A couple of weeks ago during class, my Nature Writing Professor brought us three types of cookies to taste as part of an introduction to our next assignment. He made delicious homemade cookies for my class and explained the ingredients that he walked for a half hour to get. Professor Cooper told us about his walk and explained how, even when in a rush, he takes time to cherish his surroundings.
That day on my walk back to my dorm from class, I saw things around me that I usually had not noticed. I stopped to photograph a dewy tree that held vibrant, red berries that glistened in the early sunlight. I walked among the hot pink flowers that lined the sidewalk and took photos of these as well. As I neared my dorm, nearly a mile walk away on south campus, I stared at the leaves that were in the process of changing color from green to red and yellow and brown and orange. On the ground, I saw some leaves that were made of each of these colors, holding rain from the night before. Some leaves had several drops of water on their backs, and a few had small pools of water in the center of their curved figures. I photographed these as well.
Being an artist myself, I have always known that the art of photography is beautiful. But after taking this class for a mere few weeks, I have learned that it is not necessarily the photo that is beautiful – what is beautiful is the object in the photograph and the time taken to cherish it. –Heather