Evening of the Day

I've been sitting, listening to an old Rolling Stones album and one song in particular is ringing in my mind. Though written by the Stones, it was given to Marianne Faithful to record first and, as it turned out, was a hit for both,eventually."As Tears Go By" begins with the line,"It is the evening of the day" and as I sit writing this entry, that is exactly what is unfolding, outside my window. As the day, slowly, draws to a close, I find myself thinking about other such evenings and other places and events.Some, have a definite photographic reference, while others, not so much. This day, I did nothing photographic, save, perhaps write this blog entry. Today, was the first really warm day of the spring and brightly sunny to boot. It was a day for outdoor activity and spring cleaning, of which I did very little and none at all.Nevertheless, it was a productive day, in other ways and ultimately, a day to think about some of those "other" evenings.One, in particular, comes to mind and re-minds me that some of our greatest moments,as chroniclers of the world around us,can frequently happen when we are contemplating other things. I captured one of the best sunset images/cityscapes, of my career while standing out on a tiny, apartment, balcony with a glass of wine, watching the evening pass into night. It suddenly dawned on me, that I was watching a rather spectacular image unfold and my cameras were nowhere in sight! I suppose, that I could have simply stayed and watched the evening sky,lord knows, I had a million sunsets, in my files, but something, in my soul, just would not let me. So, in a blind fury, I rushed about gathering camera and tripod and set up, half in the doorway and half on the tiny concrete pad.I metered the sky, adjusted for the sun, framed and re-framed the shot but,eventually,I waited. Somewhere amidst all the fuss, I had come to the realization, that my shot, was not yet complete and that when it was,I would see it. I did and the image was truly worth all the turmoil and upheaval, in an otherwise perfectly beautiful,calm, evening. Of course, as it turned out, I could have taken all the time I needed to set up and the calm of the evening would have been more ,or less, unruffled, but such is not often the way of photographers. We tend to always react as if our very lives depended on our next few seconds of life and although at times, it might,generally, we needn't rush about madly. One may miss more of life and it's images than one captures when always in a hurry. Sometimes, the evening is meant to be lingered over,as well; maybe the day preceding it. Often, in our rush to accomplish, we fail to see and beyond all else, that is what garners us our greatest accomplishments, accolades, images and pleasures. By definition, a photographer must be one who sees, sees light ,sees life, sees the world around them and captures moments,from that,for us all to contemplate. Whether those moments, change the world,or simply change your perception of it, it is the photographer's eye that presents them to you. Perhaps, were we to take more of our time to see more of our world, there would be more of those moments, to make more of those changes.