Seeing with different eyes
Feb 28th, 2008 by spaceagesage
The photo in my customizable header is awesome, isn’t it? {UPDATE: I changed header photos, but this photo is located here.} It was taken by a family friend who thought for years that she was not a good photographer. Awhile back, my husband handed her our camera to take a photo of us at Seven Falls in Colorado Springs, Colorado, where she lives, and you’d think we’d asked her to cut her arm off. But now that’s all changed.
When she bought a decent camera recently, she decided to just take a walk with it and see what would happen. No pressure from anyone, including herself. The first photos she took and posted on Flikr showed she had what it takes to make a darn good photographer, but I could tell she was trying a bit hard to look for “the right photo.”
Quite quickly though, her depth of insight into what makes a good photo blossomed until she is winning a lot of recognition on Flikr. She has a unique view of nature — as if she is connected with the emotions of it –and it is coming out in her work. All this from someone who once held the thought, “I am a bad photographer.”
My friend is discovering that by opening up to a new way of thinking and taking a few small steps, she can propel herself into a fun, new world. Like the title of Dr. Wayne Dyer’s latest book reads, “Change Your Thoughts, Change Your Life.”
She told me the fence posts have no wire on them. What a perfect metaphor of releasing the barriers of the past — such as, “I am a bad photographer” — and running unhindered into the future. Every time I look at that expansive, freedom-loving, and refreshingly open vista, I am reminded of the flat Oklahoma grasslands where I grew up, of how far I have traveled, and of how much more there is to see and do.
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I will probably use more of her photos in the future in the header, so if one interests you, let me know and I can contact her for you. The photo above is cropped radically from the original, but still is impacting.