Not so plain after allLondon, ON, August 2007
I had gone out to pick up one of our kids from a birthday party at a local bowling alley. I was a bit early, so while the little folks consumed every last morsel of unnatural-looking icing and ran around the room a few more times just because they could, I went for a stroll outside.
There wasn't much to see in this place, a busy strip mall that occupies one of the busiest corners in the city. The plain-looking facade was like that of any other strip mall in this city that's defined by a surplus of forgettable architecture.
Yet as I stood in the late afternoon sun and took in the scene, it once again occurred to me that even the forgettable can be memorable if we choose to frame it just so. The basic subject matters less than how we choose to view it.
Your turn: Something plain that became less so when you chose to look at it differently. Please discuss.
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9 comments:
Love this picture! There are so many things that seem ordinary until you stop and *really* look at them. Take the common old grey dove for instance - if you spend some time looking at one they are in fact very beautiful.
When I was in to photography a lot more I used to look for similar opportunities, recurring themes that only appered when viwed from a specific angle. One of my favorites was a Snow Fence in Wyoming. We see them everyday, but when viewed at a certain angle it changed the whole perspective. Makes we want to dig out my slides...
I like your depth of field in this one. Nice shot.
I love brick. I love this image. As to finding beauty in the ordinary, I see it often, but my favorite is when the grackles - pesky crow-like birds - catch the sun in just the right way. When this happens their oily black feathers turn iridescent blue and purple. -- MissMeliss
Isn't brick lovely? I love running my hands over brick and stone.
I am also looking at stuff really closely, like you and your zoom [wink] and you can usually spot something new in the familiar object.
Thank you for all the suggestions for little bear - he has a name now!
cq
When I was a kid, there were pleated curtains in my room. The little electric nightlight cast the shadow of the curtain's edge on the white plaster ceiling. I ended up identifying shapes in those wiggles, a lion's head here, a face in silhouette there. Like seeing shapes in clouds.
When the curtains were cleaned and put back up, the pleats were never quite the same and I had to find new "friends" in the shadows on the ceiling.
Carmi, would you be willing to donate a picture for the December volume of cafewriting.com?
the themes for december are tradition and family.
Pictures are used as one of the monthly writing prompts, and I'm coming up dry for a new image, and have to update tonight.
-- MissMeliss (melissa AT missmeliss DOT com)
The first thing that struck me when I saw the picture was SCHOOL - although I can't picture exactly where or which school -something about the photo smacks of waiting around to be let into a classroom.
Plain ... well after a week of terrible self doubts and worth ... I have to be brutally honest and say that when I look in the mirror I see plain ... bad hair day, long over due trip to the beautician for the eye brows, tired eyes behind glasses.
Then I have my darling son, who comes up to me and says 'Mum - you look beautiful in that new top. And you look beautiful - when you take your glasses off' ... and I go back to the mirror and remind myself that its only me who sees plain there ... so I look harder and see many new and wonderous things ... things past and things yet to arrive.
I will only be common if I think I am common, think I am plain ... so now I'm thinking beautiful thoughts ... so I can be beautiful thoughts in action :o)
Will be back more this week now that NaNo is over and all personal problems that leared their ugly heads last week, have either disappeared or summarily decapitated :o)
Nice perspective, texture and pov!
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