Life is a beautiful, imperfect mess. When I embrace this, I become free to be happy.
This life philosophy is manifested in photography. My environment is often cluttered by pollutants and distractions. When I close one eye and look through the small view finder, all the mess disappears. I am able to see the beauty.
I had a particularly hard day with my one year old son who was frustrated and angry no matter what I did. In the last hour of daylight, I took out my camera and challenged myself to make the chaos disappear and see the beauty.
That day, I got my favorite photo of my son Arlo:
I was in my living room and saw a ray of sunlight on the carpet.
My messy living room was certainly not the most photogenic location.
I got down onto his level, his perspective and placed him in the sun, facing the light.
I wanted to capture the harsh shadows of the sun, and have the background be encompassed in darkness, making him the sole focus of my attention.
As in all lifestyle or mental changes, there's a rough transition in which you struggle to get to where you want to be.
It was a challenge to capture a fast moving toddler, in a small ray of light.
Here's a blooper (NOT IN FOCUS GAH! - many more where that came from)
I opened my pandora app and put on some music. Here's another blooper of him jamming out to Beyoncé:
He was still in a bad mood, but I embraced that. It must be incredibly frustrating to struggle to communicate and build strength.
As I interacted with him a bit, I was able to capture these photos, which I LOVE!
I hope this blog post helps you find the magic in your beautiful mess today.
~ Alisha
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