Self assigned: From my upstairs windows

Tell me something about your garden. Show me. I don’t care if it’s winter and there’s nothing much going on out there. It doesn’t matter to me if the sun is shining, or if it’s raining, or blowing, or sleeting, as it was here this morning. Or if you are so bored with looking out your window into the grey depths of winter that you could just scream.

There are things out your window that can help someone like me immensely . . . to see through your eyes.

Forget pristine. Forget trying to frame up perfection. (As you can see, I’ve got a big pile of laurel trimmings laying in the middle of my yard, and I’ve decided that I need to be ok with letting you see that.) And please, don’t go immediately to that fall-back position of waiting for sunset on the horizon.

Show me something more, by risking showing me less.

This morning I awoke to freezing temperatures and the skiff of snow that the weatherman had been promising. And as I pulled back the curtain to look sleepily out over my hedge and the neighbor’s roof, it occurred to me that it would make an interesting assignment to move quickly from upstairs window to upstairs window, shooting the first interesting image or two that called out to me.

One camera, one lens, maximum time allowed for the entire assignment, including the removal and replacing of window screens, fifteen minutes. The idea was to keep my shooting simple and fresh, and not too “too”, if you know what I mean.

I wanted it to be the equivalent of a quick vegetable soup, made from all the bits and scraps in the refrigerator that would go to waste otherwise. The snow had already begun to turn to sleet, and I knew that the dusting of the garden below would be gone soon.

Here then is what those windows offered up.

Tuesday, January 27, 2009

From my laundry room window, looking east.

Now, it’s your turn, if you will.

Here is your assignment. Ready?

Shoot a picture out your window (an upstairs window if you have one, if not, any other that you choose), a picture that informs me about something that catches your eye when you look out, something alive, something fleeting, something plain. Really, it can be anything that will help me (and those following along), to get just the most fleeting of glimpses into that world you look out upon daily.

Don’t worry about perfection, or profundity. Just record the moment.

I think you’ll see that it really doesn’t require much to make up an assignment, and yet, from that assignment may grow permission, and from permission, quite often, will come seeing.

Will you show me what you see? Show us? Just add your jpeg to your comment below and it will appear there with any others that are sent in. It could be kind of fun if you’ll risk it. And trust me, I have been sent out to make pictures for far weirder assignments over the years for reputable publications and organizations. Weird is simply wonderful waiting to be understood.

From my upstairs windows: (Clockwise from top.)

1:Looking west, a dog out for a morning walk notices what his master did not. 2:Looking southeast, my neighbor’s tools hang from wooden pegs along the north wall of her house. 3: Looking due south, the window from the front staircase. 4: A closer look at the laurel hedge just beyond the window. 5: Looking west from the south-facing window, the tool shed nestled in amongst the trees. 6: Again, looking west from the south-facing window. Tilting the camera down to take in a part of the side-yard; steps, a loop of untended hose, a fountain pot, rockery and the base of the tool shed. 7: Looking north from the rear stairwell, Photinia in need of a trim.

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