Thursday, May 30, 2013

PhotoTao Card #28-Benevolence

Card #28

Benevolence
True giving arises because you are
overflowing, because you can't contain all 
that you have in your heart.
- Exercise -
   Great compassion can infuse your work
with special significance.  As Minor White 
 admonishes, there is more to photography
than pretty pictures of water flowing over
rocks.  Seek out your most heartfelt
subjects.  Don't concern yourself with
making "pretty pictures"...just meaningful ones.


Illuminating the Void
   No one would ever call this photograph "pretty", that's for sure!  But it is a meaningful image for me.  While I was poking around a derelict house in the Western Isles of Scotland, stepping over debris and dead birds, I thought to myself, "What a God forsaken place this is."  Then, as if on cue, I turned a corner and walked through a door into this space.  The light streaming in from a hole in the roof illuminated the place where the fireplace use to be, seemingly pointing to the gaping void left behind with light filled fingers.  I then thought, "Even in the worst of places there is always hope."  There is so much more to contemplative photography than just looking for the picturesque...

    

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

This is the kind of photo that makes you think, long after you go on to the ordinary tasks of the day. Wonderful.

Patricia Turner said...

Thank you winsomebella! (Sweet name too!) Yes, this was an image I didn't expect to be so thought provoking...which is why I tell people, "Don't make judgements! Photograph everything that draws your eye and delete nothing!" Insight can come much later...