It All Depends on the Lens

60: (August 2022)

Life can be experienced through myriad lenses. We go through life choosing what to focus on from the infinite opportunities of sensation and feeling that are available to us, creating our own distinct experience and understanding of life. A composite is created from all the images we take in at any point in time.

Do we experience life as exciting or boring? Joyful or sad? Satisfying or disappointing? Of course, the answers to such questions constantly change, but overall, we create a general picture of life which, in turn, affects how we interact with it. We’re constantly co-creating this montage of a morning, an afternoon, a day, a week, a month, a life. Like a dragonfly, which sees through thousands of facets in order to create a picture of what is before it, we go through life essentially doing the same thing.

We have lots of lenses we can choose to employ on any particular day or moment. Life can be experienced through an optimistic lens or a cynical one, a lens tinted with the colors of the rainbow or mostly shades of gray. There are so many lenses to choose from that allow us to see things in a wholly unique way.

As I have aged into my sixties, I have become more adept at finding the lens that focuses on the simple gifts found in a day, in a moment. I find absurd joy in things like plucking ripe tomatoes off the vine. Watching black-capped chickadees drink from our homemade mosaic birdbath. Seeing the fawn that was undoubtedly responsible for eating the last of my hostas gracefully meander through our pasture. Sharing an incredibly silly joke with my husband.

My lens is increasingly focused on the present instead of being trained on the future or fixed on the past. There can be challenging things going on — very challenging — but the multiple images that co-create my overall view contain enough simple joys and snapshots of beauty that on balance, the composite picture is quite good.

Over the years, my inner eye has learned to take in more, accept more. I like being 64. I do indeed generally enjoy the view.

40: (August 2002)

I am taking a photography class and love it. Finally, a lifelong dream is becoming a reality: I am beginning to learn the art of photography. I have always taken pictures, but just standard family and vacation shots. Last year, when I was given a camera with lens-changing capability and manual exposure setting, I felt like I had been given license to take photos other than those that simply chronicle my family’s life.

So what am I taking pictures of? The sun as it melts through the mesh window in our abandoned chicken coop in the barn. My neighbor’s dog, which has ridiculously wonderful, bony angles on her body. A set of old chairs in an alleyway next to my church. My child’s feet, as they poke through a big box she is playing in. The early morning light shining through the leaves on the grapevine hanging off our backyard trellis. In other words, nothing in particular. Yet I am finding it extremely exciting to do just that—to take photos of the little, everyday bits of life—and to attempt to capture the beauty contained therein.

There is tremendous grace in the way sunlight plays with objects, and in the stunning, ever-changing colors with which the sky paints our world. There is great beauty in the way snow crystals glisten on a worn out fence or in the patterns on the bark of every tree in the forest. There is infinite depth in the expressions of childhood, in the open hearts expressed in the face. Then there are our dogs; I love to photograph them when they are sleeping. Like babies, they exude a sense of total bliss.

I have taken only a handful of classes, and I still barely know how to focus my camera, let alone execute any degree of artistic expertise. But I look forward to a lifetime of effort in trying to capture slivers of everyday life on film, of pausing to look at things more deeply. Perhaps in the exercise of trying to see these moments through my lens, my inner eye will become more consciously aware of the exquisite beauty that surrounds each and every one of us with daily sunlight, shadow, form, shape, color, and life. Aren’t we lucky? Smile!

60-40:

I have not diverged much from choosing to photograph everyday things, enjoying the practice of teasing out the extraordinary in the ordinary, whether in a photo or an experience. The stunning moments are there, just waiting to be discovered: the joyful moments, the humorous and playful, the soulful and content. Decades have taught me that my perception of life truly depends on where I point the lens.

What can be better than seeing and appreciating the simple joys found in everyday things, like tomatoes on the vine with their rich color, aroma, and taste? When it comes right down to it, the gratitude lens always creates the best picture.