2509_1541 Dawn Rays
"All the regulations of mankind are tuned to the end that the intense sensation of life is lost in continual distractions." - Friedrich Nietzsche
I used to use that quote to prep my students on field trips for a sensitization exercise before we'd start shooting. I hope my interventions helped some of them. Learning to see is a long, intense process; really, it takes a lifetime. Maybe more.
The morning I shot this, I wasn't getting anything. The fog was too thick to allow big landscape views, and the world was grey. Then the sun pushed its way up from the murk, and... transformation!
As for Nietzsche and his "continual distractions", I wonder what he would think of us and how we live today. I try to keep the distractions under control - I have a smart TV but only use it to watch movies. I no longer use Facebook. I watch hockey in season (just starting). Sometimes I go to YouTube. So I do spend too much time sitting passively and I'm not exactly a vessel of purity.
On the other hand, I moved to rural Saskatchewan 15 years ago to remove myself from the pace of modern life and be closer to the natural world, wherein my sanity resides. No regrets!
Photographed in Grasslands National Park, Saskatchewan (Canada). Don't use this image on websites, blogs, or other media without explicit permission © 2025 James R. Page - all rights reserved.
2509_1541 Dawn Rays
"All the regulations of mankind are tuned to the end that the intense sensation of life is lost in continual distractions." - Friedrich Nietzsche
I used to use that quote to prep my students on field trips for a sensitization exercise before we'd start shooting. I hope my interventions helped some of them. Learning to see is a long, intense process; really, it takes a lifetime. Maybe more.
The morning I shot this, I wasn't getting anything. The fog was too thick to allow big landscape views, and the world was grey. Then the sun pushed its way up from the murk, and... transformation!
As for Nietzsche and his "continual distractions", I wonder what he would think of us and how we live today. I try to keep the distractions under control - I have a smart TV but only use it to watch movies. I no longer use Facebook. I watch hockey in season (just starting). Sometimes I go to YouTube. So I do spend too much time sitting passively and I'm not exactly a vessel of purity.
On the other hand, I moved to rural Saskatchewan 15 years ago to remove myself from the pace of modern life and be closer to the natural world, wherein my sanity resides. No regrets!
Photographed in Grasslands National Park, Saskatchewan (Canada). Don't use this image on websites, blogs, or other media without explicit permission © 2025 James R. Page - all rights reserved.