Gentle Pressure To Take The Picture

Many people have transient dreams and some have grand schemes but the dreamers and schemers never apply themselves to the big and small tasks that get them to their goals.


I have just finished reading a wonderful book set on the island of Newfoundland. More than ever before, I need to go there. I feel a personal connection with the people - not just the ones that are there now, but the people that have inhabited the land throughout the ages.


There are three books within the book and two of them are histories. The characters are really characters, none of whom would have made good neighbors.


One in particular made a life of loudly and angrily pontificating on the wrongness of life, his in particular.


I finished reading this book while on a working weekend to a North Carolina island. That was pretty cool.


Gentle, sweet, persistent pressure. That’s what really shapes and moves us.


I don’t hear yelling. I can’t tune into it. I guess i had my fill in my earlier days when I was the subject of so much of it.


I CAN feel the tug of my grandson’s soft little hand pulling on my fingers when he needs something. I remember when Alayna, my granddaughter (the 1st) and the one who named me Papa, pulled apart one of my eyelids and looked deeply into that eye with both of hers and asked if I would get up and help her get some juice.


The pull of the pen and the paper and the camera is so strong and persistent. It is not what I do, it is what I am. I think with my hands. Wrapped around a quill, a pen or a marker, my hand is in its right place. On my Hasselblad or Pentax, it knows the controls for the shutter speed or aperture. The film advance is geared, but my hands don't notice the sweet motion and the focusing and other adjustments are intuitive.


The image is more felt than seen. I do need my eyes, but my whole person is involved in the process. The technical stuff is involved and I can explain it to anyone who cares to listen and these are those that can interpret what I have said into more basic terms. I tell my students that I can almost feel the light impacting the film or the digital media.


LOOK! See the better picture. Take the image and get it connected to another heart.


By the way, that book about Newfoundland is called, The Island Of Unrequited Dreams. I saw many dreams come true.


Release the shutter. Press the RECORD button and let’s take a look. © Tim www.timjohnsonphoto.com