A Moment of Clarity

For the greatest beauty always lies in the greatest clarity.
Gotthold Ephrain Lessing (German writer during the enlightenment years of the late 1700's)

Clarity

I had a divine moment of clarity yesterday.  Previous to this moment I was having trouble with my vision.  Everything has been a bit hazy and blurry for months now...some days worse than others.  I have been struggling to read, to photograph ( when I do) and driving at night is an absolute nightmare. 

Unable to afford the physical and financial expense of looking into the cause of this and to purchase  new glasses ( until recently...found a very cost effective optical store on line), I have accepted my lack of visual acuity.

I guess, I came to forget what I was missing...that is until I go to Light Room and Photoshop and pull out my raw photos, frig a bit with highlights and shadows...whites and blacks...clarity etc...and boom...I see the world in an amazing  new way. Every bit of texture, colour and contrast shows up and it floors me each and every time.  I see just how beautiful the world really is.

Seeing Clearly

Well yesterday we were walking in the woods with the dogs.  I was seeing the world around me as I usually do.  I was grateful for what I could see...it was indeed lovely.  I think I said "thank you"  in my head for the opportunity to be surrounded by the magnificent snow capped trees and to see the dogs playing in the snow and to have my man beside me. 

Then suddenly out of nowhere it was like I was in a Light Room image and someone was turning up the clarity.  Texture and colour  popped out of the trees.  I could suddenly see every ridge, every crevice on the bark.  The white of the snow looked so white. The blacks that created perfect shadows looked so black.  Contrast between the trees and snow suddenly was amazing...vibrant.  I looked at the dogs and could see them so clearly like I do in my enlarged photos. Their eyes were shining with light. It was like my eyes became my camera and the world I was walking through at that moment one of my photos. 

It was such a surreal experience.  I was in awe as I stood there and looked around me.  My man must have thought I was crazy because I couldn't articulate what I was seeing in words. I regretted that I did not have my actual camera with me at that moment ...because I thought...if I can shoot clear pictures with eyes that see poorly...imagine what I could give the world with eyes that saw like they did yesterday!  Everything was so very clear and I did not need any post processing program to make it so. 

It didn't last. 

I am struggling to see clearly now but I am so grateful for that moment of visual clarity yesterday for it taught me many things:

1. I need to do something about my eyes.  If the new glasses I ordered do not do something...I will have to look into it.  I want to see like I did yesterday!
2. I am meant to photograph...that is what ran through my head as it was happening.  I need to bring clear beauty to the world because there is so much truth in it's rawness!
3. I want truth in my life...the "real" for though there  are shadows and dark things...that contrast brings so much to the light...shadows and highlights of life work together as partners....they work together to create what is real.  That is what clarity is.
4. I want clarity in my photos and in my understanding of life!  I think I received a sign that it was coming.  :)

Hmmm!  What a moment.  The below photos were not shot yesterday but in December 2011...long before I ever knew what "clarity" in post processing was.  I drew them out yesterday in Light Room.  They were shot in jpeg and in black and white so I was limited in what I could do but increasing clarity was my goal, as it will be from now on.  A clearly seen  world is a beautiful world!.

 All is well in my world.