As I got up from the computer last evening this is what I saw. I hurried outside with my camera and kept taking picture after picture. A sunset never stays the same from moment to moment. I got cold. I had not stopped to put on a coat. I went back in the house and got out a winter coat and went back outside just to gaze at the fading sunset. Not taking pictures, just standing still before Beauty.
I remembered a book I read several months ago, Eyes of the Heart: Photography as a Christian Contemplative Practice by Christine Valters Paintner. She suggests that we "receive" pictures rather than "take" them. Contemplation requires a receptive attitude. Snapping pictures seems too active. But I think it might be possible to "receive" pictures in quick succession, once we begin approaching photography as contemplation.
I had always been bothered by my desire to possess beauty by taking a picture. I wondered whether it wouldn't be better to sit still and be absorbed into the scene. Paintner's book helped me to see that one needn't cancel out the other.
Lots of people tell me that they really like the pictures on this blog. Often, as a kind of afterthought, they say they like what I have to say. I know that the pictures express Beauty in a way that I seldom can with my words. I am satisfied to share Beauty who comes to me in both ways.
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