life imitating art

lately i’ve been wanting to get back into photography. it’s been a long time since i’ve gone out to take pictures. sometimes i forget that I don’t need to go on vacation to find amazing photo opportunities. i’ve been looking around people’s blogs and decided that i’m missing some great moments because i didn’t think about them as photo-worthy. And since i’ve been searching for something to do with my life and want to get back to my more artistic side (i’ve been editing and writing and designing curriculum too long) i recently remembered how much i love taking pictures when i went on a fishing trip with some friends. i took the digital camera from work and started taking pictures of everything. i need to start taking a camera everywhere i go.

i love how photography makes you look at the world a different way. i love how certain angles and colors can create art as well as capture an event. i love how photos break things and events down into basic shapes and colors. i like that pictures remind us to focus on the details when it seems we often get so overwhelmed by life.

i used to take pictures all the time and i have somehow gotten too busy for it. my favorite is landscape photography – which requires a lot of traveling – which i love but have little time and money for. people are harder to shoot because that perfectly candid shot is hard to get – they always seem to be aware of me and the camera and look right into the lens. you’d think it wouldn’t be difficult for me at all since i seem to blend right into the background at any social function and am practically invisible. which brings me to another reason to get back into what i love doing. for too long I have been too busy doing what i have to do that i've forgotten what i love to do. i want to make time to be creative again – i love doing water colors and i haven’t painted in years. it reminds me to really see the world around me – teaches us to search for beauty in the everyday. and even if my pictures aren’t museum exhibit worthy, it will help me to appreciate what is important in life.