By the time I recognize this moment, this moment will be gone
I couldn't resist quoting John Mayer above. This is my other candidate for favorite picture taken while on my D.C. trip. This was taken at the summit of Old Rag mountain. It takes a second to grasp the picture and then let it grow on you, but the more I thought about it, the more this picture went from being a failed attempt at capturing a bird, to a very real significant lesson and powerful picture in its own right. I followed this bird around for several minutes trying to get a decent picture as it hopped across the cobbled rockface. The harder I tried to photograph it, the more it seemed to elude me. Here, I am only given a glimpse of the bird as it flies out of the frame, as it slips away out of my grasp. And with a sort of sad but also liberating recognition, I understood that the harder I tried to photograph it, the more it slipped away from me. And maybe this is stretching it, but I started to think about how that lesson could be applied to my own life. The harder that I try to understand, the more that I think about that which confronts me, the more that my vision lacks clarity and my horizon becomes silhouetted against an image, a movement of thought. My valency towards comprehension contributes to my person but also complicates it. Maybe if I had turned around and stopped fruitlessly pursuing the bird, it would have landed softly on my shoulder, whispering truths in my ear.
© 2005-2009 Tristan Roy
