A Beautiful Mistake

I remember taking this picture.  The scenery caught my eye instantly. The sense of freshness all that greenery conveys with a beautifully pale blue sky in the background, it was simply perfect in my eyes.  To elevate this scene, that faint sign of a trail leading somewhere mysterious and unknown.  It’s beautiful and makes me want to follow it.

I also remember the frustration and disappointment I experienced when downloading this photo.  In my eyes I had failed to nail it.  Without getting too technical and going into too much detail, the left and brighter side is sharp, exposed well.   The darker, right side of the picture isn’t quite as sharp, it has some blur to it.

To say I was annoyed with myself, a big understatement!  In my mind, I’d managed to fail (again) in capturing this beautiful place that I wanted to capture so badly.  Despite this, something stopped me from hitting delete!  Over the following weeks since having taken this photo, I let it sit on my laptop and found myself revisiting it from time to time. Just sitting and examining it to the smallest of details.

I grew to love the imperfection shown in this photo.  I think it adds something a little more to a photo that could’ve potentially been a little boring.   The blur can quite easily be passed off as an intended point of difference.   This photo, the very imperfections it displays are the very qualities that I now see as contributing to making it beautiful and deserving of a second and third look.  I look at it and imagine where that path is headed, it sure looks like somewhere inviting and beautiful.  It also reinforces an important message.  Mistakes are not necessarily bad, but rather, can be beautiful lessons from which we learn.