I have one favorite photograph that I have never shared. I cannot explain why I really love this photo, only to admit that I do. It is unusual for me – given that my chosen view is often flowers, mountains, or some other natural beauty. So here she is…
I think what I love most about it is the stories that it provokes. It also (for me) reminds me of the day I took the photo. Somewhere, nestled in between those feelings, is also the amazement I felt about finding beauty in such an unusual place – it was something I was not expecting.
I took this and the following photos two years ago, when the kids and I took a morning walk to the grocery store. That morning, out of nowhere – we had an early snow (which is more common than you might think in Colorado). Many red and golden leaves were still clinging to the trees and the grass was still a verdant green.
It was a strange sight to see – lush grass, covered in snow.
We sat and enjoyed coffee and hot chocolate at Starbucks and then ventured on home again. It was a sight to see – all of the snow had already melted and it was starting to warm up again. I actually was crazy enough to let the kids jump into puddles so I could take some photographs (I shared these back then). It was an amazing day and looking at these photographs just brings the memories back.
Since starting to focus more on my photography, I have only learned there are more beautiful things to see and more interesting ways to look at the world around me. We are not limited in any way – unless we are willing to limit ourselves.
So now, when I walk out my door – I always try to remember to enjoy the beauty that is around me. I may not be nestled in the mountains or living near a stream, brook, or ocean – but beauty is always there, waiting to be noticed. Photography has opened my eyes, as well as given me a deeper appreciation for all that I have – even if it is a photograph of a grocery cart sitting in the rain… It’s not always clean, it’s not always perfect – but it is always real.
(c) Sumyanna 2017
Submitted for The Daily Post Photography Challenge: unusual
Nice 🙂
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Thank you!
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I too find the cart picture intriguing – I think it is the reflections. I also love the last one of the sign and bright blue sky. Beauty is often in unusual places!
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I know. It just makes me think… and sometimes I feel that you are swept up into the picture trying to imagine the scene 🙂 So glad you like them and yes, I definitely agree. Beauty is everywhere!
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I like your favorite photograph, and I love the one which shows how the warm tree roots have melted the snow, but the one which really does it for me is the image of the channel of water reflecting a signpost. It’s beautiful, and there’s something about the smudge of blue, painted on a paving stone; such a little thing – nobody may have ever seen it, but you’ve captured it for posterity. And there’s a small story behind it; something which caused it to be there. We’ll never know that story.
Photographs tell so much, and hide so much.
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Yes, I think that was the moment that I realized that every day things can also be lovely. The signpost photo is one of my ABSOLUTE favorites. I just love that I could capture what I would have puzzled over and enjoyed 🙂 Your last statement is so incredibly true!
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I went to the beach recently. The shore was littered with scraps of plastic; it wasn’t like that when I was a child. I tried to persuade myself that there is beauty in the synthetic colours on the sand, but all I could see was ugly truth. Perhaps your camera could have picked out a detail and made it beautiful…
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I think that any destruction of nature would be hard to make pretty. I have heard how hard it is and at the aquariums here they often have exhibits about the amount of plastics found. I think it is devastating and the impact on the creatures below is horrible. I really wonder about people who are so thoughtless and careless to litter. How sad to take things so for granted, but often I have found people only appreciate things when it is already too late.
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The most shocking example of littering I ever saw was in India. I was an a coach in the middle of nowhere between Goa and Mumbai, driving through terrain that was almost flat. There was an area of scrubby, gorse-like bushes, and these wild shrubs were covered with plastic carrier bags. I suppose the wind constantly blew them along, until they caught on the thorns – and there they stayed, gradually building up. There were masses of them. It was a sad sight. In the cities they would probably have been scavenged and used for making something; I once had two decorative chickens in my garden, constructed of carrier bags. They were made in India.
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I’ve seen it overseas as well. It is heartbreaking. The land can be so much more beautiful were we to take better care of it. I have seen videos online showing women weaving baskets made of shopping bags. That’s probably the same thing. So good to see some good can come out of it.
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For a while there was a bit of a fashion in the UK for accessories made out of recycled packaging, including soft-drinks cans and their ring-pulls, but unfortunately it never became mainstream.
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It was fashionable at one point here too, but I haven’t seen it much lately. They even started selling things like that in the standard stores. Ah, a fad. The earth cries, but we remain silent. Pass me another water bottle!
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Love this post 🖤
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Some stunning photos in this series!
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Thank you very much!
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Strangely, here for the first time in recorded history it snowed very slightly on the ground as well as the mountains in Cape Town. It is usually to warm for snow, as the evening temperatures in Cape Town seldom fall to under ten degrees C, but for the past while it has been continuously under ten, and on the day it snowed, just below zero. Taking up photography forces one to look at everything for a composition, and a story, so it fits ideally with poetry and writing, as one is also looking to involve every day things into ones imagination and web of feelings to produce those few wonderful words that tell the story. Best wishes and blessings, Charles.
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I seriously can’t imagine what it must look like with snow there! Here, it is easy. We see it every year. 🙂 Hope you got a snowball fight in. You are right… poetry and photography seem to be a good marriage.
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You are right, even on top of Table Mountain, it has only snowed 3 times in the 60 years of my life. It is only on the mountains to the east of the city that it snows. I have had a snowball fight once, one of my biographical poems told that story.
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Oh wow – only 3 times? It’s not surprising though… or perhaps it is… that it did snow. Temperatures and climate seem to be changing fast these days. Even now our weather is not the same as it was when we first moved here around 16 years ago. Oh, I think I missed that poem. Is it shared on your blog? I will have to hunt that one down!
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It was called nightmares, and posted in poetry on the 10th July this year. Yes the climate here has changed radically over the last few years as well. Strangely it has got way colder in winter and way warmer in summer.
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As soon as you mentioned the title I remembered reading it. Hopefully it can reverse itself or at least we can halt the damage before it gets worse.
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Yes, in this country desertification is rampant, and the Kalahari desert is now moving through the Northern Cape towards Johannesburg at an alarming rate, the Karoo is moving ever closer to Cape Town. if it gets too near, we will start having desert heats of over 40C in summer, and temperature way below zero at night.
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Now that has to be scary! Here, it is getting warmer all around us. We are not having that bad a time but we have had floods and other unusual temperatures/weather patterns. I can’t imagine what it will take for those who won’t accept climate change as a real problem.
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