Digital Divine

Isn’t it beautiful that we have come together for the purposes of co-creation- Abraham Hicks

We live in a beautiful world. We live in a world of amazing beauty and opportunities for creation. What is beauty asks the seeer? Beauty is in everything; it could be the texture of a dead leaf, the water streak on a dry stone, the wrinklers in a mans aging hands, patterns in the top of crème brulee, the oilstain on the parking lot, an old tool laying in a field, or even the dance of light on a smokey factory. The trick for a photographer is seeing the beauty in the sublime, seeing the beauty in the everything and getting it into the camera.  One of the challenges of being a photographer is that we have to create from the real, from the tangible, from all the stuff of our world. Painters have a blank canvas and their imaginations, writers have a blank page and their ideas, musicians the notes and the rhythms of the world. Photographers have a piece of technology called a camera and all the objects that create the world we live in to create. Seeing and assembling the real world in a way that communicates what we see and feel, and getting into the camera through the lens and onto the sensor and then onto the ipad or other screen to make the viewer go ‘wow’ is the challenge, and the art of photography. I call it the digital divine.

Seeing the devine in the sublime, the subtle beauty in the world and deeply connecting to our environment percolates creation to the surface of expression. One of the ways we can connect with our environment and ‘find’ photos that will move our audience is to stop and look. Stop and feel. Put down the camera and see. Feel. What do you feel? What does the space and place you are in make you feel? What photo do I feel when I rub my hand against the tree? What do I feel when I lay down and stare and the sky?

As visual creators we often chase the visual epiphanies, what I call the visual orgasms in our world, for example a sunset, the Eiffel tower, the flower and the mountain, the photos of things we have seen somewhere else that tell us ‘Hey you! This is a great photo! Get your camera!’ The key to creating and seeing beauty in the quotidian is to connect with and be your child self. Seeing like a child, like a beginner- as if you have never seen this before- like you are seeing it for the first time will connect you with creation.  Watch a child and see how he or she explores their world and witness all the beautiful discoveries they find as archeologists of the simple and the sublime. Exploring what you see and feel will give birth to inspiration. Seeing with fresh eyes will ‘find’ the beauty in everything. So the next time you are about to pull out the camera, rip off the lens cap and start pressing buttons and the shutter- stop. Stop and see what you see, see what YOU see and not what you were conditoned to see. See what you feel. Feel what you see. See what divine you can find in the beauty of your own backyard and create.

 This must be the place- Talking Heads