Earlier this week over dinner, I was talking with a friend about photography. It’s always something that I’ve felt a connection with / pull towards. Even as a kid, I remember taking pics of the sky with disposable film cameras, never to be developed. The idea of creating art without paint or pen and pencil was just cool. Over time, the love of the imagery grew into a love of the camera itself, the feel and mechanics. I found myself at our local Borders browsing the photo magazines while sipping on a chai latte. It was there that I stumbled on LensWork magazine and a particular article that expanded photography beyond the imagery and the machine, pushing it into a philosophy, a way of life. I don’t know the exact quote but it went something like this …

“Being a photographer teaches you to look at the world differently."

It wasn’t long after that realized how true that was. I was noticing details glossed over by others. I was paying more attention the light and shadow, reflections and distortions. I was drawn to how colors played off each other and how lines guided the eye. I was finding beauty in everyday things.

The day day after dinner, Leica posted The impermanence of things - Cédric Roux with the Leica Q3 to YouTube. At one point early on, I paused and made note of this line …

“I photograph whenever I have free time, to show others what they don’t take the time to see."

I’m not sure that folks don’t necessarily take the time to see. I think that maybe some just can’t, life being what it is. For all of those people, I hope for a few moments of quiet, to let the mind wonder. To see beyond the surface of things or simply be fascinated with the superficial.

While being a photographer, even casually, may be a way to see life, it isn’t the only way to see the beauty in everday things.

Making our way downtown and stumbled upon of some solid Einsteinian vibes. Not wrong, Albert … not wrong at all.

Back in the 90’s, when I started traveling to NYC on bus trips hosted by my dad’s work, we always started off from the Port Authority making our way uptown through Central Park before training down to the East Village. Often times, we made our turn around in the park up by the Met, crossing under this particular bridge. Back then, it always seemed that there was a violinist playing, taking advantage of the amazing acoustics. Loving NYC, Central Park and the violin, I started tossing a few bucks in the open case when passing by … starting a tradition I tend to keep with each visit. This time round, we had a saxophonist.

Maybe it’s not that uncommon but I always find joy in those moments when I can stand in the middle of a street in NYC to snap a photo and not worry about getting hit or honked at. On this (rare?) occasion, I was able to do so twice in one day.

I tend to start my days, weekend or not, with coffee, some form of breakfast and catching up on the internet … a couple of photography sites, seeing what happened on BlueSky over night, reading through my feeds on Feedly. The routine this Sunday morning hit differently when hitting the socials and the feeds. It was no more worse than it has been since it all started, maybe I wasn’t awake enough, defenses not yet fully in place. Had to quit out of the browser and move on to other things.

Fast forward to this morning, alarm going off after a night of fitful sleeping, absolute hangover feeling. Going through the morning routine, now with work email sprinkled in, discovered that reading comprehension wasn’t a thing that was happening. Decided to shuffle meetings and take the day, clear the head, maybe get some sleep. Wasn’t completely successful.

Sleep is still elusive but decided to get out for a walk on an overcast day, took the Q3 along for the ride. Solo walks with a camera always seem to shake the mood when it strikes. Think it helped.

The mood and the cloud cover pushed things into mono, snapping shots of things that felt interesting. Looking back, can totally see a theme.

First full day, waking up in Iceland. It was so very early with so little sleep and so little warmth … but was so very beautiful. The previous afternoon was spent exploring Reykjavík, now we were venturing out into the wilderness. First stop, the Thingvellir National Park. Literally translated to “Assembly Plains”, the park exists between tectonic plates and is approximately 92 square miles in size, slowly expanding by 2.5cm each year. Turn your head to the left, yeah, that’s the North American tectonic plate … insane.