I know I’ve said this before, but that is SO what I love about photography – that you think you are taking one picture, and then what you get is so much more than what you anticipated!
My daughter had me working in the camp darkroom this morning – something I haven’t done in over 30 years – and I got to see how that whole gift aspect of photography is doubled when you work in a darkroom. You think you are controlling the process, but even so there are surprises – and not necessarily all good ones; kind of like life, I guess.
Today we replicated a mistake made a few days ago; someone forgot and put her sunglasses down on the developing paper. And though the rest of the print was over-exposed, the part on the glasses developed perfectly, so you could see that part of the photo as if it were reflected in the glasses. So we did that again, using different pairs of sunglasses, different images, and differing development times – it was fun, definitely playful (though it’s hard to be patient and keep agitating the fixer) and full of surprises.
… which is why I have loved playing in the digital darkroom so much, I think. You get the same opportunities for experimentation, but you get instant results AND if they don’t turn out well, you can scrap them without having wasted anything but time. And I suppose electricity, but in the darkroom you waste those things but also fixer and developer and water and paper… but wait, to get a digital print you waste INK and paper… and the cartridges the ink comes in…
Funny. I started this post thinking about how everything is a gift – in the sense that things can be unpredictable, and their very unpredictability is a gift. But there’s more to life’s gifts than that, too: there are so many gifts happening every minute of your day! The couch I’m sitting on was designed by someone and made by someone; its fabric, too, was designed and made by someone. The floor it sits on was installed by someone in a house that was built by someone on land that was owned by someone and cleared by someone.
Someone made and packaged all those chemicals in the darkroom, the jugs we store them in and the trays and sinks we use them in. Someone purchased the chemicals, the trays, the sinks and the enlarger; someone bought the paper and the lightproof box we store it in; someone else chopped the tree and made the paper and packaged it in a lightproof bag.
Everywhere we look we are supported by the gifts and blessings of life: can you see them? Can you see them NOW?
Can you see them NOW?
No?
Well, then: KEEP LOOKING!
As Patricia Ryan Madson says in Improv Wisdom,
WAKE UP TO THE GIFTS!
• Notice that the glass is half full.
• Treasure the details.
• Who or what is helping you RIGHT NOW?
• Make a point of thanking those with thankless jobs.
• What are you doing to give back?
• Keep the gift moving forward.
• Our smallest actions count.
• Everything we do has the potential to help others.
• Make “thank you” your mantra.
What gifts will you notice today – and who will you thank?
2 comments:
Thank you for the gift of you and your remarkable photography and poetry. I was drawn into your photo and poems blog and spent a wonderful time browsing through past images and poems.
Your imagery is so incredible that it touches someplace deep within me and says, "Wake-up! There's more beauty in the world to be seen."
Thank you.
One of my gifts lies next to me: Jack my Westie. Every so often he makes sure I notice him. He's a great reminder.
I was so pleased when my son studied photography that he learned the darkroom techniques. After he graduated from high school, the class changed to digital photography.
I imagine the kids at the camp must love sitting up in that treehouse with their stories or just their imaginations keeping them company in the wild.
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