Incidentally that is the name of my new blog over at Tumblr, where I will attempt to showcase my skills using my new DSLR camera, or, quite possibly, the lack thereof.
When it comes to photography I will always remain a work in progress, much more so than as a writer.
I love my new camera and spend this afternoon getting to know it and playing around. Just as I have a unique writer’s voice, only I can see through my eyes. Here I tell you what goes on inside me, what I think of this world, sometimes how I feel about it, and there I can show you what I see.
Given that I am terribly short sighted, I sometimes feel as if I am somewhat unsuited to wield a camera. But using it seems to open up a whole new world for me and I end up seeing so much more than I previously thought possible.
Writing fills me with joy, photography with endless wonder.
Even something mundane can look intriguing when viewed through the camera view finder. Now I have this cool swivel screen on my camera and can attempt the oddest angles and still see what I am doing without having to make a wild guess or hoping for the best.
I admit that I am tempted to carry my camera around everywhere. There’s a part of me that believes I may actually have to do that.
Work is driving me up the wall right now, so much so that I don’t want to go. I’ve managed not to feel like that for almost the entire time I have worked there, which is 11 months today. The fact of the matter is that I need a change.
My new camera is a change. Writing, photography, art and music are my only saving grace right now. I need to go to the National Gallery and look at paintings. At work I may just put my ear phones in and turn the volume up. During lunch I can take out my camera and when I get home I will go back to my writing.
I think there’s every chance that art, in all its incarnations, is the only reason we’ve not given up yet. It makes us continue, it makes us rise and be great and part of something greater. It connects us emotionally and spiritually. It makes us see the beauty of life. It is the beauty of life.
We have eyes to see, but we rarely even look anymore unless something is shoved in our faces. Art does that. It makes us think, listen, consider, appreciate. It can be baffling or stunning or misunderstood.
Many of us have a little artist inside them, who would like to get out every now and then. Let her, or him. Give your inner child some finger paint and play Pollock. Take a point and shoot camera or even your smartphone that has one build in and snap away. Get an instant camera with a 24-picture-film. Have fun, let go, see what you can come up with.
Write a poem. Make a little movie. Get water paint and some blank paper and start mixing the colours. Take a pencil and doodle.
Find your old flute that you were forced to learn how to play back at school. Or blow into a harmonica, come up with a melody.
Don’t worry about the result, don’t worry what you’ll turn out. Have fun and don’t tell me you never once smiled in the process.
2clouds 