Sight and Light

                          
"Late Summer Canoes  (In A Dream)..."   Mirror Lake, Highlands, NC                                                                                  
DIGITAL CAPTURE August 4th, 2009 @ 7:02pm f4.5 @ 1/500 sec ISO 400 Nikon D50 w/Nikkor 18-135mm AF-S

"Time and reflection change the sight little by little til we come to understand..."   - Cezanne                                                      

Seeing takes a lifetime... The length of that lifetime does impact the level of seeing we attain, but simply duration does not guarantee a visual maturity. The conscious habit of paying attention, of sharpening one's perception skills every day, every hour, every moment is an ever-present challenge. I don't believe that we really ever get to a place where a conscious decision to see becomes a lackadaisical or simply reactive thing. It is more often than not a daily decision we make, usually when we have an assignment, or we self-assign ourselves new work, new locations, new subjects, themes, a specific time of day, etc.,


As those who practice the photographic art, we tend to focus automatically. But on those days when we are delightfully surprised by sight and by light, when we didn't plan to work or be active w/camera, we may greatly benefit from a willingness to react spontaneously with no pre-conceived ideas. Sight is not always able to be neatly scheduled into our daily agendas. Sight can be as unpredictable as light. Sight is ever demanding. It is a gift. It is a calling, if you will. And as with any professional or spiritual calling, many are indeed called - but few are chosen! Light is what strengthens sight. And light, unless from an artificial source, can be a most unpredictable thing as well. Try as we may, with persistence, dedication, study, planning, and passionate delivery, sometimes sight, and more often light, seem to be a matter of chance. But I prefer to view chance in the manner that Louis Pasteur observed, that "Chance favors the prepared mind."

We must prepare our minds and hearts to be receptive to sight and discerning of light. Then maybe, hopefully, in the course of the day we might be paying attention when we are visited with an opportunity to capture something sublime, something that most miss in their daily rush to do whatever it is that occupies their heart and soul. It is a most gracious reward then to be gifted with sight, and to be visited by light!