Contemplative Photography #4

My soul was long-overdue for another contemplative photography exercise. I try to discipline myself to reflect for only 10 minutes, which is rarely long enough but motivates me to focus on the image and not let my mind wander too far afield. This time, I brought a little of my experience on site when I received this photography into my reflections. I hope that perhaps you can yet benefit from imagining the tactile sensations that accompanied this visual experience.

Wurm’s Head is an interesting formation that is only accessible for a few hours a day when the tide is out. This scene is flooded and obscured every day. It is a difficult walk to make it from the mainland to the islands.

Wurm’s Head (Gower, South Wales)

I see > an anchor old and worn, weathered, experienced, abandoned yet frequently encountered by Wurm’s Head adventurers, the sometime island at the horizon, currently accessible with a daunting knife-life peak, millions–perhaps billions–of discarded shells, homes that are now tread upon, ground down to serve as a highway to a place only occasionally available, a big metal loop where the anchor was once attached to something larger than itself–a receptacle perhaps now vacant

I feel > a drab sky and little hope, Wurm’s Head is yet far away, the anchor invites me to stay right here with its roughness, rust, and barnacles; the path is not straight or smooth; shall I just sit by the water’s edge and go no farther?

I think > where am I anchored? is it a place I can stay, a place I should stay? is it for my own good, or a distraction from yet more incredible views, experience, and blessing? am I an anchor for others? a tool of protection and stability, or an abrasive distraction, interrupting a path that is already hard? have I landed too far from the water’s edge where I belong?

 

Alive

I have been on a long-term journey of discovering my passion(s). Being fairly even-keeled, it is often difficult for me to identify what things in life truly draw me out (and in), truly cause me to be present and to come alive.

When posed with the question of what excites me, one of the items I named was photography. I am a routine-loving home-body, but with a camera in my hand, I suddenly become adventurous, scaling rocks to get a new view and venturing ever further into the forest to see what’s around the next bend.

There is something about taking pictures that makes me come alive.

I can still remember purchasing our first digital camera (my first real camera, actually), shortly after getting married. I was hesitant to spend money on a device that I was sure I would rarely use. But once I got my hands on the camera (a Canon SX2 IS), I was in. I shot spiders on their webs every night for a week.

In an effort to continue to engage with the passionate side of who I am, I think it is fitting that I engage more intentionally in photography…both to enjoy the moments of being present in this world in (for me) a unique way, but also as a part of my broader journey of self-awareness and growth.

So, I hope to be more intentional about taking photos, processing them (just now venturing into shooting RAW photos), and then sharing them. You’ll note that very few posts on this blog have photos attached to them, but I hope to use this opportunity as motivation to engage in something that I find peculiarly life-giving and mysteriously self-revelating.

No self-imposed obligations about posting every week (though that wouldn’t be a bad routine), but rather a mindfulness to be who I am, and to discover what that means. And to use photography as a tool to those ends.

Here’s a recent shot of a flower in the garden of an old manor house in Dyffryn, South Wales. My wife spotted this lonely purple flower, which is perhaps lording itself over the yellow ones, but yet with a bowed humility that I really appreciate.

Alive in South Wales

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It’s alive.

And so am I.

***

You are welcome to view more of my photography on my Photoshop site: http://www.photoshop.com/users/allennotalan

 

 

One Random Arrow

Caerphilly Castle (Wales)

One Random Arrow

A brilliant pile of stones

Fashioned into fortress home

Gate and wall and moat and hall

Archers ready, towers tall

The enemy at hand

Main Yard, Caerphilly Castle (Wales)

King walks behind to help them stand

Volley lofted o’er the wall

King, of a sudden, falls

Guards, walls

Insufficient all

To stop the fall of

One random arrow

Inspired by a visit to Caerphilly Castle (Wales), built ca.1270. Photographs taken by the author.

~~~

Other poems of mine can be found here on my Writings page.