Friday Image With Words: The Eye Looks, The Heart Notices – Simple Photography Tips by Michael Blyth

"si le coeur ne contemple pas, l'oeil ne verra pas" These words of French, written as graffiti on a disused wartime building in the Mountains of Northern Mallorca, have so much power. Not being of that language I used an online translater: "if the heart does not contemplate, the eye will not see"

Light, texture and angle in the ordinary - Pollença, Mallorca

A small plant on a window ledge in Pollença, that wonderful town tucked below the Serra de Tramuntana.

Nothing dramatic. No wide landscape. No extraordinary moment, an ordinary extraordinary walk into the Sunday market, coffee, fresh veg and meat.

Just light, texture, shadow and a quiet arrangement of ordinary things, so often unnoticed until you allow your eyes and heart to work together. The words 'The Eye Looks The Heart Notices' summarise it nicely.

But this is often where it all begins. Not with the obvious, but with the moment we stop moving quickly enough for something small to become visible.

There is a difference between looking and seeing.

Looking is what the eye does automatically. Seeing asks a little more of us. It asks for attention, patience, and sometimes a willingness to be surprised by something we almost walked past.

And sometimes to pause, to notice the shadows, and the light, and the gift of sight,

And it goes beyond that sort of seeing, it enters relationship. Have you relationships where you no longer notice the person, they have become unseen.

Here's the challenge - it's time to look afresh, eyes and heart combined. Don't make excuses, it takes two to make relationship, and you can start by making your heart pay attention, and be generous in the doing.

This is part of a weekly Friday Image with thoughtful words, series on the blog. Subscribe to receive it directly.

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