Cool, very cool. 'Consider the lilies of the field....'

'Another cold snap', we call these below freezing days on the Pacific coast of Canada, and really if our pipes are not frozen or our car will not start these dry, cold, windy and sunny days provide a welcome break from the warmer grey overcast and slanting rain that is our normal winter fare.

  

This morning I took my camera down the trail into the forest and found,as I had expected, that the spray from a small waterfall had frozen into beautiful patterns. I spent some minutes crouching down close so I could peer through the viewfinder and then finished off by free-styling with my Nikon held down by the ice at arm's length to find its own focus and framing.

I hoped for some interesting images, but of course it was these moments spent down at the base of the falls and focused on my task that I remember from my whole day of activities. It is not often mentioned in photography, where the hunt for the image, the trophy, seems paramount, but I wonder if, as for the big game hunters of yesteryear, the experience of being in relationship with the subject, where the hunter feels himself to also be the one hunted, is not the major benefit.

To find these beautiful constructions flung out upon the rim of the pond makes me think of 'consider the lilies of the field...' and that perhaps that is all that is called for - to consider carefully, to experience a sense of participation in the natural world if only for a few moments every day.