PhotoTao Card #18 - Learning

Card #18

Learning

In our minds we associate learning with

understanding.  However, unless our

understanding comes to us through 

experience, we have not learned much at all.

- Exercise -

Make a promise to yourself that you will make 

one photograph everyday for a month.  Regardless

of how busy you are or where you are, make one

photograph but no more.  Carry your camera

everywhere and be open to the moment when it

will whisper to you...NOW!

   I've never been one to carry my camera around with me but I can't count the number of times I've said, "I wish I had my camera!"  This is an exercise I need to practice!  The truly wonderful images we simply stumble across are very often the best.

    The day I took this image was a day I had thought to leave the camera in my room at the inn I was staying at on Inis Oirr in the Aran Islands.  It was bucketing down rain. In fact, I wasn't even planning to venture out but I did.  I went for a cup of tea.  I was content to just listen to the lovely ring of Gaelic voices in the cafe and to daydream a bit.  By the time I was ready to walk back the rain had stopped completely and as I left the cafe, in a sheltered corner of the dooryard, I saw this single rose picked out by a sunbeam.  The other roses in more exposed areas were bent down with moisture but this one rose seemed unscathed, not even a drop of rain on it's petals.  Now, this may not be one of those grand images photographers are always hoping to make but it touched me nonetheless and I was thankful to have my camera with me.  While the other roses had succumbed to the weather, looking bedraggled and dejected, this rose turned its lovely face to the sun and almost seemed to smile...so did I.  I walked back to the inn with a lighter step than I'd come with.  It just takes one tiny moment in the day to make all the difference.  I hope I have always have my camera with me when it does!