Vacation Thoughts

The picture above was taken on vacation a few years back. I don’t know the kids playing there on the sand spit. We were on a bus trip, escaping everyday life to see a bit of Lake Superior. The lake is there, beyond the trees and sand. You can see the waves if you look hard enough. Wherever this was, it was a beautiful spot.

I took lots of pictures. No matter where I looked there was something to point my camera at. There was contrast (Note the muddy water vs the clear and the flat water vs the wavy) and color ( muddy vs clear again, the greens, browns and blues) and the varied shapes. Deciding what to include in the picture was the biggest challenge. Should several trees be included on the right, or only one? Should the kids on the beach be left out of the picture or included for scale? How much of those lovely water-color-like clouds should be in the picture to enhance the sense of depth.

I’m not a professional photographer, but I love scenery pictures so I followed the old adage that says to include something close and something far for perspective and some object or person to indicate scale. Using that guideline gives me pictures I enjoy, so I follow it. The other thirty-some people on the tour were taking pictures, too, aiming their cameras at the same vistas I was. Yet, I have a feeling our pictures wouldn’t all look the same. Little things like the percentage of sky vs water, the number of trees, the center the way the picture is centered  — all those variables make our pictures individual.

Variables also make the a trip different for all those who take it. Only, the differences are related to our reasons for going (are we there to see a new place or just to get away from home?), how interested are we in where we are (are we aware of externals or involved with internals?), and what we want to take away with us (was the trip a break or the start of something new?)  The way we experience and remember things is as individual as we are.

The same thing is true about writing. There are guidelines like ‘make the main character appealing and active’ that are pretty standard. They help, just like ‘close and far’ provides perspective in photos. But, when it comes right down to it, everyone writes their own story in their own way. Because everyone is different, shaped by birth, circumstance, and choice.