destinylaharris

Tag: inspiration

  • đź“· Learning to Look Closer #12: Between the Songs

    Concert photography makes you want to chase the obvious moments.

    The singer at the microphone.

    The lights hitting perfectly.

    The crowd with their hands in the air.

    The big moments.

    But sometimes I like the ones in between better.

    I took this photo at the concert, and there isn’t actually a whole lot happening in it.

    She isn’t singing into a microphone.

    There isn’t a giant explosion of lights behind her.

    There aren’t a hundred things fighting for your attention.

    It’s just her.

    Standing on the edge of the stage.

    Arms stretched toward the ceiling.

    Purple light and smoke filling almost everything around her.

    And somehow, that makes her feel even smaller and the moment feel even bigger.

    That’s what I keep coming back to when I look at this picture.

    The space.

    I could have cropped most of it away.

    I could have brought her closer and made her fill the frame.

    But I don’t think I want to.

    Because the empty space is part of the photograph.

    It shows how big that stage felt.

    How much atmosphere was hanging in the air.

    How one person can take up such a tiny part of a photograph and still be the first thing your eye finds.

    And I love the way she’s reaching into all of it.

    There’s something about concerts that photographs never quite capture.

    You can photograph the artist.

    You can photograph the lights.

    You can photograph the smoke.

    But you can’t really photograph the bass vibrating through your chest or the sound of hundreds of people singing the same words.

    You can’t photograph what it feels like to hear a song you love performed right in front of you.

    But every once in a while, I take a picture that feels like it caught a tiny piece of that feeling anyway.

    I think this is one of those.

    Not because I caught the biggest moment.

    Because I noticed the smaller one.

    And sometimes, when I look closer, those are the pictures I end up loving most.

    Until next time,
    —Destiny

    P.S. When you take pictures at concerts or events, do you usually photograph the big moments—or the little ones happening in between?

  • đź“š Dog-Eared Pages #1

    I’m only a couple of pages into this book, and it’s already made me stop.

    “She stuck out in a sea of black. Like a single white rose among a bed of thorns.”

    I love imagery that paints a picture before I know anything about the characters.

    As a writer, I’m always paying attention to those kinds of sentences. The ones that quietly tell you what kind of world you’re stepping into before the story has really begun.

    I’m excited to see where this one takes me.

    —Destiny

    P.S. What’s a line from a book that’s stayed with you long after you finished reading it?

  • đź““ Notebook Pages #2

    Every story starts somewhere.

    Sometimes it’s a character.

    Sometimes it’s a line of dialogue.

    Sometimes it’s just one question that refuses to leave your mind.

    This one arrived as a single sentence in the Notes app on my phone.

    I don’t know the lighthouse keeper’s name yet.

    I don’t know what waits beneath the waves.

    I don’t know whether this becomes a short story, a novel, or stays exactly as it is.

    But I know there’s something here.

    So before this idea has a chance to become anything else…

    I wanted to share the moment it began.

    When a lighthouse keeper chooses silence over truth to avert violence at sea, her restraint is noticed—and an ancient order beneath the waves must decide whether mercy can survive being seen.

    I love that stories don’t always arrive fully formed.

    Sometimes they begin with a single sentence.

    Sometimes that’s enough.

    Until next time,

    —Destiny

    P.S. Where do your best ideas find you? Mine seem to love the Notes app on my phone.