2011 Streak 113/365: Walk - 2 miles, Time - 50 min, Weather - as sunny as a summer's day
Today we have a guest photographer - my niece.
Those words probably conjure up an image of me indulging a child by giving her my camera and letting her play but that is only half true. I did give her my camera but she is not a child. She is in fact far more qualified to take photos than me as she has a degree in fine art and her final exhibition involved large photographs of tiny structures made of sugar crystal glued together with superglue.
The day is hot and we are in the garden of my sister-in-law and family in Nottingham. I am mostly reading the paper but I am also looking at my niece taking her photos. I have two main thoughts. The first is technical: noticing how she likes to use the manual setting and adjust both aperture and shutter speed - I rarely do that my tendency is to control one or the other and let the camera take care of the exposure. The second is a mixture of envy and regret. She moves about so easily - crouching, bending, and stretching with all the flexibility of youth. How I wish I could be so thoughtless about my body, knowing it would follow my intentions without any conscious effort.
My regret is at the process of ageing and how the body has to be managed - how you have to move more carefully and think about what you are doing. You can no longer take it for granted.
I know, for example, I really have to work at my flexibility. The trouble is there is a difference between knowing and doing. I have never, ever established a long lasting regime. Probably because it really does feel like work. It makes me feel uncomfortable and all the time I am confronted by my own inabilities.
It is just one of those things - if you have a bent for something you tend to enjoy it and keep going. If it is a struggle you are either very strong minded and exert your will, or you backslide. I am a backslider. There will be bursts when I tell myself I ought to do what is good for me but after a time my natural disinclination reasserts itself and the resolution dissolves.
Never mind the physical exercises its character building exercises I need.
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