Photographer

I had four days left and one roll of film. The object was to find the perfect picture. After a good two hours of going up every alley I could find, or down every path I saw, I had an epiphany. Now, I’m not really a deep person, I have my own thoughts but never elaborate on them. This though, this was big for me. I realized that while walking though this small, provincial town in France, everything was so beautiful. It was beautiful because I was actually looking at it. I realized if I was just going though this town from point A to point B, I wouldn’t have given it a second look, but, because I was looking for that “perfect picture”, I saw how beautiful this town was. I thought it would be great to be able to look at life like I was looking for a picture, not all the time but at least to try.

I’ve realized objects look so much prettier photographed. Sometimes I like to look to look though the lens of a camera, just to see what something will look like photographed, to see what the world looks like in a frame. I love the thrill of capturing a moment in time, like a bug in amber. As radio co-host Aaron Sussman said, “Photography is a means of recording forever the things one sees for a moment.”

Don’t get me wrong, I’m no photographer; I just have a passion for taking pictures, a passion for capturing moments. I think the aspect of photography that I love the most is that pictures can be seen so many ways by different people. One person might see a gloomy mood in a picture, while another could see joy. It’s about looking. “A photograph is usually looked at – seldom looked into.” - Ansel Adams

A few months ago, I told my photography teacher I had run out of things to photograph. He told me I wasn’t looking hard enough. The world is beautiful, even the most hideous places have beauty in them. You just have to look closer. Some things aren’t beautiful from first glance, but look again. There may be something you are missing.