destinylaharris

Tag: everyday photography

  • 📸 Learning to Look Closer #16: After the Noise

    At first glance, there isn’t much happening in this photograph.

    An empty set of bleachers. A fence surrounding a ballfield. Trees silhouetted against the fading light.

    Nothing particularly exciting.

    But look a little closer.

    There’s a red ball sitting in the grass, just outside the fence.

    It’s such a small detail that you could easily miss it. I almost wonder how many people would look at this photograph without noticing it at all.

    And yet, once you see it, it’s hard to stop looking at it.

    I don’t know who left it there. Maybe someone forgot it. Maybe they planned to come back for it. Maybe it had been sitting there for hours before I ever took the picture.

    I have no idea.

    But I started thinking about how different places can feel depending on when we see them.

    A ballfield is usually somewhere you’d expect to hear people laughing, shouting, cheering, or arguing over whether somebody was actually out. 😂

    There are games to be played, people to watch, and probably at least one person taking everything a little too seriously.

    But here?

    Nothing.

    Just empty seats, an empty field, and one little red ball.

    It’s funny how a place doesn’t have to change for it to feel completely different.

    The bleachers are still there. The fence hasn’t moved. The field is exactly where it was before.

    The only thing missing is the activity we associate with it.

    And I think that’s what caught my attention about this photograph.

    Not everything interesting has to be happening right in front of us.

    Sometimes, it’s what isn’t happening that makes us stop and look.

    I could have photographed the sky. The colors were beautiful, and the trees looked lovely against the fading light.

    But I like this picture better.

    Because there’s something about an empty place that makes you notice things you probably wouldn’t have seen when it was full.

    Like a little red ball sitting quietly in the grass.

    Something ordinary.

    Something easily overlooked.

    Something that made me stop for just a moment longer.

    And sometimes, that’s enough.

    Until next time,

    — Destiny

    P.S. Have you ever visited a familiar place when nobody else was around and realized how different it felt without all the usual noise?

  • 📷 Learning to Look Closer #10

    I think one of my favorite things about doing this series is realizing that I don’t actually have to go looking for something worth photographing.

    Most of the time, it’s already there.

    I just have to notice it.

    And apparently this week, the things that made me stop ranged from a tiny gothic sticker on a gas pump to Batman secretly being an alarm clock.

    So.

    You know.

    A very normal assortment of things. 😂

    A Tiny Gas-Pump Stranger

    I stopped for gas this week and noticed this little lady hanging out on the pump.

    That’s it.

    That’s the entire story. 😂

    I have absolutely no idea who put her there.

    I don’t know how long she’s been there.

    But there was something about this tiny, gothic, horned woman sitting directly above a giant WARNING sign that made me stop for a second.

    Someone had this sticker.

    Someone decided this gas pump was where she belonged.

    And now everybody who stops there gets a tiny piece of that stranger’s personality without ever knowing who they were.

    I kinda love that.

    Lunch, According to Tiny Humans

    This one is not pretty.

    There is absolutely no artistic arrangement happening here. 😂

    But this is what happens when you let a four-year-old and two one-year-olds have opinions about lunch.

    Reese’s-filled pretzels.

    Mandarin oranges—or, judging by the crime scene, what used to be mandarin oranges.

    And whatever else apparently made sense at the time.

    There are peels everywhere.

    Containers everywhere.

    Wipes in the background.

    Random cups.

    Absolute chaos.

    And I almost wouldn’t have thought to take a picture of it because it’s just a messy table.

    Except…

    it’s also one of those pictures I think I’ll like more later than I do right now.

    Because someday there won’t be tiny people making absolute disasters out of lunch.

    And this?

    This is what life looked like while there were.

    Messy counts, too.

    The Sky Was Showing Off

    And then there was this morning.

    Nothing particularly interesting was happening underneath that sky.

    Buildings.

    A fence.

    A basketball hoop.

    Trees.

    Just ordinary things I see all the time.

    But above all of it?

    That.

    Pink.

    Orange.

    Purple.

    One of those sunrises that makes you stop whatever you’re doing for a second because apparently the sky has decided to be dramatic before you’ve even fully started your day.

    And I’m glad I noticed.

    Because a few minutes later, it was gone.

    Wait…That’s a Clock?

    And finally:

    Batman.

    One of my kiddos brought this into class today, and at first I didn’t think anything of it.

    It was LEGO Batman.

    Cool.

    Then I looked again.

    Wait.

    Is Batman telling me what time it is?

    😂

    Apparently, yes.

    It was an alarm clock.

    I had looked directly at the giant digital numbers in his stomach and somehow my brain had decided those were simply none of my business.

    And weirdly enough, I think Batman might sum up this entire series better than anything else I photographed this week.

    Because Learning to Look Closer doesn’t always mean finding something beautiful.

    Sometimes it does.

    Sometimes you look up and catch a sunrise before it disappears.

    But sometimes it means noticing a tiny sticker somebody left behind.

    Sometimes it means realizing that the messy table in front of you is evidence of a very specific season of your life.

    And sometimes…

    it means looking at LEGO Batman twice before realizing the man has been telling you the time this entire time.

    😂

    There are things worth noticing everywhere.

    Beautiful things.

    Funny things.

    Messy things.

    Completely pointless little things that make you smile for half a second.

    You just have to actually look at them.

    Until next time,

    —Destiny

    P.S. What’s something you’ve looked directly at before realizing what you were actually looking at? 😂