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Monday, August 22, 2011

Sometimes You Have to Look Up


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When I arrive at my part-time job at the cheese/gourmet food shop a couple of days per week, I park in a crowded municipal parking lot behind an adjoining building.  The store I work is located in a brick structure, across a small alley-way.  On leaving the car, I cross the length of the asphalt, around a dumpster, to a tight area packed with the angled cars of shop owners who have permits to park closer to our building.  At the brick-walled rear of the shop, I leap up the cement steps, pound on an industrial door and am swallowed inside for the next eight hours.  By the time I leave, I’m hot and tired and rush out, anxious to climb into my car.
 
Recently though, I stepped out on one of those humid summer nights when a liquid sun angles on the horizon, and paused to gaze across the littered lot.  It’s been a long time since I’ve paid attention to the back of the photographer’s studio, kitty-cornered from the dumpster across the way—a mistake I’ll try not to repeat.  That night, I had my own camera in my bag.  Pulling it out, I framed a close up, pretending that instead of a building at the edge of a downtown parking area, I’d captured the back of a sunny cottage, at the edge of a rural field. 

It's funny the way a camera can make us really see.

12 comments:

Bish Denham said...

And look at that, you DID capture a lovely cottage. Ahhh green, a color fading from our landscape here in drought stressed Texas.

Wine and Words said...

Cropping is a photographers best friend. That and the zoom lense. They create new worlds from ordinary things. A beautiful shot!

Alex J. Cavanaugh said...

Wow, you'd never know that was located downtown!

'Yellow Rose' Jasmine said...

This is what I love about photography- the ability to share what you really see in your heart and mind with others, while being able to take away distractions that don't add to your vision. Great shot!

J.B. Chicoine said...

We do tend to 'see' what we focus on. And we also want to believe what we want to believe--if you had said the frame was shot at the back of a sunny cottage, at the edge of a rural field, I'd have believed you. Ain't fiction great! ;)

...looks like a nice spot to eat a bag lunch...

Anne Gallagher said...

What a beautiful place. I never would have guessed it was in the city.

Reena said...

Absolutely stunning! The camera has made me look totally closer at the world around me. I'm loving it!

Jan Morrison said...

You are so right...and beauty is everywhere when we're looking for it. Just going to take the dog and my camera out now.

Mary@GigglesandGuns said...

I couldn't believe it is the backyard in the city.
I almost wish I hadn't read that. I prefer the cottage image.
M Beth Vaughn

Liza said...

Well, I guess I better clarify...the "cottage" is not in the city. It lines a littered parking lot behind the downtown shops in a suburb of about 26,000. Nonetheless, it is a little oasis facing nondescript brick walls, parked cars and dumpsters. It is so unexpected, it reminds me a bit of the book, The Secret Garden.

Terri Tiffany said...

It's beautiful! Hi Liza, it is so good to meet you and also someone who understands the pain of losing your career and what happens next. I believe my move to Texas is from God and that he was just waiting for us to get on board:)

Talei said...

It really is a cottage at the edge of a rural field. I can see it in the countryside now. Lovely. Amazing what you can find in your city.