For Christmas this year I received something that I’ve really been wanting for some time now: new camera lenses. Along with a new zoom lens that I absolutely adore (seriously, it’s the best thing ever), I got a packet of attachable Macro lenses and have since fallen in love with Macro photography. In case you aren’t familiar with Macro photography, it serves as a way to get highly detailed photographs extremely close up. The range of what the lens can see and focus on is very small but it gives you stunningly shallow depth of field that is just beautiful.
I spent a good portion of my Christmas break taking close ups of every knick-knack around the house and found that when you look at the details of something, it takes on an entirely different life.
A wood log for the fireplace starts to look like a rocky alien landscape.
The yarn of a blanket looks like large rope knots.
A marble looks like an entire universe.
But the more Macro photos I took the more I started to notice details without my camera.
The worn skin around my mother’s wedding ring from 37 years of marriage.
The dust that has collected on picture frames that haven’t moved in years.
The very slight absence of beard on my boyfriend’s dimples.
These details, so often overlooked, or noticed but then forgotten with the next thought, have given me pause. I want to notice these things without my camera, but I also have the overwhelming desire to capture each of them to keep as tangible reminders of the little things that make life wonderful. Acknowledging the details brings richness to life and a better understanding of people and things.
So even though I have not proclaimed a New Year’s Resolution until now, I suppose my resolution will be to slow down and notice as much as I can; about the person sitting across from me at every gathering as well as strangers I don’t yet know; about the new places I will go this year as well as the places I go every day; about the new objects that hold potential and the old ones that are well loved and used. I want to appreciate it all and capture it as an affirmation for life’s beauty. For there is no doubt in my mind that if we are to cherish the details, we will surely find beauty in its’ entirety.
What are some things that you have stopped to notice this week?
What are some things that you could pay more attention to?
