raisin break

 

No real surprise that the client didn’t choose this image. I didn’t expect it to sell even in the moment it was made. But since I’m intrigued by tiny tender tasks tenaciously taken on with thoughtfulness and full attention (testing myself to see just how many “t” words I could cram into one sentence)…….. I not only took the shot, I rebelliously included it in the proof selection.

We adults often forget how it was to be a child where any and every simple event is worthy of plunging our whole selves into it. Of course the event is worthy, no matter how seemingly insignificant it may appear to be. Because it’s happening *now*. What could be more important than that?

Images that come forth from a instant of real presence are the ones that invariably draw me in. It is for this reason that I continue to photograph children even though it can at times be trying. They’re so easily able to shift gears and be completely where they are at any given time. And I like observing this–remembering how life’s morsels are supposed to be deliciously savored.

She’d been swinging, and everything about her was focused only on the act of swinging. And then it was time for a raisin break, and so she poured every ounce of her little being into the process of eating those raisins. The swinging was forgotten. What was coming next hadn’t entered her mind. The lady with a camera only inches from her face didn’t phase her one bit. It was just her and the raisins along with a soft breeze and the warmth of the morning sun gently caressing her skin that mattered.

Tiny moment.

~Cynthia