I use photography to capture the world around me, but I admit that i tend to think more in terms of capturing the poetry around me. That essence of feeling. I sometimes wonder if this is the right approach, but it does seem to be what is more natural or more interesting for me to discover in my daily struggle to make pictures.
I also thought about a few small discussions i had earlier in the day when chatting about a very nice photograph taken at the state tournament by my friend Andy Colwell of the Erie Times.He had photographed a father/coach consoling his young wrestler in the back area after what I assume was a loss. http://reprints.goerie.com/mycapture/enlarge.asp?image=55198559&event=1916583&CategoryID=60292
A few comments i heard were about how the kid or the parents would not like to see their kid depicted this way. I guess I agree a little, but hope that what we have in this world of teachable moments shows us that this is one. Andy's frame showed the disappointment, but also showed the love. The love of the child to want to do well, the love of the sport, the love of a dad/coach for his young athlete. It shows life in all of its complexities. This is the 'heart' of life.
I love capturing what might become future recollections of a memory.
I was thinking about this on the way home. That tomorrow we start from scratch right? a new day! It's ours to take if we choose. I thought that its exactly the same for both the losers and the winners of the matches today. Today we were good enough--tomorrow we have to prove it all over again. Same for the losers--tomorrow you get another crack at it! Life is wonderful in this way.
The other Meadville youngster seemed very focussed before his match and I took this photo of him below!
"Finish the journey"---reach down and focus on the heart of the matter. Great stuff.
I remember years ago a teachable moment came to me from my father. My brother and I had just won a National Championship in a sport we play called Lawn Bowls. This was considered on of the top prizes we could win and our dad calmly came up and shook our hand and said, 'Nice tournament boys!" And that is exactly what it was, a very nice tournament where we 'finished the journey.' but then had to get back to our life the next day. We work hard for these moments, but it is the day to day work we do that matters. That's where we show our hearts.
Below is a link to a slideshow of images I made and the second link will let you buy any if you choose--enjoy them with way and understand that we live in a world of ups and downs--it is how we deal with failures and equally its how we deal with successes that define who we become/are.
http://sayerrich.zenfolio.com/p888501489/slideshow
To order any pictures please click here:
http://sayerrich.zenfolio.com/p888501489