Back in the Saddle

Charlie

Following a year of very limited photography output, last week I suddenly felt the urge to take my camera out of its bag.

It really was a strange year. Not only had I lost interest in making photographs, but my desire to look at photographs had also dwindled.

Two major elements contributed to my making less pictures: my mindfulness practice and a sudden longing for the outdoors. Rare were the days when I didn’t go out for a walk during my lunch break. And often, I would go walking again with my wife in the evening. I also made several trips to Fundy National Park. Five of those trips were just this autumn. All of that sounds like excellent opportunities for photography, doesn’t it? Maybe, but I was content just being present in the moment, without the distraction or the pressure of feeling like I had to get the shot. I was simply out there enjoying and accepting things as they were, fully immersed in the now.

Leonard

Another factor was the fact that I’m already sitting at a computer for my entire workday. So the last thing I felt like doing was spending even more time in front of a screen on evenings and weekends processing images. (I shoot in RAW format, which requires me to process images using software. This is the digital equivalent of processing images that were captured on film, in the darkroom.)

Charlie. Very similar to his other picture, but I still liked it.

But like I was saying earlier, the cat’s out of the— Um, I mean, the camera is out of the bag. And for the occasion, during my rainy lunch break last Friday, I made a few pictures of our cats: Leonard and Charlie.

Both were adopted from the Greater Moncton SPCA. Charlie joined our family in late-February 2020 — right before our area’s initial pandemic lockdown — and he loves the indoor life. But I often feel bad for Leonard, who joined us in November 2015. The occasional walk around the yard on a leash just doesn’t cut it. He is often sitting attentively by the patio door, seemingly daydreaming — as I have done many times during the last year — of the great outdoors.

Leonard by the patio door

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