Spencer Lum (*) writes On the Beauty of Photography (*):
The question isn’t what looks good.
The question is what fits.
Are you building something?
Are you filtering through what works and what doesn’t and packing your pictures with connotation?
Or just showing what’s there?
In the simplest terms, get rid of the bad and keep the good.
You can spend a lifetime deciding on just what that means.
And that’s the beauty of photography.
The key is just to keep making those decisions.
via Say what you mean and mean what you say (*) by Spencer Lum (*).
Always making decisions here. It's part of the attraction of doing what happens here. I look back over the four years of photos here and sometimes I shake my head at what I see. I look at it and say to myself, it was the right decision (or maybe the only decision) to make at the time. In some ways it makes me realise how much I have done and learnt. So while I might shake my head, there are no regrets.
Thank you God for sustaining me, and for sending so much beauty my way.
Sometimes we don’t know until much later that a particular moment in time has changed our life’s direction.
From the Introduction of The Top Five Regrets of the Dying: A Life Transformed by the Dearly Departing (*).
Was reminded (*) of this book (*) yesterday and how I came across the blog post (*) that lead to it being written. Decided to go down to the local bookstore and see if it was in stock. Luckily it was and I now have a copy that I am reading.
The above quote is from the Introduction (*), and I feel the book is already worth it for such a profound, yet obvious, observation about life.
Some great quotes (*) from the book are shared here (*).
She adds to the above quote with:
So many of the moments shared in this book have changed my life.
Made me think that so many moments that I have reflected on and shared here (*) have also changed my life.
Joanne - Fitzroy Island / Queensland (Thu 26 Mar 2009)
Jenny and Geoff - Cape Tribulation / Queensland (Fri 27 Mar 2009)
2012 Pacific Dragons 200m Mixed 10's Crew - 2012 World Club Crew Dragon Boat Championships - Hong Kong (Thu 03 Jul 2012) (f/l-r) Rachel Giang, Tony Pound, Peter McAlister, Cliff Tonga (b/l-r) Charlotte Richards, Geoff Eldridge (that would be me), Emma Walsh, Steph Kerr, Liz Cowen, Lisa Mills, Kelly Turner, John Hamilton, Craig Stewart, Tim Vose "What a great event (*) and a great day - a privilege to paddle with you all and a personal highlight. Thanks .. Geoff"
BE NOT AFRAID LADY - Crosby St / SoHo / New York (Thu 18 Aug 2011)
Noticed this text marking and thought I would wait around and see what I could get. Have a few photos here and I now regret not waiting a little longer to get a stronger photo of the obvious thing I was trying to do here.
Blurry Cats - Flatiron District - New York (Wed 17 Aug 2011)
A fantastic interview (*) with Matt Weber (*) over at the equally great Street Reverb [magazine] (*) Street Photography web site.
I can relate to many of Matt's insights (*) into photographing on the street.
Having already posted about photography related regrets (*), the following quote caught my eye...
Regrets of missed opportunities have plagued me, but also helped me greatly. I can lament a missed shot for a very long time, if I think it may have been epic. Those type of shots are far and few between.
In order to spare myself the self inflicted torture which follows missing a potentially great photograph, I’ve learned three things from my mistakes.
Never leave home without your camera. Never do it!
Always keep at least one extra roll of film, or these days an extra battery and CF card I suppose.
Lastly, don’t hesitate when you see something fantastic.
Fear and or embarrassment, has cost me a handful of images which I’m certain would have been very important to me. It’s hard to block out emotions sometimes, but if you want to be a “Nice Guy” and never upset a soul, you’ll be better off doing something else.
Having just returned from Matt's hometown of New York (*) and reading his story (*) inspired me to post the DGK series of photos (*) and explain what I was thinking as I took the photos. It is great when someone like Matt talks about and shares their photography insights as well as their own photographic trials and tribulations.
Also I'm a big believer in learning from mistakes (*).
So much to learn from and to be inspired by - thanks Matt Weber (*) and Bryan Formhals (* of Street Reverb [magazine] (*)
Picasa Contact Sheets (*) (3 of 4) - Canon G10 - New York (Thu 18 Aug 2011)
Musical Mural (1 of 2) - Boulevard de Maisonneuve Est / Montreal (Thu 25 Aug 2011)
Just missed the guy, in the foreground carrying the violin (you have to look close), coming out of the door. Would have been nice to have isolated there, but just was not fast enough. Saw it but did not react fast enough (*).
There seemed to be so much hope as I took this photo.
For me, it was the hope that we could take her home (she had negotiated it to be Wed, so Jo and I could go to our Aus Dragon Boat training session that Tue night) and care for her until she quietly left us, like Jenny and Jo had done with Margaret, their mother, 10 years earlier.
It was not meant to be and it is amazing how quickly things can change and how you need to accept, adapt and let go to the circumstances which we are confronted with as we move through life.
It is in these moments that I came to fully understand the following words from Paulo Coehlo's novel, The Fifth Mountain (which I would read 6 months later):
Fear reaches only to the point where the unavoidable begins; from there on, it loses its meaning. And all we have left is the hope that we are making the right decision.
A story for another day.
For now, I remember Jenny and the final week of her life, that she spent in Intensive Care Unit of St George Private Hospital, before she left us on Tue 30 Jun 2009.
Postscript
Amazingly, about an hour after posting the above (maybe about the time Jenny's heart failed two years earlier), a post titled Regrets came through from Paulo Coelho. It is based on this post:
It touchs on the time I had hoped for at home with Jenny and things we might have been able to talk about.
In the end, she left us very suddenly (and with much trauma - unlike her Mothers passing which was very peaceful and serene, if you can understand that) and we were not able to say goodbye.
I carry some of the regrets Bronnie mentions, but in the end I would like to think we lived a good life that allowed us to make the most of the time we had together.
The Cancer made us better people and we did live life to full - Do what you can, when you can. I would say. For Jenny, it was Don't Wonder 'What If?'. Every time we parted, I would say I love you and often many times in between.
One thing I know for sure, it is that through Jenny's life and passing, I have become a better person - I feel guilty about this in many ways, but at the same time I draw some comfort.
Ain't got no regrets I ain't losin' track of which way I'm going I ain't gonna double back Don't want no misplay, put on no display An angel no, but I know my way, oh yeah, oh
I used to follow, yeah, that's true But my following days are over Now I just gotta follow through
For photographers, there are two kinds of selection to be made, and either of them can lead to eventual regrets.
There is the selection we make when we look through the view-finder at the subject; and there is the one we make after the films have been developed and printed.
After developing and printing, you must go about separating the pictures which, though they are all right, aren’t the strongest.
When it’s too late, then you know with a terrible clarity exactly where you failed; and at this point you often recall the telltale feeling you had while you were actually making the pictures.
Was it a feeling of hesitation due to uncertainty?
Was it because of some physical gulf between yourself and the unfolding event?
Was it simply that you did not take into account a certain detail in relation to the whole setup?
Or was it (and this is more frequent) that your glance became vague, your eyes wandered off?
What struck about this passage was not the regret that is felt at losing an opportunity to have a great photo, but what we have learnt from why the photo is not as strong as we would like. I have felt this in not only in my photography, but also in my paddling. If you know you have made a mistake and know why, then you have learnt a valuable lesson and you will become better at your chosen activity.
Graffiti - Brick Lane/London - Wed 2 Sep 2009
Window and Books - St Ives/Cornwall - Tue 8 Sep 2009
The warrior knows an old saying: 'If regrets could kill…'
And he knows that regrets can kill; they slowly eat away at the soul of someone who has done something wrong and they lead eventually to self-destruction.
The warrior does not want to die like that. When he acts perversely or maliciously - because he is a man of many faults - he is never too ashamed to ask forgiveness.
If possible, he does his best to repair the wrong he has done. If the injured party is dead, then he does some good turn to a stranger and offers up that task to the soul that he wounded.
A warrior of light has no regrets, because regrets can kill. He humbles himself and undoes the wrong he has done.
If we have some regrets (founded or unfounded) about something (and we all do at times), then this is not a bad way to think about things. (Note: promise to write something different and more positive next time :-)
