Have you ever wondered, why do people say "A picture is worth thousand words!"? I have and while a picture is an elegant way to convey multiple topics and complex ideas, I like to believe that every picture has a story (or multiple stories) behind it. Take for example, the picture on the left. It is just an ordinary silhouette of someone playing around with their camera setting. However, there is more to this picture and it all starts with good friends and common interests.
You see, I am from Texas and more often than not, I travel for my work. I would like to think I have built some strong bonds with a few good people that I have come across over time. One such person is my dear friend Russ Morgan.
Now, Russ is the kind of person who likes to take care of people over work, while I specialized in taking care of work over people. When you look at us, you would find very few things in common. However, one thing in common was our interest in photography. One day while talking about Arizona and it's canyons, we on an impulse decided to take a road trip. While the road trip itself is a whole another story, suffice to say it was an "adventure"! More to come...
One of our first stops from Scottsdale was Page, AZ and specifically the famous Horseshoe Bend canyon. A perfect layover to catch an awesome sunset over this canyon. As you can see, we made it just in time, well just about. Running on empty in Arizona wilderness, we had about 10 miles to spare in our fuel reserve when we just about made it to this location.
Both of us could see that we were racing against time as the sun was setting fast and we had about half a mile of hiking to get to the edge of the canyon. We were both running as fast as we could, lugging our camera bag and tripod. We were so out of shape and out of gas (literally and figuratively).
At some point, I was so focused on getting the "shots" that I needed, I lost track of Russ. I was busy setting my camera and finding the angles, that I was not even aware on how steep the canyon was. I did manage to get the sunset as well as a few more shots and was overall happy with the outcome. Now, we could go fill in the gas, check-in to our hotel and have a relaxed dinner.
During dinner, while we were sharing the various pictures we had taken, he showed me this one and said, "It was so interesting to see you focused, in a zone and running around trying to get the perfect composition, I had to take one of you." It then hit me, that I had not taken a single picture of him. I felt bad to not have looked around, checked on him and in the moment(s) of capturing beauty, I was blind to the beauty happening around me...This picture will forever be special for me, as it reminds me to take a pause, look around, not to get lost with the work at hand at the expense of people around you.
Thank you Russ, for taking this picture and leaving me with a life lesson...
I leave you all with this quote:
“There is just wonder right in front of us, and we don’t spend enough time thinking about it.” — Michael Pollan
Until next time...Cheers!