Grounded

07 Apr 2006

This was at the start of my Botanic Gardens ramble. I'd parked the car and was walking across the park. Families were picnicing, kids were playing and the sun shining. It was a nice day.

At first I just breezed on by the feather, without giving it much thought. But just as I'd passed it, I stopped and thought I saw a good shot. The grass wasn't particularly lush, but the feather looked a little forlorn, so I lay down and took a few shots. Then I took the feather with me.

When I got back home and was looking over the photos, the ones of the feather didn't really strike me, so I didn't bother processing them. But a few days later when I was going thru the shots again, I saw what I'd initially seen in the little feather. It's not an amazing feather, in fact you can see it's starting to come apart a little... but even so, it's still a nice little feather, even if it won't fly. It is if you like, flawed beauty - which was my first title for the shot.

But then I thought about it... here was this little feather, stuck in the grass, very much grounded. And at first I was going to pass it by, but then something about it made me come back. It helped tune my eyes into looking for photo opportunities all around, no matter how big or small. It grounded me from the blindness of daily life.

[edit 01/12/06 :: submitted to Photo Friday Stillness]

Get your designer December 08 calendar here. Now with extra dates!