Routine

In one of the darkest times of my life, I was counseled to keep some sort of routine. Something regular, normal, each day; this would be a vehicle to move through the stress. It would calm, bring some order into chaos and help me to keep on, keep going.

After immersing myself in the news of the great tragedy in Boston yesterday, I went to bed feeling sad and overwhelmed for those whose lives were instantly changed. I woke this morning and went along with life, my daily routine. I looked over at my husband and saw he was the picture of doing exactly this. He was moving through. The sight of him doing so was calming.

What I realized back in the darkness was this: moving along with the regular things takes nothing away from the importance of whatever else is going on. It just helps us to move, to keep going, to not get stuck.

Off-Kilter

Sometimes when I feel off-kilter my images will show it. Though there is a strong structure in this shot, the ground feels like it is shifting, moving.

The moon's presence reminds me that though things seem chaotic, busy, crazy even, there is Someone much bigger who hasn't lost control, who is not off-kilter no matter what.

When I can see that by training my eye to look for it, then I can begin to see beauty in scenes like this while in the midst of chaos and uncertainty.

I took this image in a moving vehicle, which is why the foreground shows blur and movement. Making sure to focus on the poles and wires while essentially panning my camera by way of movement in my vehicle, I was able to keep the rest of the scene in acceptable focus.

I shot at a faster speed of 1/500 and used a greater depth of field at f/11.

Once on my computer, it is obvious that I played with layers in processing, adding texture and a little chaos to the feeling of this shot. This also deepened the colours and brought out the moon.

Like Life Itself

I love the strong orderly lines and also the illusion of chaos and confusion the further away they go. I love the solid structure of the poles and the soft sweeping clouds with no borders to contain them. I love the wires that are held taut alongside the wires that are loosely strung. I love the muted pinks and blues behind the solid blacks.

This picture is like life itself to me. The contrasts, the tensions, the gentleness, the strength, the differences all come together wonderfully, beautifully.

Structure

Sometimes the structure in our lives is structure that we've built into our days long ago. It adds stability, familiarity, a sense of calm. It can be the tracks we've laid down to move from one thing to the next, one responsibility to the next, like the tracks above an old train bridge. Over time the appearance of that structure will change but structure itself, we find, remains in some form and measure.

Spotlight

There was something quite mysterious about this morning's sun.