Her Majesty, Nature
So much of Her majesty is in our periphery. That’s why no frame can do justice to Nature.
We too often treat nature as an object of consumption rather than the sacred setting for conscious experience. We go places to get pictures, rather than for the going itself.
Even a picture that's worth a 1000 words is worthless on the scale of the ineffable. How many words have been written about Nature? How many books? Have we exhausted the subject? Nope! And we never will.
Part of Nature's ineffability is Her scope and grandeur. No matter where you look or what you focus on, it's flanked by more of Her. A photo has fixed dimensions, yet Nature is unbounded. That's why pictures are especially futile when it comes to understanding Her.
By coercing Nature into a frame, we omit so much of Her majesty, which is in our periphery.
Slow Your Shutter Speed
We’re constantly in motion, falling from one moment into the next. We pose and smile, a camera's shutter snaps, then we move on to the next place for the next picture. We make the world stop for us rather than stopping to share a moment with the world.
Instead of consuming Her and trying to capture Her, let's connect with Nature.
Pictures are important and valuable. They remind us of the places we've been and how it felt to be there. And they help us communicate places to those who haven't been. I'm not against pictures. I just want to emphasize the sanctity and ineffability of Nature.
Let's try to fully appreciate Her. For a few moments or minutes, keep the phone in your pocket and take a few long-exposure photos with your eyeballs. Because no frame can do justice to Nature.
I'll leave you with some beautiful words from John Muir that may inspire your next adventure:
So abundant and novel are the objects of interest in a pure wilderness that […] it matters little where you go, or how often to the same place. Wherever you chance to be always seems at the moment of all places the best.
Springboard:
Find one of your favorite nature photos. Why does it strike you? Is it because of the photo itself or because of what you know lies beyond the frame?
P.S. Sometimes we emulate Nature by creating sacred spaces. Last week, I wrote about such a place in the New York Public Library: "The Sanctity of the Rose Reading Room".