A lesson from the flowers

Writer and photography / Peter J. Blackburn

Peter J. Blackburn on why the brief moment of a flower is difficult to capture in a photograph.

“When you take a flower
in your hand and really look at it,
it’s your world for the moment.
I want to give that world to someone else.
Most people in the city rush around so,
they have no time to look at a flower.
I want them to see it
whether they want to or not.”

– Georgia O’Keeffe

I’ve been out capturing flowers with my camera, both wild and tame. Soon after the click of the camera shutter, their vivid color and glorious fragrance will vanish forever. When flowers succeed in luring my attention through their stunning beauty and delicate form, I cannot help but be reminded that I share an indefinitely brief moment of life along with them on this earth.  My photographs are only an improvised attempt to prolong their pleasing attributes for later enjoyment. Flowers are gentle messengers reminding us that we, too, have a purpose, if only to share the color and fragrance of our own lives with those around us. May each of us do so as we are reminded by the flowers of our own indefinitely brief lives.