A Macro View of Life Through the Lens of a Camera

Today we are very pleased to offer you a post from Carolyn Jones. Carolyn is an incredible photographer who looks at life through the lens of a camera and often times sees things that we all miss. This post is a great example of that. Make sure you also check out her gorgeous photos on her website.  

As I was pondering what to write about, the thought of stickies crossed my mind. You know, yellow stickies. I was awed by the thought that what started as a 3 x 5 sized yellow sticky has grown into all the colors and sizes and shapes imaginable. I was in awe, actually, of the creative minds that developed such a simple thing that has turned out to be commonplace everywhere.

So, I am talking today about wonder, about what I experience when I slow down and consider the things around me in great detail. It happens when I stop to see the leaves, to notice the buds that are forming and blooming around me.

For example, take a cat. I have one who was/is a feral and, as such, has been very skittish of me getting physically close to her in any way. It has taken five years, but recently, she has allowed me to get within one inch of her face, while I quietly call her name. That in itself is cause for wonder. But what really struck me was her hair, her coat, and the millions of individual hairs that I could see clearly from an inch away. I stopped as I realized just how many hairs are on an animal to make up their coat, a barrier from the environment. Think of it! Zillions! I thought about how intricate those hairs are. It is cause for wonder.

A similar experience occurred when I took the time to look closely at moss. Have you ever done that, looked closely at moss? There is a whole community growing there! I was in wonder as I viewed the small, star-shaped leaves, darker green in the center, fading to light green on the tips. Again, like the cat’s coat, tightly packed to protect against the forces of the environment.

It’s a lot like looking at the world through a camera’s macro lens. I have occasion to do this, as I am a photographer. The wonderful thing is, I don’t have to have a macro lens; I can see all this wonder with the naked eye. It’s more an issue of slowing down, becoming more aware of all around me. For me, I have had to become willing to slow down and look. Then I made the decision to do that. Finally, I practice remembering to slow down and find the wonder all around me, for it abounds everywhere… in ourselves, in others, in the world around us...

Carolyn Jones is an author and an award-winning fine art photographer who specializes in wrought iron gates and also in abstract images that are created when light and glass interact. Carolyn’s images have been combined with her prose in her first book, Opening the Gates of the Heart, to describe a journey of healing. In her most recent body of photographic work, Abstracts, Carolyn experimented with the magical and vibrant patterns and images produced by the interaction of light and glass.

Works from both of Carolyn’s collections have been featured in solo exhibitions and have been accepted in several juried art shows. Several of her abstract images have won awards, including first prize from http://www.guestsgallery.com for Down the Straightaway. Carolyn has been published in two photography books: www.photoworkshop.com’s book Photos That Inspire and Photo and Arts’ Abstracts 2007: Volume Two. Her image Color Burst was chosen for the back cover of  Abstracts 2007: Volume Two. Carolyn’s photographs can be seen on-line at www.gatelady.com or www.gatesoftheheart.com.