cacophony

I love this photo.

It’s not great photography — The logo on his shirt is distracting, the knee in the frame is distracting, he’s on the wrong side of the bench, looking out of the frame.

But. I love it anyway. I love the color and the backlighting and the DOF and the texture of the bench.

And I love the expression on his face, and the gesture with his hand.

My boy is a storyteller. He loves to make up long, rambling tales in his head and share them with anyone who will listen. And I do mean anyone who will listen. He talks to everybody. All the strangers we see in a day — at the store, on a walk, in the doctor’s office — if there are people there, he’s talking to them. For his Mama, who is painfully shy, this is a difficult habit of his — I have to battle with the need to shush him, or to apologize for him, daily — even though he’s doing nothing wrong. I am learning. He teaches me, challenges me, as much as I do him, I think. I am a better, more complete person for being a mother to this child.

He was out riding his tricycle when he decided he wanted to rest on the bench for a few minutes. Crouched down in front of him, I asked him what he was thinking about. And there’s my little storyteller. He tells me about the race he’s in on his tricycle, who’s winning, how fast he can go. He gets so excited. He’s got that grin on his face, and in that moment, I don’t think he remembers that I’m there. He’s lost in the world in his head, seeing things no one else can see when he looks out at the street.

This is one of the things I love about photography, particularly people photography. This is a glimpse into his world, and at the same time, a glimpse into my brain. I love looking at photographs because I love seeing the world through someone else’s eyes. I love taking photographs because I love capturing what the world looks like through my eyes, for just a moment. No one else would have taken exactly this photo. Someone else would have seen something completely different.

I learn a little something new about the world every time I look at a photograph.