Jenny Waldo
FF: The Human Eye

This happened again this morning as I walked the kids to school. I was shooting into the sun, so I wasn’t surprised that the building and the kids were silhouetted, but I was surprised at how well I could see them. How perfect the lighting. It was as if I could “zoom” in with my eyes as I watched the kids walk up. And my camera failed me.

I am a very visual person. What I see before me, every day, effects my mood, my thoughts, my actions, and my inspiration. When I was a teenager, I had my camera with me always. Nowadays, with smartphones, we always have our cameras with us, but back then, it was unusual to carry around a 35mm camera everywhere. But I would see things on the street, in my daily life, and wish I had a camera. I was constantly looking for the perfect shot to every moment. In a way, it distanced me from being in the moment because I was always analyzing how I would capture it. I would despair over forever losing a particular shot if I didn’t have my camera. I relied on it to document life around me.
Today, I live in a city where there is not much visual aesthetic, but I have found the secret places of beauty. More importantly, I embrace the moment and the images I’m seeing with my own eyes, not just through a lens.