Simple Seeing

The days in Provence were gentle, and spring began to flow like fragrant water over the land, lighting it up with color and sending the perfumes of the earth everywhere. It was an amazing experience to not only see the color, but know how the color smelled. Not quite like those old ‘scratch and sniff’ perfume ads that magazines tried out back in the 80’s, all of which smelled like room freshener. No, this was a high that made the experience of seeing all the more intense.

And yet a photograph like this is as plain as can be. No special equipment, no filters, no tricks of the light, no photoshop to intensify what was already a heightened reality. Simple seeing, which is always a great test of the persuasive power of the moment you are in, stated simply, is a truth, if you will, of the fact that you were there, and this is what you witnessed.