On Location (sort of) - Provincetown

   Well, it was bound to happen sometime!  Off I went to Provincetown on Cape Cod this weekend only to find that I had no memory card in the camera and no place to buy one!  My cousin let me use her little point and shoot to record one photograph, a  late day image with lovely light, the kind of light artists have been coming to P-town for over 100 years to record.

   I have to say I felt, well, like a fish out of water! Helpless! A contemplative photographer without a camera and surrounded by immense beauty!   So, instead of becoming despondent, I took the time to just sit and soak it all in...to record the images in my heart; to simply absorb the beauty that surrounded me.  I'm thankful to have this one photograph to remember the day with but in the final analysis, being a contemplative photographer is as much about the contemplating part as it is about the photographing part so I was content with that. I did my visual listening exercise and just enjoyed the tranquility of it all.  Cape Cod off season is a heavenly place!  Just as I was about to get up and leave, a man came with, of all things, a harp and began to play a soulful tune that brought tears to my eyes.

    It may have not been a weekend for photography but it was amazing none the less. The next day I stood on the bluff overlooking the Cape Cod National Seashore in Wellfleet.  It was breathtaking and I didn't miss not having a loaded camera around my neck.  I think that not having a camera to worry about - settings, exposures, framing - allowed me to be fully present in that moment.  There is a lesson in this I'm sure; a lesson all photographers should learn. Should I find myself in this situation again, I doubt I will feel like that "fish out of water"...I will just relax and enjoy the experience.