“It is better to fail in originality than to succeed in imitation.” – Melville
There’s a first for everything, and often the first is better than all the rest.
Because it’s the beginning, the spark, the inspiration.
It’s forever, in a flickering moment of marvelous.
Perfection, gifted in a moment of discovery. We don’t deserve such treasure, it’s magnificence beyond us, within us, saving us.
The first rush of knowing we’ve been touched by the eternal in a new, forever way.
Today, I’m sharing one of my first water reflections.
A lone, autumn tree amidst its unturned friends at a favorite lake two falls ago. This was the first, the beginning, how I learned that water, abstract nature, seeing at once above and below the surface of our world, would be a creative journey for me.
No fancy camera or gear or lens. Just me and life and the pull toward what I’m meant to share for years to come.
I had no idea what I was doing. Still don’t.
But I couldn’t help myself from diving into this lake reflection, this color, all this movement and saturation and shimmer, and never find my way back out. Still can’t.
What’s one of your “first” inspirations?
I can’t wait to explore this year’s fall with you!
Turning each experience into something beautiful seems to be my lens’ purpose. My poetry. Wherever I am, whatever the “goal,” light becomes what I capture.
Shooting mindfully, without purpose. Expressing passionately the things we can’t hear until we see them through our cameras. Giving over to the creative, the voice.
That’s my best advice to anyone asking how or why and when I decided images like these would be my journey through this visual medium.
It’s so similar to how I write, only more freeing.
I hear regularly now, “I’ve never seen anyone shoot like that.”
High praise.
These aren’t our “lines” we draw.
Yes, captures await; curve, shadow, hue. But technique and perfection fall away. At least they should, as others view our stolen moments. As we beguile with our dreams.
Windows of hope open; others follow us through.
We share.
We grow.
We are changed together.
So from yesterday, blessed to be shooting magic with my good friend Olin Bachelor, I share these snippets from our brilliant, yellow dream…