Photography has been an essential part of my life for…well…all my life. This Christmas will mark the 63rd anniversary of my receipt of a Kodak Brownie camera that Santa gave me. My first photograph was of the decorated Christmas tree under which the camera had been just minutes before. My second photograph was of the neighbor’s front door. The Andersons always made their door out to be Santa (or was it an elf?) using shimmery, colored papers. I guess the ordinary things in life caught my attention early.

In a couple of weeks, I will be reviewing images from members of the Houston Photographic Study Group that they took for my assignment. The assignment challenged them to find images in the ordinary, and I used a quote from the photographic great, Elliott Erwitt, to inspire them. I hope it worked. He said, “To me, photography is an art of observation. It’s about finding something interesting in an ordinary place… I’ve found it has little to do with the things you see and everything to do with the way you see them.”

The last nine words are critical. My first photography book is titled The Seeing, Not the Taking. and I believe the most essential element of photographers’ work is how they see. Then their job is to use their technical skills and creative decisions to create an image that shares with others what they saw.

Rejuvenated by the assignment and Erwitt’s quote, I re-visited the work of one of my early heroes, Jay Maisel. I also saw anew some of my own work with new eyes, particularly my photo-of-the-day series, A Beauty-full Life 2019. I encourage you to review and re-visit your own work, too. Seeing the images and reading the messages for each of the photographs that I created for the project, I am reminded of moments in which they were seen and created. That is motivating, energizing and inspiring, too. Moments observing lead to moments creating which leads to a lifetime of wonderful memories.

(Content and photographs (c) copyright Dion McInnis)