“Hopeful”
“Listen to the mustn’ts, child. Listen to the don’ts. Listen to the shouldn’ts, the impossibles, the won’ts. Listen to the never haves, then listen close to me… Anything can happen, child. Anything can be.”
― Shel Silverstein
There’s a lot going on in the world these days. Most news seems bad and you can wonder where it’s all going. Yet, within the doom and gloom that the mainstream media feeds us, there is always brightness. Days march on, the cycle of nature continues. I find myself musing on some of my images and why I made them as well as why I have held off on others.
The image above is one of those that I considered for a while before proceeding. A bouquet that I have recently disassembled and photograph contained many wonderful flowers, my ‘go to’ flowers, the ones that are, on first sight stunning. I find myself favouring those and yet, the small stem of yellow chrysanthemums was neglected. The blossoms on this stem were a bit irregular, some unopened, and the bright yellow petals were a challenge to photograph without losing detail.
So, I found myself considering all my whys and excuses for not photographing them and could not come up with a solid reason other than they did not quite measure up to what I envisioned or wanted to share. So why not, why not put them in front of the lens and see what I can make of them? Which I did and the result is above. It’s not a large detailed blossom with lots of layers and colours, yet the more I look at it, even through my personal lens of how it ‘should’ look, it’s still beautiful.
Then I go back to thinking of our world, with all its imperfections, again, through my experiential lense and I see so much beauty within the turmoil and find myself hopeful that like the chrysanthemum, it will surprise me.
Nikon D800
Tamron SP 70-200mm f/2.8 Di VC USD @ 200 mm
2.0 sec, f/25.0, ISO 100
Hi Resolution image on 500px
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Ed Lehming Photography 
So grace-filled!!!
Thank you.
Anything and happen, child. Anything can be. I love your photo. Imperfections are where our individuality lies, not all are unattractive. I love Shel Silverstein and this poem of his. Thank you for sharing with us.
Thank you for the feedback. You are welcome.
Beautiful! Nice post!!
It just came to me as I considered why I hesitated to photograph the ‘less than ideal’ and realized I was ‘filtering’ based on my bias.
Awareness of and for hesitation ….Nice, very!!
Blogging has become a bit of a place for me to process, me 🙂
As does your art!!
True. Photography has become one of several ‘sacred places’ for me. When I’m making photos, the world fades away and I live in the moment. I’m thankful for this gift, which I can’t turn off.
Agree! Photography is great for living the moment…all we have is the moment at hand, and great to savor it since there is no guarantee of the next…moment..
Thankfully, artists have no off switch…
Meditative photography….focused and living the moment…
Absolutely.
Beautiful photo and poem! nice post.
Thank you
Another lovely low key, beautiful work, Ed.
Thank you again.
As are all things in this wondrous cosmos,
perfect, even in their imperfection.
See peace,
Paz