I once heard a statement that after living somewhere for more than 6 months you stop seeing the beauty there!!
On reflection I have to say this might be very true, maybe it’s down to human nature taking things for granted or leading our very busy lives where we forget to lift our heads and enjoy our surroundings a bit more. The great scholar and philosopher Mr Ferris Bueller once said “life moves pretty fast, if you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it”. Sound advice but do we ever consider slowing down and having a look at what is right in front of us every day ?
Over the Winter months and never ending lockdowns it has been difficult to find inspiration for photography, with the daily updates on Covid 19 numbers and all the doom and gloom associated it seems unimportant to get out with the camera and take some photos. It’s almost as if its not permitted or even a part of the daily exercise regime to add in a stop for some photography inside our 5km boundary.
One of the rare outings with the camera was during one of the snowy days we had in January, it’s not often we get some snow so why not capture the scenes of the town while it had its winter coat on. So off we went for a short walk down by the river Dee, capturing some snowy scenes as we enjoyed a cold but sunny evening.
Along the river walk we came across the back of the old church in Ardee, a building we have photographed many times but today we came to see it in a whole new way. It is amazing how light changes the scene and in this case it gave the snow dusted church a beautiful golden look which made it pop against the sky. The old building came to life in the image against the wintery conditions, and I have never seen it look so amazing in the years I have lived here. Maybe it looks like that often but more likely I didn’t lift my head every once in a while to see it .
Something we can take from our lockdown experience has to be the things we take for granted, the simple things in life, the beauty that surrounds us, the beauty right in front of us. It is well worth a moment to stop, look around and take it in so we don’t miss it.
