It's A Small World

Dabbling in photography for the past year has taught me a few things about myself, namely that I tend to focus on small things. I’m drawn to the delicate and the diminutive. I just realized this a few days ago as I was going over some pictures I took in the woods behind my house. It’s probably something you noticed before I did, if you pay any attention to my nature pictures. I’ll skip the pun about not being to see the forest for the trees. You’re welcome.

In college, I spent a fair amount of time in the ceramics building, throwing pots on a wheel. There’s something you didn’t know about me, hmm? I loved the feel of the clay between my fingers, and while I tried my hands at large items, usually I reverted to small, delicate items, such as finger bowls made from slick porcelain that slipped between my fingers and required a light controlled touch to keep them from collapsing or spinning out of shape. At the time I thought it was comfortable to me because my hands were small, but now, I think it had little to with my hands. I think it was just more esthetically pleasing to me. I believe this because I’m still traveling down that path.

I have no trouble embracing that because even though I’m using a different medium now, focusing on the tiniest of things forces me to stop and appreciate things I would never have noticed if I hadn’t looked at them through the lens of a camera. For instance, have you ever truly noticed the fascinating textures and shapes in nature? In those woods behind my house, lies the rough:

And the wispy.

The curly.

The fuzzy.

The thin.

And the sharp.

There are gnarly things.

Things that are twisted.

And things that are stringy.

But the things I like best are the pieces of nature that seem to have human qualities, like tenacity:

Or warmth in the core despite the ravages of age on the outside and scars on the heart.

I’m amazed at what I’ve found by simply taking the time to look closer and longer at the things that are under my nose. It makes me wonder what I might have missed in years past in nature. And in people.