Zooming In

Walk, eat, sex, sleep, walk, eat, sex, sleep, wash, rinse and repeat.

I went to Montreal on a mini-vacation in hopes of being intellectually and creatively stimulated; instead it was all about physical sensations.  I tried to be inspired.  I looked at everything with an artist's eye, stole away for some alone time with my journal, and stayed alert during conversations for interesting bits of information.  The city wanted to be felt rather than observed.  Complying, I inhaled the aromas, ate wonderful meals and washed them down with velvety red wine, felt my cheeks grow cold in the wind and legs fatigued from walking, and connected to the spirit of the people.

My youngest son had requested that I photo-document my trip to Montreal.  It was a reasonable request and since I love taking photographs it wouldn't put me out at all.  I was spoiled in college with access to Penn State yearbook department's SLR Cannon with motor drive and any lens you could ever want.  At football games in Beaver Stadium, I could zoom in for details on the players sweaty faces, use the motor drive to shoot every split second of a play, or use a wide angle lens to capture the size and scope of almost 90,000 spectators.  (Except for the day that I forgot to load the film.)  On this trip I only had the camera on my iPhone 4.

His request was not ignored, but I rarely found a shot that would have translated well in a photo.  He wanted to see these pictures so that he would know what my experiences were like, but I knew that couldn't happen.  In a photo he wouldn't be able to see my feeling of accomplishment when the waiter understood my French, or the youthful indignation of the parade of protesting college students, or the softness of the linens on the freshly made bed. There were a few shots that I found interesting, and captured them for posterity even without being able to chose the lens length.  A few minutes ago I took a look at them and found that the button had been turned to video, so many of the photographs I had taken were actually little videos.  I played them back.  Each video started with the image that I thought I was shooting and then swung to the phone being placed in the side pocket of my purse; some blurry images were visible at the top.  Audio was recording.  Most of the clips captured me and my boyfriend talking with a susurrus of French voices in the background.  And laughing; I didn't realize how much we laugh.

Walk, eat, sex, sleep, laugh, ...