Return to beauty?

Welcome.

For all of you who place special importance on this date - February 14th - here's an image.

This was taken a few months back while I was engaged in my usual evening walk along the local beach.  I saw the young couple who appeared to be tourists from the Far East.  They walked out toward the water's edge and when they stopped I made the photo.

So, for all of you who are in love with that someone special, or who ever have been - this shot is for you.

In the previous post I touched on what I consider the importance of 'getting the shot'.  I mentioned that we are surrounded everyday by beautiful things as well as things that are not so beautiful.

Kinda gets one to thinking about beauty itself.

My dictionary defines it as "That quality or assemblage of qualities which gives the eye or the other senses intense pleasure; or that characteristic in a material object or an abstraction which gratifies the intellect or the moral feeling."

Does that mean that in the non-beautiful there is beauty if it gives intense pleasure? I don't know.

Perhaps the old adage is true - "beauty is in the eye of the beholder".


One thing I do know is that each of us interprets it differently.  Reckon that may be a good thing.

For some, beauty is found in the face of their newborn child.  For others, a glorious sunset or other wonder of creation.  Yet others find their beauty in music, whether it be Mozart or Led Zeppelin.

All of those things bring some sort of joy and pleasure and I always enjoy anything that brings a smile because of some indefinable aesthetic, but for me the holy grail has always been and probably will always be the smile of a pretty woman.

I have known many beautiful women in my time. For each that came into my life in a meaningful way I can actually recall where we met and what I thought the first time I saw her - except for one who left me void of all conscious thought for about ten seconds (and we still laugh about that!)

The thing is, after a while you don't notice the physical beauty. It becomes secondary to their character. Tell me - isn't that a more important kind of beauty?

Then every now and again you might suddenly catch a pose or look or a glance which brings the beauty crashing back upon you.  

Kate Bush sang about "beauty's potency".  How right she was.

 It can be a powerful thing, whether in a person, in Art or in nature itself.

Me, I'll always been in awe of the beautiful things I come across or in the beautiful people I meet or know.  It's just the way it is.  

I guess photographers, along with other visual artists notice the everyday beauty more than those who are not inclined toward an artistic or creative way of thinking. 

 It may be that you simply notice the light.  Or perhaps some overgrown statue or figurine catches your eye. 

It could be the pattern that the receding tide makes in the sand. It could be anything at all.

That's why I love to carry a camera with me at all times.

Perhaps it is a passion - although I think it may have gone beyond that to become an addiction.

Perhaps my attempts at photography are nothing more that a vain attempt to capture it for all time, to prevent it leaving.

Or, perhaps, I am merely one of those whom Leonard Cohen described as being "oppressed by the figures of beauty".

Stay safe.