A Natural Smile

I have always considered myself a nature lover and a very novice photographer. The joy that these little furry babies and all unique and special things of the world bring to me is so sharp and childishly pure that trying to capture it for others is incredibly difficult. This little one is one of many new friends I have had the pleasure of greeting along my trip in Canada and I was shocked when I looked back through the many photos to see that I had caught the little lopsided grin I thought that I had imagined.

There is a purity to travelling as a lover of nature that I am so happy to have found, the ability to find an experience in all the small places. Avoiding the tourist traps or seeing another side of them that others might forget to appreciate is one of my favourite things. I have started a list of all the animals that I have come across during my travels across Canada and tried to snap as many shots as possible and in doing so have rekindled my love of outside and slowly learnt to remind myself of the beauty of all places that I have become accustomed to alongside all those that are new to me. I hope that when I return home to Australia I will remember to appreciate those things so uniquely ours rather than scorning them for being a part of the every day.

Here I have grown to relish the snow, the biting cold, the way the warmth hits differently from a mountain top or when surrounded on all sides by white that glitters so bring it hurts.

This particular day that I captured the shot of this baby elk alongside its family was one that was so startlingly eye opening for reasons I never foresaw. This was when I realised that I had simply wandered into town, an average day spent buying lunch and doing the groceries, before stumbling upon a park filled with grazing animals. I realised that it had been so long since accidentally finding something so simple yet so awe-inspiring just wandering around. This was where I rekindled my love of all those things that come naturally that you forget to appreciate them as much as they deserve. Now I stare out of the window whenever I am the passenger in a car, and instead of just daydreaming I try an spot all the unique things that lay just across the pavement. I think of all the lives that hide within the leaves or below the ground and I contemplate what a life like theirs must be like in the every day. I try to focus only on what is, and if my mind is to busy I will try to contemplate all that might be within every passing moment framed by the glass.

I guess this is more just a stream of consciousness to remind anyone else that may have forgotten, go look out the window or better yet take a moment outside. Dip your toes in a pond or bury them in the dirt, lay in the sand. Pretend this is the first time you have ever seen whatever it is that you have grown accustomed to and begin again. Think about what is feels like, breathe deeply through your nose and remember the smell. Is there a sound unique to the place that you are of the things that you touch. There is a purity, a peace, a fragment of undeniability in all those things that surround you that can help remind you how wonderful it is to be a part of it all.