Surprise in the Photo

     “Look at this, Mommy! Look, look!” I see myself as a little girl, remembering the me I once was, running into the house with an armload of flowers fresh picked from the field – and yet, sometimes it’s almost as if she was somebody else. Was that me or just a story made up in my mind?

     No, I was like that! I had to have been like that. I feel it now; feel it when I go out taking photographs. I have that childlike awe, that excitement of discovery and I can’t wait to get home to show mommy… only, I have no mommy now. There’s no one to greet me or be excited to see what I found or hear my stories. She is gone; three years this coming Christmas. But, that passion is still within me, the flowers now the various photographs. The desire to share them burns in my soul. I cry out, “Look! Look what I saw today!” But there’s no one at home waiting to see.
     I plug the SD card into the computer and eagerly wait for the upload. Some pictures are immediate deletes, but most are keepers. I open the editing program and begin taking a closer look. Most edits are just regular work; crop, adjust contrast and brightness and save the photos in various categories. Oh, I so enjoy this even if there is no one to see in the moment.
     However, every so often, something magical happens. Something I did not notice when out in the field shows up on the photo on the editing screen. Hey, where did that come from? I didn’t notice that when I took the photo! It could be as simple as an unusual tree or a little chickadee or a particular color. Why hadn’t I noticed that before? The excitement returns. I love that surprise and the photographs often turn into a treasure hunt to find what I missed seeing earlier.
      Perhaps it’s simply because when I am taking the actual photograph, my view is on a larger scale and the focus is not so much on detail at that moment. Whatever the excuse, those surprises I find later add a wonderful joyful dimension to my photography work.