I’ve found particularly on this journey that sometimes it’s worth looking not only at the ‘Grand’ scenery, but to quietly look in the opposite direction…and see what else may be there…quite beautiful in it’s own simplicity.

This image above I saw when I stopped for a moment to gather myself from quite overwhelming feelings seeing the Torres del Paine peaks and feeling the sense of geological time and the power and magnificence of the earth. I was sitting feeling quite humbled at this huge expanse of cracks and fissures of granite, siltstone and snow…and I saw in its simplicity this beautiful rock, juxtaposed with the open sky and soft clouds. This simple scene moved me as well.

I have often suggested to my students to pause and take time to feel the place in which one photographs; and also turn around to observe the light from a different perspective. Often it is not the view where the sun is setting which is the most beautiful..but the light of the sunset on the objects – in the opposite direction to the sun where it is quite easy to be entranced on looking toward.

If you are a photographer… explore taking some time to look in the opposite direction of where your focus has been. Look at the light from a different perspective. Try sitting quietly in the landscape which is overwhelmingly majestic and let that feeling carry you into your quiet space of reflection and draw your attention to more simple things. Observe how your awareness may be more acute and more sensitive you are to your surroundings.