The best moments happen when there is no camera involved. Superior alignments of elements, compositions in movement. Lines in the sky, left there by planes traveling, burning fuel high up, where clouds wait to be made. And then seagulls, just minutes ago. They played, toyed with these lines, crossed them at the right angles at the right times, synchronized, composed... an incredible series of images.
But of course none of this was really planned, or arranged, and none of the actors knew that I, the observer enjoyed the performance. I just happened to be in a place which allowed me to have the illusion of order for a few seconds from my point of view.
It is the same sense of illusion that lets us believe that there is an Ursus Mayor and a belt of hercules. It is the same illusion that lets us believe that there is a “north” star, that the sun travels across the skies. It is the same illusion that lets us see beauty in general. We walk through all of this with a sense of beauty built into us and we organize something that is far bigger, much more wonderful into something we can understand and appreciate.
I saw a galaxy a few days ago. It was a bit like ours, a spiral in slow movement. It happened to be made out of growing hair on the head of the man across from me on the subway. He probably shaved his head because there was this area right above his hair line that must have been impossible to control. What must have been a constant bad hair day for him, was a brief moment of happy alignment of signs for me.
Or there were the ripples in sand, by the shore of lake Tahoe, shaped by water and wind into layers of black and white sand. I then saw the almost same ripples on the palate of a friend’s dog. The best things happen when there is no camera involved. And even better things happen when there is no mind to judge anything that is happening, of course.