Realise beauty through the lens

In an age of Snapchat, Facebook, Instagram and Vine it’s very easy for nay-sayers to write off cameras and photography in general. Maybe the accessibility of cameras means that we don’t ever watch anything that is happening in front of us anymore. And you could argue that because we spend so much time glued to screens we find it difficult to pull ourselves away to enjoy the real world. To an extent I think this can be true, it is impossible to see any kind of event or concert without a host of phones and cameras filling the air. Maybe these people are missing out on the experience that is in front of them, but I would argue it depends why you are taking a picture or filming something.

I try to record beauty and memories

That is what I try to focus on when filming or photographing something. I either want to remember it for me, or I want to be able to share how beautiful or exciting something is. I’m sure there are people who record stuff just for bragging rights. And that’s fine if that’s why you go somewhere. I carry my camera with me a lot, and that’s mainly because you never know when you are going to find something cool or interesting going on. But occasionally I will intentionally go out to take photos, and that is when I think you can properly appreciate your surroundings.

Daily life is distracting

I work as an English teacher, I teach anywhere between two and six hours a day, five days a week. So a large portion of my time is absorbed with teaching, marking and planning lessons. And it doesn’t matter where you are in the world, this is the same (likely more) and it is hard to pull yourself away from work to appreciate your surroundings. I am fortunate enough to live in Madrid, but when I’m sat at home marking exams it’s easy to forget this fact. So every week or two I try to go out with my camera solely with the intention of taking photos or doing some filming. I might never share what I shoot or film, but the point is I am walking around places I see every day, solely with the purpose of finding them interesting and beautiful.

For example yesterday I had an hour after work before I needed to be anywhere. So I took my camera and headed to an area of the city im in most days, it was dark and so that meant everything looked and felt different to start with. And I tried to just see everything I see daily in a different light. The first few photos I took were nothing special.

But after a while of wandering and trying to find something more interesting I started to see parts of the city I had never really seen before, I think I got some good stuff out of it!

Whether I did or I didn’t it doesn’t matter. What matters is that I got to enjoy the place I live in even after being here for 4 months.

So even if you take your phone and nothing else. Treat it as your camera and really think about taking beautiful photos. Then you’ll start to realise you’re surrounded by it, everywhere!

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