Everything is in the detail

It’s been a couple of weeks since I arrived here and I’m feeling bad. Not because of the city but because I haven’t taken photos! I’ve been so busy with getting settled that photography has gone to low priority right now. Not good, not good at all. Practice, practice, practice. It should be done every day. Just like a professional musician or an athlete who wakes up early everyday to exercise their skills, a photographer should do the same (not necessarily wake up early but you get the idea). Always aiming for better, always keeping my eyes open to the particularities of the world, to the hidden beauty, the details, patterns, textures and shapes that an untrained eye would miss.

Everything is on the detail. The minimum curve of metal can create a beautiful image if you pay attention. If you study it, go around it, observe how the light shapes it and then play with it. How can you manipulate the light to make it change? Or do you want to leave it as it is? From a rock to a human being, photography builds a certain intimacy with your subject and everything else simply disappears. Countless times I have been found caught in this surreal dance without noticing people around me trying to find what is so beautiful that I’m trapped in it. Just like that, I want this city to trap me too.

Beginnings

Just moved to a new city I have to discover. I always wanted to do it, curiosity wouldn’t leave me alone. I like discovering, learning new things about me and my surroundings. Still, everything in this city seems so strange and detached though. Am I suppose to start calling it home? Such a strong word for an unknown place like this one. I’ll wait and see if this city grows on me.

The air is good here. After living in a polluted city for so long, fresh air seems unreal and light weighted; filling but barely there. Ah! Plenty of sunlight. There’s no better gift you could give a photographer; generous amounts of sunlight to play with. Us, the sunlight masters; sounds more magical than it is but I like to think of it that way.

“Alef Seladi, Permanent Resident”. I had to go all the way didn’t I? Why not just a visitor’s visa to see if I like it here first?  I thought it tedious to go through all the bureaucratic paper work again, might just do it all once. I hope I didn’t make a bad decision but I can’t afford to go anywhere else anymore so I must make the best out of this. No turning back now for nothing or no one (no one? Who am I kidding?).

My best friend is here with me, safe in his cozy bag; my gorgeous 5D camera which I bought many years ago with saved money. I worked so hard to get it! And is now here next to me, my only companion, the extension of my eye, immortalizer of my views. This city is screaming to be discovered by me and my friend; to be photographed, to be called home. I think I’ll like it here.