Looking at life through a camera lens is not something I expected to ever be doing. I am an aspiring writer, I enjoy writing blogs for those that choose to follow my craft and the articles that I submit for publication for others to read that do not follow my online blog spot. I enjoy working with the written word on a daily basis, reading and writing. I write as much as I read and I read endlessly whether it is books or newspapers or magazines or even flyers hanging around campus. I follow several bloggers across the internet world and many authors whose published books I enjoy. I am a lot of things, but a photographer I am not. I am not even going to pretend to be one. I am taking a photography class only because I was denied an internship job at a newspaper because I lacked experience in the art of photography.
My class started three weeks ago and I still have yet to snap a picture of anything that will get a reaction other then 'try harder' from my facilitator. She is as unimpressed with my work as I am with snapping pictures. In all honestly I find the class boring and uninteresting as well as not very challenging. It is annoying to me that I snap hundreds of pictures just to find one that might make Mrs Photo 101 get the impression that I am at least trying.
"Make it challenging for yourself", she tells me. "Go out and find something unique, something that seems rare to your eyes", she goes on. So everyday I drive around trying to think of somewhere I might find a rare and unique image to record in the form of a picture. I have visited new churches, old churches, graveyards, playgrounds, nature parks. I even spent a couple hours by the Charles river to see if there was anything in the water floating by I might feel needs to be shot, framed and mounted.
On Friday I spent about three hours at a small nature park about 20 miles away from the Misfit house. I parked just inside the entrance to the park, grabbed my camera, a bottle of water, and headed out on foot. I was looking for an impressive picture to call my own. An image in my surroundings that would be sure to impress Mrs Photo 101. I put as many steps on my shoes as I did pictures on my camera. I was sure the prize winning picture that would earn me an A as well as praise would be on that disc somewhere. As I viewed the photo's one by one, all 173 of them, I came to realize that not one of the pictures seemed very natural to me for two reasons. One, it was difficult to snap a shot of anything mother nature seeded and nurtured without something appearing in the picture that just didn't belong there. A wire, concrete, a bench, a human shadow. Two, nothing to me is as beautiful in life as the way God planned it to be with the naked eye.
I know I over think things in my life ten-fold and I knew as soon as I thought about natural beauty and how my eyes see it I was over thinking this whole assignment for this photography class. "Put this in perspective Jett", I told myself. Frustrated beyond belief with myself I sat on one of those park benches that seemed to pop up in every picture I was trying to shoot. I asked myself what I was trying to accomplish to get myself back on task. "Find something unique, something that seems rare to you" were the words that kept rolling around in my head.
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder is a phrase we have all heard at some point or another in our lives. On Friday I thought how fitting that saying is in today's world. It really has so many meanings, depending on your current perspective of life. As I sat in that park I thought about how different people look at life and the things it has to offer. I looked around and saw a row of very colorful flowers. Yellow, Orange, Red, and Purple, all mixed together amongst each other. I knew if I had the Misfit Little's with me and asked them to tell me what their favorite color out of those flowers were Jimmy would tell me orange, Olivia would tell me purple, and Channing would tell me he don't care. I knew if my girlfriend Kristy was with me she would say they are all beautiful and if I had my dad with me he would remain silent and look at me like 'are you really asking me about those flowers?' Personally I think they are all beautiful and the way they were arranged made them all that much more vibrant in their color.
God's creations, each and every one of them is beautiful in their own unique ways. Whether I am looking at flowers or people, I see miracles. Miracles of life that form the circle of life. What is alive now will soon face an eternity of happiness. We are born. We live. We die. We live beyond a breath of life in an eternity. It is God's plan for us. I looked at those flowers and thought about the life span they have on earth. I picture heaven and God's garden and I wonder if those flowers too, just like us, will someday blossom once more, not on earth, but up in heaven. I stood up from that bench and I turned 360 degrees, taking in all this park has to offer. The vibrant colors, the fresh air, the multi colored butterflies and yellow bees swarming the plants and flowers. The life this park has to offer to the lives that visit it daily no matter what the season. There is not one angle in this park that is not beautiful. New growth and old growth, side by side as if the old growth nurtures the new growth, and the new growth provides hope and faith in what is yet to become of one or the other.
I can see the circle of life in the nature of this park. I can see why it is popular with human life that seeks out this beauty. I wonder how many of my fellow human beings look at this wonder of nature and think about the circle of life. I think about the amount of time I spend in cemetery's, visiting my friends that have passed on. I would not be surprised if I spent more time in graveyard parks as some spend in parks of natural beauty. I smile to myself as I think about the circle of life on earth and how some of my fondest memories of living in Sioux City IA were when my mom, or my brother Joey, would take me to the city's parks to run free, laugh in the sun, and just feel the breeze of the day. I thought about how these days I visit graveyard parks, where the only color is in the plastic flowers left behind in honor of those now in eternity, and a few flags blow in the breeze in honor of those that gave their time to ensure our freedom.
I find the cemetery's that I visit just as beautiful as the park I sat in with the rainbow rows of flowers and the many different shades of green. The dried up grass, the dirt patches of the freshly dug grave sites. The dark, often dreary, headstones that dates the circle of life for those buried in front of them. The tombstone towers so old that the engraved words are faded, often only visible by the touch of our fingers tracing the worn down etching. People moving around slowly, looking for the marker of their loved one, or perhaps doing what I do. Walking row by row, headstone by headstone, not reading the names but looking at the dates and the dash of life between them. Imagining what that dash would say if it could tell me the story of the life that put it there.
I see older couples holding hands standing in front of tombstones that could possibly be a child they buried years ago. I see younger couples embraced with each other standing in front of heart shaped markers, possibly of a child they buried last year. I see individuals kneeling by tombstones, possibly of spouses that journeyed on without them. Families that may be visiting grandparents, little kids in tow who do not yet quite understand the circle of life. I hear laughter, I see tears, I listen as they tell their stories and hold their hands to their hearts as if to ease the pain put there by life, and the death it brings us. I envision prayers being said for the souls that float above us and keep us in line with our faith, our hopes, and our dreams of one day being together again in a much kinder atmosphere.
This is my park, this is where I come to find the beauty of nature and the peace of God. This is my unique place of rare and special feelings I keep hidden in the depths of my soul. This is where I look for my rainbows, find my way. This is where I feel the warmth of the sun and the bitter cold of the winter days. This is where I find myself going when life gets tough and I need to get back on the path God has laid out for me in my circle of life. This is where I will learn about life and all it has to offer in my journey. Death does not scare me, it does not fascinate me, it does not consume me. It is life that I seek out when I come to visit those whose lives have been lived according to God plan. On any given day it is in the cemetery's I visit where I find more life than at a park 20 miles outside my neighborhood. People visit parks for the natural beauty and excitement it has to offer. I visit cemetery's for the life it has already lived.
My class started three weeks ago and I still have yet to snap a picture of anything that will get a reaction other then 'try harder' from my facilitator. She is as unimpressed with my work as I am with snapping pictures. In all honestly I find the class boring and uninteresting as well as not very challenging. It is annoying to me that I snap hundreds of pictures just to find one that might make Mrs Photo 101 get the impression that I am at least trying.
"Make it challenging for yourself", she tells me. "Go out and find something unique, something that seems rare to your eyes", she goes on. So everyday I drive around trying to think of somewhere I might find a rare and unique image to record in the form of a picture. I have visited new churches, old churches, graveyards, playgrounds, nature parks. I even spent a couple hours by the Charles river to see if there was anything in the water floating by I might feel needs to be shot, framed and mounted.
On Friday I spent about three hours at a small nature park about 20 miles away from the Misfit house. I parked just inside the entrance to the park, grabbed my camera, a bottle of water, and headed out on foot. I was looking for an impressive picture to call my own. An image in my surroundings that would be sure to impress Mrs Photo 101. I put as many steps on my shoes as I did pictures on my camera. I was sure the prize winning picture that would earn me an A as well as praise would be on that disc somewhere. As I viewed the photo's one by one, all 173 of them, I came to realize that not one of the pictures seemed very natural to me for two reasons. One, it was difficult to snap a shot of anything mother nature seeded and nurtured without something appearing in the picture that just didn't belong there. A wire, concrete, a bench, a human shadow. Two, nothing to me is as beautiful in life as the way God planned it to be with the naked eye.
I know I over think things in my life ten-fold and I knew as soon as I thought about natural beauty and how my eyes see it I was over thinking this whole assignment for this photography class. "Put this in perspective Jett", I told myself. Frustrated beyond belief with myself I sat on one of those park benches that seemed to pop up in every picture I was trying to shoot. I asked myself what I was trying to accomplish to get myself back on task. "Find something unique, something that seems rare to you" were the words that kept rolling around in my head.
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder is a phrase we have all heard at some point or another in our lives. On Friday I thought how fitting that saying is in today's world. It really has so many meanings, depending on your current perspective of life. As I sat in that park I thought about how different people look at life and the things it has to offer. I looked around and saw a row of very colorful flowers. Yellow, Orange, Red, and Purple, all mixed together amongst each other. I knew if I had the Misfit Little's with me and asked them to tell me what their favorite color out of those flowers were Jimmy would tell me orange, Olivia would tell me purple, and Channing would tell me he don't care. I knew if my girlfriend Kristy was with me she would say they are all beautiful and if I had my dad with me he would remain silent and look at me like 'are you really asking me about those flowers?' Personally I think they are all beautiful and the way they were arranged made them all that much more vibrant in their color.
God's creations, each and every one of them is beautiful in their own unique ways. Whether I am looking at flowers or people, I see miracles. Miracles of life that form the circle of life. What is alive now will soon face an eternity of happiness. We are born. We live. We die. We live beyond a breath of life in an eternity. It is God's plan for us. I looked at those flowers and thought about the life span they have on earth. I picture heaven and God's garden and I wonder if those flowers too, just like us, will someday blossom once more, not on earth, but up in heaven. I stood up from that bench and I turned 360 degrees, taking in all this park has to offer. The vibrant colors, the fresh air, the multi colored butterflies and yellow bees swarming the plants and flowers. The life this park has to offer to the lives that visit it daily no matter what the season. There is not one angle in this park that is not beautiful. New growth and old growth, side by side as if the old growth nurtures the new growth, and the new growth provides hope and faith in what is yet to become of one or the other.
I can see the circle of life in the nature of this park. I can see why it is popular with human life that seeks out this beauty. I wonder how many of my fellow human beings look at this wonder of nature and think about the circle of life. I think about the amount of time I spend in cemetery's, visiting my friends that have passed on. I would not be surprised if I spent more time in graveyard parks as some spend in parks of natural beauty. I smile to myself as I think about the circle of life on earth and how some of my fondest memories of living in Sioux City IA were when my mom, or my brother Joey, would take me to the city's parks to run free, laugh in the sun, and just feel the breeze of the day. I thought about how these days I visit graveyard parks, where the only color is in the plastic flowers left behind in honor of those now in eternity, and a few flags blow in the breeze in honor of those that gave their time to ensure our freedom.
I find the cemetery's that I visit just as beautiful as the park I sat in with the rainbow rows of flowers and the many different shades of green. The dried up grass, the dirt patches of the freshly dug grave sites. The dark, often dreary, headstones that dates the circle of life for those buried in front of them. The tombstone towers so old that the engraved words are faded, often only visible by the touch of our fingers tracing the worn down etching. People moving around slowly, looking for the marker of their loved one, or perhaps doing what I do. Walking row by row, headstone by headstone, not reading the names but looking at the dates and the dash of life between them. Imagining what that dash would say if it could tell me the story of the life that put it there.
I see older couples holding hands standing in front of tombstones that could possibly be a child they buried years ago. I see younger couples embraced with each other standing in front of heart shaped markers, possibly of a child they buried last year. I see individuals kneeling by tombstones, possibly of spouses that journeyed on without them. Families that may be visiting grandparents, little kids in tow who do not yet quite understand the circle of life. I hear laughter, I see tears, I listen as they tell their stories and hold their hands to their hearts as if to ease the pain put there by life, and the death it brings us. I envision prayers being said for the souls that float above us and keep us in line with our faith, our hopes, and our dreams of one day being together again in a much kinder atmosphere.
This is my park, this is where I come to find the beauty of nature and the peace of God. This is my unique place of rare and special feelings I keep hidden in the depths of my soul. This is where I look for my rainbows, find my way. This is where I feel the warmth of the sun and the bitter cold of the winter days. This is where I find myself going when life gets tough and I need to get back on the path God has laid out for me in my circle of life. This is where I will learn about life and all it has to offer in my journey. Death does not scare me, it does not fascinate me, it does not consume me. It is life that I seek out when I come to visit those whose lives have been lived according to God plan. On any given day it is in the cemetery's I visit where I find more life than at a park 20 miles outside my neighborhood. People visit parks for the natural beauty and excitement it has to offer. I visit cemetery's for the life it has already lived.
