t-rex

the devouring thing and his cameraThere’s a movie where a group of people are hiding in a dark car. Of course, they are on a tropical island trying to avoid the rampaging dinosaurs that a silly old billionaire created from DNA found in the bellies of prehistoric mosquitoes that were perfectly preserved in amber. The rest of their posse has kept the movie going by being eaten in various and creative (not to mention bloody awesome) ways by killer dinosaurs. And now a T-Rex is onto them.

our lamp and its shadowKnowing that the beast sees only movement, they do their best to remain perfectly still. They wait wide-eyed and jumpy in jungle darkness, determined to survive. But as luck would have it, someone accidentally turns on a flashlight (it happens to the best of us). Just then, an eye the size of…well, an eye precisely the size of a car window appears in the window of their car. With a flair of dramatic realism, the pupil shrinks in the light. They are seen!

I don’t remember what happens next, but I think the dinosaur cracks the car open like an egg and makes an omelet out of them.

light and plant and sill and shadowI often think of that scene when I photograph something; my own predatory eye lowering close to the window, trying to crack a thing open – to take its life and light into me, to take its body and shape and movement, to take its time – to take its picture. Sometimes I even whisper a little monster roar before I take a picture; mocking that hungry craving thing that compels me to photograph.