Finding Peace

My favorite photography subjects are my two young boys and animals, all types, as long as they flit and scurry and FLY (sorry ostriches). Capturing either can be both breath-holding and heart-thumping because these subjects do not stay still for long. And I don't always want them to. Sometimes capturing their stillness isn't enough; I want to capture the fitful, unpredictable beauty of their wildness. I am a peaceful person by nature. However, I don't always feel it is my calling to shoot photos of the calm and soothing landscapes of this life. A pretty still life here and there, sure. Who can resist? But what I have found in taking photos over the past few years is that I love to chase chance with my camera. I love not knowing what's going to happen next. I love the challenge of waiting for the moment, and I love waiting to see what arbitrary magic the shots will reveal. Some of my favorite photos have come from such moments.

As for finding some peace, well. . . for me the peace is actually what comes as I gaze upon the outcome, a colorful moment frozen before my eyes. I find my peace (and my thrill) in the capturing, as I see them, of the random and wild little miracles in my life. Then I can continue to live the unstill life I am quite possibly destined to live, while raising 2 active boys. I find serenity in what unfolds naturally before my eyes.

The way I see it, to steal a few potent words from Wendell Berry's poem "The Broken Ground": "What is left is what is." This is peace to me.

As with most artful motives, there is a dilemma at the core of this methodology: do you snap quickly (and wildly) without regard to mechanics of photography in hopes that you'll capture the magic. Is this just downright lazy and amateur? Or do you pick up your camera gently, think wisely, swirl the dial to the appropriate numerology, take aim, check focus, hold your breath, and hope that in doing everything right, the magic will reveal itself—that's if the subject's still around to capture after all that? I have to say I don't have an exact answer here. I've had luck with both. But luck is so often what it is for me. Trying to 'guess' when they may have an unbelievably funny or enduring moment. So, at what point do you decide to prop up the luck with practice, knowledge, and applied expertise? Or do you? Maybe you just keep following the magic.