See the light. Sense the Awe. Chase the Wonder.
I never know where to post family or personal pictures. Some photographers just share everything under their photography pages. Maybe that helps people connect with them.
And they also share regularly. I have lots of photos. Literally thousands. And most of them only get seen by me. Some days I'm happy looking at those moments. They are just for me.
The words above were created by in a manifesto by David DuChemin. You should see his work and follow it and like it. Its pretty amazing.
The manifesto inspired my work, my business name but more importantly, it lit something within. Everything about the manifesto had a sense of depth, correctness and came along just when i thought about doing something else. Every reading of it is just like the first time. Yes! That is exactly what I want from photography.
To see the light you need to look for it. To sense the awe it helps to anticipate it, to chase the wonder you need to run after it.
We made it as a family to Galway last week. Before we go I ask them what they want to do when they get there. Check out a few things. No one really does. So we head off on a magical mystery tour. It should be noted that my family have a slightly longer attention span than a goldfish. Just. So we often travel far. Spend about 30 minutes somewhere and then they wait in the car for me.
This is a very long winded way of sharing one of the moments I had while out there. Seeing that light, sensing that awe and chasing that wonder leads you to (as the manifesto says) recognising the moments that you in and living deeper for being present in them.
We (I) decided I wanted to see a sunset as far west as we could go, but not too far from where we were staying. That point (according to the map was Lettermullan, Galway, Ireland. There are other points along the Wild Atlantic Way that are probably stretching that little bit further but I had committed to this. I was also fascinated by what seemed to be a series of islands connected together to get to this point.
It was an adventure. With long bridges/roads interconnecting. It was also more populated than I had expected.
However the road ended and we were left with a track. Literally two ruts and some grass growing up the middle. But I believed in the Google map showing me it ended up ahead. And after what seemed like travelling through a few peoples driveways we arrived. Well we certainly couldnt go any further.
It was not quite as I expected. It had little bits of islands all over. And even more surprisingly someone else was there! A little campervan with an older couple chasing the same thing.
We moved around trying to find that right spot. To see the sun set on the water and in between all those little bits of island. It seemed the older couple had been here before. They knew exactly where to sit.
We got there with about 20 mins to spare. All finding our spots, we watched the sun go down.
Being there in that moment was special. That however was not the only moment.
The couple, not too far away, pointed out a Connemara Pony, across on a different island, standing on a raised section of land, also watching the sun go down. In that moment, the knowledge of that horse being there to watch the sun go down seemed bizarre and magical and special all at the same time.
My thoughts started running away - how did the horse know to be there at that time? Did it come there regularly to do this? Where we witnessing a one off event?
It stood there, then as then sun disappeared, it turned paused for a moment and then disappeared.
I only caught it with the camera once, as it moved off. A distanced shot, which i have zoomed in on to give some perspective. Its amazing what a camera can see when you cant.
And so, in one place, in the quiet, you connect with everything around you and live deeper, pondering about life, love, connection and a Creator God.
