repeated until all that is left is the heaviest most valuable material.
My finding the gold project is inspired by this description, searching through the daily stuff of life that is ultimately worthless…the stress, the what ifs, the tantrums, the work nonsense,…and finding those valuable bits of my day, my week that are the moments i need to remember. The things that catch my eye and are just beautiful in their simplicity unbidden and untouched by the daily grind. Things that make me smile, even if sometimes that smile doesn’t linger and stay.
Some weeks it is harder to than others, sometimes the pan feels like it is only full of gravel and sand. There are weeks when its hard to keep going, searching through the detritus of this crazy, busy, frantic stage of life. Times when having time to catch you breathe seems impossible let alone stopping to look… but then you catch a glimpse, even in the darkest of darkness a small shard of gold can shine out and lift your spirits. Even if it is just one piece.
