A tourist in your own home
School holidays and a 6 year old daughter looking for fun activities. What to do? Well I'm by no means a photographer, I take pictures without to much thought over settings, but I have had the desire to learn photography for years. The time had arrived and I could kill two birds with one stone (mind you I like wildlife so that's not a great metaphor), a photography expedition; Daughter and father and two cameras. My daughter thought it was a great idea, so into the city we ventured.
Alas it was a wet and cloudy day however the temperature was pleasant so we ventured out. I actually enjoyed the weather it gave a certain ambiance to the city and the normal school holiday crowds were sparse on the ground. It's amazing how deliberately walking the city with a camera changes your perception of what is interesting. Particularly when you let a 6 year old loose with a camera. Kids see the world in a totally different way than adults. I think in our hectic world it's easy to suffer from sensory overload; our brains respond by going into an automatic pilot mode; we may move around a lot but the background images are years old. You only realise this when you provide a reason to you brain to stop rehashing what you think you know about your surroundings and request that it take a closer look. Perhaps a good metaphor is to become a tourist in your own home! To the tourist everything is fascinating from a weird looking roof, an unusual plant and all the people you encounter. When I made the move 12 years a go from Melbourne to Sydney I recall with fondness how alert and stimulated I was to my newly adopted city. Alas time corrodes our senses, as an apathy to our environment sets in.
Perhaps the highlight of our outing was the botanical gardens; after hours of looking at the harsh angles of buildings and streets the respite of the botanical gardens was welcome. Yet i couldn't help noticing that even here there is an artificial undertow that stops you from really feeling the true power of nature. Every plant in the Botanical gardens is there in accordance to the designers scheme. It's beautiful and green but a poor imitation of the wilderness, a zoo for plants! It's a pity I often think that the reason why our planet is in such dire straights is a direct result of urbanisation over the centuries. I highly recommend Hugh Brody's the other side of Eden for a more refined insight into this line of thought. Alas a writer I am not.
Needless to say the day was an enjoyable one.
Alas it was a wet and cloudy day however the temperature was pleasant so we ventured out. I actually enjoyed the weather it gave a certain ambiance to the city and the normal school holiday crowds were sparse on the ground. It's amazing how deliberately walking the city with a camera changes your perception of what is interesting. Particularly when you let a 6 year old loose with a camera. Kids see the world in a totally different way than adults. I think in our hectic world it's easy to suffer from sensory overload; our brains respond by going into an automatic pilot mode; we may move around a lot but the background images are years old. You only realise this when you provide a reason to you brain to stop rehashing what you think you know about your surroundings and request that it take a closer look. Perhaps a good metaphor is to become a tourist in your own home! To the tourist everything is fascinating from a weird looking roof, an unusual plant and all the people you encounter. When I made the move 12 years a go from Melbourne to Sydney I recall with fondness how alert and stimulated I was to my newly adopted city. Alas time corrodes our senses, as an apathy to our environment sets in.
Perhaps the highlight of our outing was the botanical gardens; after hours of looking at the harsh angles of buildings and streets the respite of the botanical gardens was welcome. Yet i couldn't help noticing that even here there is an artificial undertow that stops you from really feeling the true power of nature. Every plant in the Botanical gardens is there in accordance to the designers scheme. It's beautiful and green but a poor imitation of the wilderness, a zoo for plants! It's a pity I often think that the reason why our planet is in such dire straights is a direct result of urbanisation over the centuries. I highly recommend Hugh Brody's the other side of Eden for a more refined insight into this line of thought. Alas a writer I am not.
Needless to say the day was an enjoyable one.
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Leanne
Have fun blogging.
http://medessa.blogspot.com
Medessa aka elaine