Dorothea Lange said that a camera teaches you to see.

I love this idea, so the other morning on my walk with Nelson I had my iPhone at the ready to take pictures of stuff that I usually don’t look at. Just thinking of doing this made me look harder at the world. I’m always telling my students to pay attention  – and I was trying to walk my own talk.

In my new Brentwood neighborhood there’s been a moment or two of high drama involving coyotes cruising the streets. There’s a celebrity house on my walk route but I haven’t  spotted him since I’ve moved in. One morning I looked up at the top of the hill and thought the building of McMansions around here had really reached the limit, but it turned out to be the Getty Museum.

The point of walking with a camera though isn’t about spotting movie stars, or even wildlife, or getting in a flap about the abundance of overly large houses, but to wake up, to pay attention. To notice what you don’t see without a camera in your hands.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Nelson pays attention better than I do, but he uses his nose instead of a camera.