Concrete

I’ve kinda been jonesin’ for an iPhone 4S partially because it’s supposed to have such a great camera on it (for a phone camera). But I keep talking myself out of one. Today I talked myself out of one by realizing just how sweet a camera I already have with me most everywhere if I’d just take the time to get it out.

I took it out today and realized the last picture I’d taken was nearly a month ago: the picture you see above of a delicious chocolate concrete with oreo from Nielsen’s Frozen Custard. Mmmm….

And just like many times before, I find myself wanting to set a goal to take photos every other day, to stretch myself to find interesting details to shoot. Here we go again 😉

Walking around with the intent to take photos of the world around you helps you to have a sense of wonder about life. Helps you to “open your eyes”, so to speak. You don’t have to have an amazing camera or even be good at taking pictures. I look back at when I started this blog and honestly, a lot of my pictures were terrible and might seen horribly mundane. But they were just bits and pieces of LIFE.

I’m reminded of the words of Sam Spratt, an illustrator I’m a fan of. In responding to the question of whether drugs have ever influenced his work, he said that no, they hadn’t, and never would. His objection is to escapism:

Maybe not everyone works this way, but the moment I step outside my house, I am surrounded by “awesome”. Every face that passes has a story, every passing interaction has a context, the mingling of race, gender, sexuality, and religion are all beautiful to me, the New York cab drivers yelling “f*** you!” at me are fantastic, the smoking hot woman who works as the local Psychic in her shop window is still way too good-looking to be doing something so absurd for a living, my local Muslim barber waves at me as I’m the only white person who gets haircuts with him, a group of homeless people that hangout by the subway stop are all laughing together as they beg for money… The point is… I look at the world and I feel like I need to scrape every inch of it, absorb it, and know it. It’s just too interesting to need to withdraw from.

I’ve felt like this from time to time– and I’d like to see the world this way more. So here’s to taking more pictures and keeping that eye out for the beauty around you.