It's a Small World - Lichen I
Originally uploaded by Alan Norsworthy
To me, photography is more than a hobby, it is a release, a teacher and a giver of those things lost.
Let me explain; photography has been a part of my life , to a greater or lesser degree, for close to 50 years now. Sometimes it rose to the surface at other times if sat quietly in the background as life, children and mortgages demanded my time and energy. Now that the children are grown, the mortgage gone, life takes on a new chapter.Yes we still have our trials and tribulations and it's not all milk and honey but I do have (or find) the time to think, to ponder and to look back.
One of the things that I have been thinking about is how, as we grow, we lose the ability to play as a child plays. As we grow to be adults the cost of that growing is that the time of innocence is lost. As the years pass by we see so much, experience so much that the grand adventure of living and growing has become tiresome and mundane.
Photography gave it all back to me, it opened not only my eyes but my mind and in that reawakening let me become as a child again to see the world as the wondrous thing that it is.
Yesterday three grown men crawled around in the mud puddles and across the half frozen earth looking for things that most adults never even consider let alone go out in search of. We were hunting lichens, in a macro world no bigger than a dime we found pleasure, excitement, a joy in discovery and camaraderie.
We were as children again.
It was photography that brought us together and gave us back the opportunity to play and explore. People walking by saw the intricate set up's and smiled, waved a greeting and carried on their way. No embarrassment on our part, us 'grown men' playing in the dirt, no pitying looks from those who passed by. Well they may have thought us daft but no one shook their heads, no one laughed at us. Even if they had should it have mattered? Children do not look for approval in their games they just go ahead and do what they need to do. We needed to crawl around in the dirt, so we did.
It is important for us as adults to discover or should I say re-discover that sense of adventure, that freedom to do such silly thing s without fear of condemnation from complete strangers or indeed our peers.
Photography gave me that freedom, freedom to poke around in the dirt, to study a puddle looking for tadpoles, watch the birds gather nesting materials and it allows me to do nothing at all except listen to the sounds of the natural world as she once again wakens from her long slumber that is Winter.
Photography gave me all that and more.
My wish for you on this Easter Sunday is that you too find that vehicle that will allow you to "Find the child within "
If only for today.
A child's world is fresh and new and beautiful, full of wonder and excitement. It is our misfortune that for most of us that clear-eyed vision, that true instinct for what is beautiful and awe-inspiring, is dimmed and even lost before we reach adulthood. ~Rachel Carson
