More on zooming in

Sorry about the lack of updates in the last few weeks. It's been terribly busy at work, which left even less time than usual for updating my web log. The good news of such activity at work is of course that I have more topics than ever to post on.

But I'd like to start with some more background on my one-liner of last week: looking closely, insignificant details turn into things of infinite beauty.

For those of you that don't know, one of my hobbies is photography. If you want to see some of my work, visit StutterShutter which is a joint effort with some friends or BuitenBlog (in Dutch) where my wife and I post regular updates.

My specialty when it comes to photography is close-ups. What became my specialty actually started out as a way to get enough photos out of our small living room to fill a twice-a-week photo blog. If you just show overview pictures, you'll be running out of material within weeks. But if you move in close enough, even a small living room can last a few years.

We've been running our photo blog for over three years now. And even though we've moved to a different house with a bigger living room and expanded the scope of our photo blog to include things outside of the house, I still post almost nothing but close-ups.

I was recently talking with my wife about why that is. And at the risk of sounding a bit over-dramatic, the way I take my pictures has made me aware of the beauty of many things that I never noticed before. By moving up close, I started to appreciate things like the colors of a sunrise or sunset, the intricate details of many flowers and insects and the lines left in the sand at low tide. But also many man-made things, such as a simple screw, my wife's medical supplies, the twisting pattern in a cable and Nespresso cups.

So if you ever find yourself with some free time and a camera on your hands, zoom in. You never know... you might discover something that was always there, but you never noticed.