ILLUMINATE (Please click on photo to see it in full) - Wed Jan 17th, early morning: Checking my phone, I come across the theme for this weeks Nordic Lens Photo Challenge – “Illuminate.” I know I already have a photo that would be perfect…. but taking photos specifically for the challenge is encouraged, so I wonder if I might be able to create something new.

Pulling back the curtains, I look out onto a transformed world – six inches of snow fell during the night and it is still snowing heavily. My table lamp is reflecting onto the window pane and the scene outside. Hmmm, could this be the illumination I’m looking for? Moving this way and that, I find that if I stand in the right spot, the lamp appears to be shining its warm beam onto a spindly Chestnut tree which is curved and hindered by the dense Douglas fir tree it is growing under. I find it to be a poignant and fitting image. This little tree could definitely use some more light. I also muse about how our little dreams, worthy of and needing our attention, can sometimes get lost and neglected under bigger things – perhaps jobs or roles we’ve outgrown, societal expectations, or life’s general difficulties. Sometimes in life we may also simply feel overlooked, undervalued, or overwhelmed and we can need others to shine their illuminating love and support on us as well.

Grabbing my camera, I experiment with slightly different camera angles and shifts in the lamp’s position. While my camera implores me to turn on the flash, I resist at first - I find the flash often changes colours in ways I dislike - but then I give it a go. Wow. The added burst highlights and captures the densely falling snow which had not shown up at all in the previous photos, and perhaps some light bouncing back off the glass as well. All this added ‘sparkle’ obscures some of the bigger picture and yet, the result is magical. Illumination can be wily that way, can’t it? How much, when, and where we focus our light, our attention, can reveal or hide or even do both simultaneously. And sometimes focusing on and valuing the little close up details can add beauty and mystery to the broader picture of our lives and work, often in unexpected ways.

I hope my piece speaks to you, and may a warm illuminating light shine on you and your life, exactly where it is needed the most.

Blessings to you,

Lindsay

P.S. Thank you