Life moves pretty fast…
“Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in awhile, you could miss it.”-Ferris Bueller
The other day Hope was on her way over to help me set up my photography and painting studios in my house. I have a lot of cleaning and reorganizing to do before the studios will be able to be used, so she volunteered to help me do some of the work. She also wanted some help picking out outfits for an upcoming shoot. When she was about 5 minutes from my place she called me and with a very excited tone in her voice said “Have you seen how amazingly beautiful the river is right now? I so want to do a shoot there!” This was during the coldest part of the recent cold front which had hit much of the North East and at the time the temperature was nearly 0 degrees. It was about an hour and a half before sunset. And yet she wanted to do a photo shoot! I admitted to her that I had not stopped to look at the river, no matter how much I drive by it, but I told her that I was up for the shoot as long as she could brave the cold. After all, I would be wearing my warm columbia jacket, hat and gloves, while she would be outside wearing very light clothing. She hurried up and did her make up and then we picked out a second outfit for her to wear after shooting in her blue jeans. The shoot turned out amazing, and we had a lot of fun taking the photos!
I drive along the Allegheny river at least twice a day, and yet I had not stopped once to admire the scenery along the river. The week long cold front which had plunged temperatures into the single digits had turned the river into a beautiful sheet of ice. It was nearing sunset and so there was the element of the golden hour to add to the beauty of the scenery. Add a beautiful lady to the scenery and you have everything you need for amazing photos! To think that if was not for Hope calling me to point out just how beautiful things were, I probably would have missed it. Instead of focusing on how bitter cold it was outside, I allowed myself to focus for a brief period on the beauty of the scenery and was rewarded greatly for doing so.
And so I encourage you as I encourage myself, take time from your busy life to stop, look around and enjoy the beauty in life. Otherwise, you may miss out on something amazing.
