DAY 519

I think I am in love

Going outside with my camera in hand is part of my practice which is not only about photography or creativity, but about my inner work. It´s not a daily activity, my inner work is rather eclectic, so I alternate this and that (including indoors photography), but I try to do it on regular basis. Even so, there are always bad days, when I feel like doing nothing, or I am not inclined to be sociable, or the weather is terrible or I have no much time. When this happens I end up going to the park next to my house, as a result, most of my outdoors photos are taken there.

I have been going there for nearly three years, so I have become familiar with it. I know how it is conceived and when a tree is about to blooming. I know the changes I can expect every season and notice the gardeners´ effort. I feel sad when I see that something is not working well or some areas neglected... and angry when I feel that some persons don´t respect it. Somehow I have learnt to breathe with it and with the creatures that live there and we have struck up a sort of friendship.

There are areas there which I can stop visiting: the rose garden or the herbs garden. Even when they seem to be devastated from time to time, I always find something beautiful to capture. And there are areas that I often forget that exist as the flower clock or the little pond in the middle of the park.

However, along the last two months, every time I go to the park, I feel driven to visit that pond. It´s not a beautiful pond and it is not too big. It´s not too organized, either and the aquatic plants seem to be growing there by chance. The water is not limpid at all, indeed, it´s a bit muddy... but it´s appealing anyway, so there I go.

I stop next to its edge and observe the light and the reflections, smell the aroma that is damp and a bit fermented, hear the frog´s croak and click once and again.

Visitors come and go after a quick look but I stay there, going over its perimeter slowly. I take time to appreciate the shades of light; the green palette o how the water seems to be bottomless in some place or glossy as a mirror in others. And I take pleasure in the almost imperceptible adrift of the leaves.

After this time going there regularly, at least twice a week, I still am not clear about the reason why I am doing that, but I have started to consider going there along a whole year and document this process. If I would have to put forward a hypothesis, I would say  this lake in its smallness could be a metaphor of something bigger that I want to apprehend: the cosmos, life, my mind?... I am not sure and I don´t even mind very much right now. 

Right now I only want to keep enjoying this and the feeling that I am starting something...

So, of course, this had to be my Photo-Heart Connection of March


PS: you can read the first post of what I think will be a bigger project here