I took this picture three years ago... of Owen. He was just two at the time. I was thinking about it because I was wondering about what would happen if someone asked me to show them what I think is the best picture I've ever taken. This is the only one that came to mind.
Here's all the things i love about this, and thus my "philosophy" on photography will spill out...
One, I didn't plan this. It is not staged. The way the light falls more brightly on his hand in such a perfect way was just the natural setting. We were standing in a parking lot and I was loading the stroller in the car... he was waiting for me at the curb. It is perfect.
This photo is not edited. It is not enhanced or cropped. I actually had my camera set to monochrome so that it would shoot in black and white. This is the real picture. I love that. We shouldn't have to "try" so hard to make something beautiful. It should just be that way.
We live in the city. This is evident in this photo. It accurately portrays our life here. Me going, Owen waiting... it's all a part of our everyday stuff. I just happened to snap a photo of it.
I love the way things are laid out here... the continuous fence... the way Owen is not the center of the photo, but off to the side... the way you can clearly see his little hands... all of it. I love. I could not have planned or practiced this. This is me. This is what I saw and was able to capture. I think, this is talent. I don't think "normal" people see things this way.... right? I don't know.
See, this post is all about me wondering... will I ever be good enough, for myself? Will I ever not "table" my dreams because of fear? Will I ever see it for what it is and use it with all my might? Sometimes it can be so very very hard to struggle with these things.
"If I have a hope, it's that God sat over the dark nothing and wrote you and me, specifically, into the story, and put us in with the sunset and the rainstorm as though to say, Enjoy your place in my story. The beauty of it means you matter, and you can create within it even as I have created you." Don Miller, A Million Miles in a Thousand Years.
I am thinking that overcoming my fear and grabbing hold of what I've got in front of me is essential to this journey of becoming the real me in my story.
Thanks Don. Thanks Jeremy. Thanks Caitlyn. Thanks Beth. Thanks for pushing me a little farther into what I needed to see and hear. Now what will I do with it?
