Seize the Day
No doubt like me, some of us have made some resolutions for this year, some things that we would like to do differently.
I was recently reminded of one such resolution that I made last year to take more photographs and not overthink it.
Typically, I will study something and decide whether I think it’s worth taking the image or not, and a lot of the time, I don’t bother.
I think this comes from spending the last two decades focusing on landscape photography, where subjects don’t move that much, if at all, and I can stand a wait to see if the weather changes. I’m also terrible at thinking “oh I grab that shot on the way back”, only to return by another route and never see that scene again.
This approach has meant I’ve missed some opportunities that I should have seized when they were right in front of my face.
Last spring I found an Oak tree in my local woodland that I thought would be nice in the right conditions. I could have walked on an made a note to come back when it was foggy, or during Autumn to catch the colour, but I decided to stop spend some time capturing it in the best way I could at the time. I made a half decent image of it but not the one I imagined.
For the reminder of the year, I never saw any fog in that part of the wood, and Autumn was a washout with high winds and rain almost every day.
Then on a walk in the woods at the end of December, I rounded the corner and stopped. The tree was no more. Fallen. Uprooted and already beginning to return to the ground it had stood in for years.
It was a quiet reminder that the moment you’re waiting for may never arrive.
Carpe diem. Seize the day.
Not in the loud, motivational sense, but in the small, practical one.
Make the photograph.
Write the paragraph.
Say the thing.
Use what’s in front of you, while it’s still there.
Perfection is patient. Life isn’t.
That’s all for now and thank you for being here.
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Until next time, take care.
Rick
Rick, if you and I were in a pub and I was on my second pint of your local's best I would point out that the value of your first photograph has increased immeasurably because you'll never be able to improve it. Your second photograph, I would suggest, is the more powerful because it portrays what's been lost. Your third photograph, I feel should be deleted. It's much too clinical, like a police photo from a car crash.
And after a third pint I might concede that your original point however is still valid...
Cheers,
Steve
Hi Rick
Solid advice! The image you made of the tree before it fell is beautiful.
Another reason I force myself to make the image instead of walking by is there's no guarantee that there's a better shot waiting down the trail. If you are presented with a gift, take it. There may be nothing else up ahead.
Eric