Pause for a moment.
Look around you.
I want to ask you some questions.
Where are you? What do you see?
Are you near a window? Are you in a basement? Are you at a coffee shop?
What kind of light do you see? Is it a sunny or cloudy day? Are you in a room with mostly artificial or natural light?
How does that light make you feel? Where are the shadows? What is the mood?
If you were to take out a camera, or even your phone, what would you take a picture of to capture the mood of where you are right this very minute? Of how you are feeling? What story could you tell with the light that is present?
Pay attention to the light around you throughout a day. See what it reflects off of. See what it shines through. Notice the warmth or the coolness of the light. Notice if it seems harsh, like direct sunlight in the middle of the day, or soft, like the last hour of light around sunset.
These are the details that we are aware of, yet they still go unnoticed most of the time.
If you’re out and about, notice how light falls on the faces of those around you. How it reflects in their eyes. How it illuminates their hair at just the right angles.
There are stories already surrounding you. They are written by the light. We just have to notice them. Capturing them is what photography, to me, is all about.
Add human beings to the mix and we have infinite stories all around us. Lives intertwined with one another. Sometimes only for fractions of a second, and for some a lifetime of moments and memories.
And time ticks on. Moments pass. We all grow older. Emotions come and emotions go. And so do the people in our lives. Babies are born, while others leave us.
Meanwhile, we carry around with us a device that can stop time. It captures the stories provided to us by the human soul’s dance with light.
My challenge to us today is to try and notice the stories around us. And then maybe try and capture a moment that tells a story. It doesn’t have to be anything remarkable. Just a moment that you happened to notice in your day that you wanted to capture. You don’t need to clean up your desk. You don’t need to make your bed. You don’t need to put on makeup. You don’t need any special lighting. You don’t need to know all the technical details of your camera. Let everything be real, as it is. It’s good enough.
If you really want to push yourself, look for an emotional moment you want to capture. Photography allows us to wear our heart on our sleeve without ever saying a word. Because photography shows us and everyone we share our photos with the moments that we notice. The stories that speak to us. Photography therefore allows us to express our true emotions. It allows us to be vulnerable. If we let it, it helps us to be whole and live into our true selves.
If you’re willing, share some of your photos or even your Instagram with me.
I’d love to see what you notice.
Here are some moments I noticed last evening on a walk with my two sons:
Prompt and Circumstance 