seeing the world through a lens

 One of my favorite things about a photography habit is the way it changes how I view the world. When I'm regularly taking photos, my eye naturally looks for interesting details and compositions to shoot. This sounds sappy, but it makes me appreciate the small beauties as I move about the world. It also becomes this great feedback loop, where the more times I notice something pretty/cute/unusual/whatever and stop to take a photo of it, and like that photo, the more I'll notice those things, and so on. 

The past few years I kinda stopped taking pictures. I'm not really sure why. It turns out that same feedback loop works the other way, too (at least for me)... I stopped taking pictures regularly, and it started feeling harder to "see" pictures I wanted to take. It's like a muscle that weakens with disuse. 

I've spent a lot of the last six months stuck at home, thanks to cancer treatment. One piece of advice I kept hearing was to exercise through chemo as much as possible, to help the body recover. This felt laughable to me when so much of the time just walking from my room into the kitchen felt kinda like the equivalent of running a marathon. However, the days I did feel up for going on even a 10 minute walk around the block, felt kinda glorious... just getting out of the house. I made a point to go for a walk on the days when I felt up for it. Walking has also been my main form of exercise while recovering from my mastectomy, aiming for a solid 20+ minutes walk most days. 

On those walks I've usually had my phone in my pocket. And, I started finding myself pausing here and there to snap a photo. I've felt particularly drawn to spotting plants growing in unusual places (through a fence, in a crack of the sidewalk), feeling inspired by their ability to grow and flourish despite the challenging environment. 

I have always both loved and felt a little frustrated by my phone cameras. Though in their defense, what they lack in ability to control settings they definitely make up for in convenience and ease of use. And that's gotten even better with apps, using apps like Focos or VSCO to play with depth of field and filters. 

It feels really good to get back into a photography habit... and, particularly, to notice that side effect coming back, of noticing the way I'm seeing things be different and feeling more inspired.