This morning as I was trying to figure out what part of real life I would show you, I decided to go with the boring, dull, repetitive things that keep our household going. I was going to take a photo of my chopping an onion--a thing that I do almost every day. It is a monotonous task that I usually think of as a means to get to another task, but today I was going to focus on it. These boring moments make up a ton of my life. What is more dull than chopping onions for a crock pot? Is there beauty there?
I set up my timer, fixed the focus and made sure the ISO, aperture and focal length were appropriate for the lighting conditions. I moved to chop my onion when my leg stopped, caught on a whining, writhing obstacle. The toddler was not in the mood to let me cook or shoot or do anything but hold him. At first I thought I should hand him over to his Dad because I'm working dammit but then...
He wanted to see what I had going. I plopped his little butt on the counter and scooted him back under the cabinets. He sat quietly, stock still, hands to himself, watching the whole process.
If it weren't for this self-appointed quest to convince you to let me preserve your extraordinary ordinary moments, I would have missed this. I may have checked out mentally in order to cope with a screaming toddler at my feet, just to get this task done and on to the next. Without this project, I may never have remembered his rapt attention, his admiration, his fat little feet on my counter.