Saturday, March 01, 2014

Before they get eaten

Still hungry
London, ON
February 2014
Before I sign off on this week's Thematic theme - head here if you're wondering why M&Ms are dominating the agenda these days, or here and here for other views from this series - I wanted to post one last look at the impossibly colored confections that seem to have made the leap from childhood to adulthood.

I took a closer look at this shot and realized the M&Ms weren't anywhere near perfect. The stamped "M" was rubbed off in places and barely visible in others. The casings were cracked. Most of them seemed to be covered with a dusty coating.

I probably could have culled the herd by individually examining each one, selecting only the uncracked, properly labelled ones and then giving them a careful wipedown to get rid of the unphotogenic traces of dust. I probably could have massaged the image a little longer in Aperture to further raise the perfection meter.

I suppose if this were a commercial photo shoot and the results were supposed to appear on a menu board or website, this would be how I'd spend my day. But it was just for me - and you - so reality prevailed. These M&Ms, like every bag I've ever brought home and shot, were imperfect examples of a rather imperfect food. And as I look at this last pic, it's more than good enough to take me back to the afternoon this was taken.

I think the world would be a happier place if we learned to accept things as they are instead of wasting inordinate amounts of time polishing them to an unrealistic sheen. I think we'd all be better off if we applied this kind of thinking to people as well as things.

2 comments:

Bob Scotney said...

Hear,hear!

Gilly said...

How right you are! I'm afraid I lost my sheen a long time ago, and I've lost my polishing cloth!!

I don't think as an adult I would enjoy such brightly coloured sweets/edibles. Children here seem to enjoy violently blue or purple things, but seemingly we adjust our taste as adults. Maybe we transfer our love of violence in sweets to films etc.? Or is that too far fetched!