Living The Wild Life – Learning from Photography Exhibition in Cape Town

“Let the beauty you love be what you do. There are thousands of ways we kneel and kiss the earth.” Rumi

Cape Town’s National Museum is hosting wildlife photography exhibition from around the world. The work was breathtaking – in subject, form, beauty. The photographers captured the poetry of nature. My immediate response was wordless worship and gratitude to my Creator.

And then I got technical…I’m quite the novice photographer, but I’m relishing the opportunity to learn. As I took in the exhibition I was struck by three characteristics of these world-class photographers.

  1. COMMITMENT – They had rose early or stayed up late, waiting hours, days, some weeks, for the image that would tell a moving story. To learn to be a visual storyteller—really, any form of storyteller—I must be willing to wait.
  2. COMPASSION – They seemed to see the beauty and struggle of their subjects in an unsentimental way. There was no sense of pity, rather a capacity to see the strength of the animals in the midst of daily fight to survive.
  3. CURIOSITY — They went to the extreme edges of habitation—crouched low and stood on tiptoes to see what others had missed.

I’m going to keep learning/playing/working at the craft of visual storytelling…and love what it teaches me about writing and life as I observe these extraordinary photographers.

Can’t resist the question: What new experience/hobby/pursuit is giving you fresh insight into something else you know and love?

See the exhibition yourself…You know you want to:  http://www.greenrenaissance.co.za/2011/12/07/current-exhibition-wildlife-photographer-of-the-year