“If a day goes by without my doing something related to photography, it’s as though I’ve neglected something essential to my existence, as though I had forgotten to wake up.”
— Robert Mapplethorpe
This is what we photographers call SOC (straight out of camera). No cropping, or enhancing that big, fat robin who is stopping by to grab a drink. There is no removal of the long green rope hanging down on one of the post of the pergola on our patio, which I find so distracting. There is not much thought given to the winter background behind that robin; patio furniture covered in tarps, the fence, even the cat. I was only interested in the robin.
It is because of all this that I leave this photo as is. It was taken on the fly, underexposed, and the robin is not sharp. (Although isn’t that light on him lovely?) I could have cropped it some, to get a closer look at him, sharpened him up a bit maybe. But then there would be no cat smiling among the new growth on the lavender.
I decide to go with it - SOC. To find the beauty among the mess. And truly, isn’t that what we live for? Moments of beauty and how they evoke in us unexpected emotions that move us. That feeling of deep love we carry around within our being. That love we have no control over, causing us to ride this roller coaster of life with all its baggage and heartache, without much protection. We live among the mess, the unfocused, and what lies behind the scene. For the most part, we are unable to crop out what we view as a distraction. Some days we are on an even keel, and at other times, we find ourselves bowled over.
The longer we live, it seems, the more mayhem we collect. Be it the state of the world around us, or something that hits closer to home.
After this one shot, I put my camera down and just I stood and watched the robin as he splashed and drank from the birdbath. A second robin joined him for a few seconds, and for a fleeting moment I mourned the photo that might have been. Until I remembered how beautiful this one, big, fat robin was, as the sunlight bounced off the hills across the lake. He brought me some much needed beauty and joy for a few minutes, at the end of a hard day. And while the settings of my camera were not perfect, the image reminds me how important it is for me to pick my camera up every day. For there is always something worth noticing in that pause between looking through the viewfinder, and hitting the shutter.