Do you appreciate what you see?  It’s kind of a weird question, isn’t it?  But, I’m curious…do you truly appreciate what your eyes gaze upon when you look around?  Better yet, do you appreciate your perception of what you see?

I’ve been asked on numerous occasions how I chose to define my style as a photographer.  The truthful answer is…that I don’t actually believe I did.  I never made the conscious choice to choose one style over another.  The reality is that what comes across in my photographs is a product of what I see in the world.  And it’s the way that I’ve always seen it.

When I started picking up a camera though, seeing the world and getting that image to come across in an image were two very different things.  It was actually a very long and frustrating process at times to not be able to express creatively what I saw in the world visually.  It wasn’t an easy time for me but finding the patience to persevere is perhaps one of my greatest accomplishments to date.

Then one day, I came across a book that explained the technicalities of a camera as it actually relates to the eye…and everything changed…

Once I began to understand that this piece of hardware functioned essentially the same way my eyes did, then all the pieces began to fall into place; when there isn’t enough light…your eyes dilate; when you can’t see something clearly…you squint; when you look at the sun head on…it’s blinding.  I learned that when it comes to photography…all the same rules apply!  This approach helped me to comprehend in a way that no instruction manual was able to.  My camera and I – at long last – began to function as a team.  We became one.  And the results finally started to reflect how I truly saw the world.

When I met up with Andrée and Mathieu for coffee one evening, I was so excited to discover that Andrée was an expert of sorts when it came to eyes.  Eyes were her life…her chosen field of profession.  Perhaps this kind of conversation wouldn’t appeal to everyone, but for me…I was thrilled to be sitting across from someone who could really appreciate the true beauty of seeing the world.  We chatted about clarity, colour and all things that – to some – may be mere semantics behind the work…but to us, are the much finer details of the bigger picture.

To say that I was excited about working with these two is a bit of an understatement!  Not only because of our mutual interests and apprciations though, but because when I look at Andrée and Mathieu…I see everything that I love about photographing couples!  I see adoration and friendship.  I see playfulness and beauty.  I see ease and desire.  I see two people who, most definitely, believe in love!

But there’s also one more thing that I see when I look at these two…I see what it is that I learned most from photography…

When I look at them, I am reminded that the biggest lesson I took away from figuring out the inner workings of my camera is that, at the end of the day, what matters most is what you see when you look through that lens…not how you see it.  The most advanced camera in the world can’t make the view more appealing and even the most in depth understanding of technology can’t bring out a loveliness in humanity that isn’t already there.

The bottom line is this…if you can’t see the world as a beautiful place without the camera…then you’ll never see it with the camera.

Ladies and gentlemen…please meet Andrée and Mathieu…