About a year and a half ago I took my first photo with professional-grade photography equipment, marking a shift from many years before, when my only outlet for photography was my iPhone lens. I had taken tens of thousands of photos through my digital screen by clicking a button and then moving on to what was next, but it was not until I discovered the nuances of photography that I realized that each photo was much more than a frozen memory for an Instagram post at the end of the semester.
In reality, photography offers a unique opportunity for us to choose to see the extraordinary in the ordinary and appreciate the little details. Once we change the lens that we view life through, everything from the most boring task to the most daunting challenge can be interpreted as beautiful rather than burdensome. Finding beauty in the little things, even when it may not be easy, can make a photo contest-worthy or a stressful life peaceful.
Capturing the minute features that make a photo great takes thought. Anyone can click the shutter on the basketball player going in for a slam dunk, the sunset over campus or the skyscraper in the center of town. These choices are easy to see because they are big moments with action and impact. But what about the relatively unnoticed parts of each of those photo opportunities? The crowd’s reaction to the dunk, the refractions of sunlight through the stained glass in St. John’s Church and the cloud formations behind the buildings, for example. Each of these features of a photo are underappreciated, but they still function to make the photo special.
I have found that this fixation on the significant goes beyond just the moments you are holding the camera. In life, we tend to give the greatest focus to what is most flashy and impactful: our future, the career-determining exam next week, significant others, etc. That is not to suggest that we shouldn’t focus on these high-impact elements, because they are, well, important. However, zooming in too much on these factors can make life feel like a trap that is far heavier than it is meant to be. Rather, I would advocate for more appreciation of the little moments that we experience every day, such as the smile of a friend.
In other words, I’d encourage you to zoom out on the aspects that you find weighing you down (if only briefly) and take a step back to evaluate the whole photo that is your life. If these lessons from photography have taught me anything, it is that sometimes the best photos come as a result of noticing the most minute details.