I took this one last spring and I have been hesitant to post it because I am not sure whether I like it.  When I first looked at it I thought too much was going on, like the picture was too crowded or something.  Well needless to say since it didn’t pass my muster last year it found the same fate as 90% of my other pictures: obscurity, just another misfire another reason to quit doing this thing in the first place.  That was until I was going through my pictures looking for some butterfly pictures I took last fall and happened upon this picture again.  My thoughts instantly shot back to the day I took it.

 

It was early May of 2012, I can be specific only because I remember , it was hot, really hot for the time of year and I wanted to get some picture taking in before summer hit and the chaos of working in a restaurant would consume my life.  I grabbed the camera and ventured out into the woods.  When I am out on one of my photo odysseys I shut the world out and pay attention to nature.  I see the world around me different, it feels more alive to me when I have my camera.  I don’t go looking for the “perfect” shot, or one to make me famous, I look for one that tells a story while still being pleasant to the eye.  It isn’t easy for me because I am a perfectionist and I want to capture the image and the moment precociously as I found it.  That is another reason why 90% of my pictures are not seen by any other human eye, not even my wife.  If the picture doesn’t convey the way I felt or the way nature felt the moment I took it then to me it is just another pixilated image processed by a digital camera.  As I was scrolling through looking for the certain butterfly picture (which I do hope to find so I can share the story I have of it with you) this image shot by.  I stopped, backed up and just stared at it for a few minutes.  I couldn’t tell where the water ended and the ground began, the reflection had melded both worlds together.  That was exactly what I was feeling the day I took this.  I was lying on the bank of the river, my pants and shirt were wet from the moisture of the rocks I had laid across and my elbows were shaking as I tried in vein to get the right shot.  I took a few pictures and found myself just staring into the water.  I felt like I the world had flipped upside down and I even had a momentary flash of panic set in when I was convinced I was going to fall UPWARD into the sky.  After I figured out it was just the byproduct of the mirror like illusion that lay in front of me I relaxed and just enjoyed it for a few minutes.  It was a very surreal experience as I laid there in between two worlds, one real and one just an illusion.  I began to realize that I do it everyday as a matter of fact we all do, we walk around in-between two worlds every waking moment of our lives, the real and the illusionary.  It was a real zen moment for me as I just laid there and soaked it all in for as long as I could.  I felt so at peace, like nothing else mattered but being there at that moment.  So as I looked at this picture tonight I wondered how I could have let such an awesome moment in my life just go unnoticed and that is when I realized life is like that, I get so caught up (and worked up) with the tangible “real” things that I forget about beauty and serenity that is out there if I take the time to look.  I need to be less caught up with what I am supposed to do and more involved with the things I want to do, I need to meld both of those worlds together.  That is what life is all about, and that moment of panic I had on the river bank, those happen, a lot, and that is also a part of life.  Figuring out how to balance the two without getting too discombobulated is what life is.  Take a minute and just stare into this picture and let both of your worlds come together for a few minutes………………….PEACE!!!