Things

I have found that I love taking photos of people. I love capturing the voice they use through visual expression and the beauty within each one. But here’s the catch … people are not always available for me to photograph and I haven’t quite built up the courage necessary to start asking people I see if I may indeed capture them with my lens, so my options are limited.

Ana gave me a special attachment for my lens that will allow me to take photos of people without them actually knowing it. It’s a bit voyeuristic but pretty cool and I would never take anything that might be deemed offensive or inappropriate – basically nothing that I wouldn’t be fine having the subject see. I haven’t had the courage to take it out on my own but Ana and I are hoping to do a full shoot of her this coming Saturday and I might bring it along to play a little. It’ll be a great day regardless – just getting to take photos of my beautiful daughter makes my heart sing!

But I live alone and I don't have people that I can photograph during my days. I’m finding it difficult to feel the same pull to taking photos of “things” that I have towards taking photos of faces. But I love taking photos and I want to improve my skills and in order to do that I need to practice and learn from what I see regardless of what that may be. Smith Kaich Jones wrote the following within a poem on her blog, emma tree, today:

My photographic vision is changing

I feel it when I hold the camera to my eye

and see a painting

She speaks my desire and while I am far from being able to say that my photographic vision has changed, her words give me something to aim for and a way to change the "thing" that I see into the art that it is through my lens. I am not much of a painter but I am an artist and the camera is my brush and canvas and by using my tools to interpret the world around me, I am actively changing my vision and that is good - very good.