The photography challenge of the week was “orange.” I was pretty sure I would not be able to find too many scenes or items containing the color orange to photograph. In this area at this time of year snow mostly covers the ground and there is not too much life around outside that might exhibit the color “orange.” Nevertheless, I took my Fuji xt1 camera with me on my walk to see if together we could find a few sightings of orange. Once I started to focus only on that color bypassing other items of more interest to me, I found a little world of orange. This exercise was interesting because like the challenge I took on several years ago (the texture of memories) it took on a life of its own. I began to become aware of items and scenes that I hadn’t noticed before.

Here are a few of the photos I took along the way.

I have walked this same path hundreds of times and have not given any thought to these items or to their color. But now I was intensely focused on seeing the color orange so I was able to “see” these things. These items on first thought might seem to be disparate in that they have no relationship to each other and no identity with their location. Then I thought to look more closely to determine any link to their location and perhaps even a connection to each other. The area where I was walking is a marina. The rescue tube, and circle of orange and yellow wire hanging on the tree, are both very close to where there is a launch site for boats entering and exiting the Mohawk River. The little orange flag is indicating the small tree that was newly planted, and the orange crane is most likely there to help transport the boats for storage. There is a small house for the personnel who patrol the river, thus the basketball hoop. The orange advertisement is found on the side of a water ski jump launch boat. So most of these items that at first glance seem out of place and unconnected are in fact linked to their environment, and in some weird way are connected to each other. The only outliers with no apparent function are the orange rack and the car that was left abandoned. These last two items (vestiges of our obsession with owning without responsible maintaining or discarding) create a blemish on what is a beautiful site and presents a shoddy appearance slightly morphing toward a dump site.

We are all a part of the world we live in and we have connections that we may not even see. This little photography project prompted me to look more closely at some of the details of my world. In Yoga and Tai Chi I am taught to observe the details of movement and to hone my interoceptive skills. It takes time and practice. But it also takes practice to stay connected to my place in the world, to notice it, to reflect on it and to be present to all that my little location has to offer me. It is called staying in the “present moment.” It took some practice to notice the color of orange around me and yet it helped me appreciate the beauty of the Mohawk River as it is draped in the sunlight of the rising morning sun, and the setting of the evening sun, as shown in the pictures below. The beauty of these sunrises and sunsets evokes an emotional chord and needs no thinking about to appreciate the nuances of the light causing a beautiful orange color or to admire the silhouettes that step back to give the rays of the sun their stage time. I was in the “present moment” then. How many of these moments have I missed? How many connections with others have I not noticed because I was not in the “present moment?”