Skip to main content

A Photo from Crater Lake

I've been looking at this photo a lot lately.


I put it on Instagram with the caption "sometimes you just gotta jump" because I think that's a lesson that could be taken away from it, but I admit it's also because I like to pretend I'm a photographer on Instagram and that's what a photographer might say. 

I've been looking at a lot though, and I guess there could be several reasons. 

Maybe I look because I think it's a cool photo of me. Maybe I look because I wonder exactly how high that jump was. Maybe I look because I remember how cold the water was. 

Maybe I look because jumping off of something is freedom. Maybe I look because that moment of anticipation before hitting the cold water is the clearest moment of thought that a human can experience. Maybe I look because Oregon, and specifically Crater Lake, is beautiful.

Maybe I look because I used to be more comfortable with heights than I am now, and I remember how I was more comfortable jumping the first time than the 2nd time. Maybe I look because it's the truest "ignore the camera" photo of me in recent memory. Maybe I look because the rocky outcrop looks more intimidating than I remember.

Maybe I look because it's a moment frozen in time so beautifully that I wonder what my exact thoughts were at the moment. Maybe I look because there really is a life lesson hidden somewhere in this photo and I have just never quite found it. Maybe I look because the photo itself is the lesson simply by living a life worth photographing.

Maybe I look because there will be a time in my life when I can't be so carefree as to take a long hike down a steep path, climb up on a small rock wall, and safely, comfortably jump into the cold waters below. Maybe I look because there will be an extended time in my life when I'm physically unable to take that hike and make that jump. Maybe I look because I don't know if I'll be able to duplicate this photo at a later time for any of thousands of reasons.

Maybe I look because this photo is a representation of a specific day of my life and depicts that day more clearly than almost any other photo represents a specific day of my life. Maybe I look because I wish other days could be represented so clearly by a photo and I'm jealous, in a way, of how good this photo looks. Maybe I look because Jenna took this photo and the one I took of her is not as good as this one.

Or maybe I look because I think it's a really cool photo of me.

I guess a picture's worth 475 words.
Labels:
Location: Crater Lake National Park, Oregon, USA

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Vienna Christmas, part 1

When I last left you, the two Koniecznys were about to arrive and we were going to do...well, something. And a week later we were all going to Vienna for Christmas to see some of my family members who live there (one of them is Norbert, who you might remember from canyoning). Carly and her mom got in on Sunday and we just kinda hung out the first day or two, but they wanted to see the sights and took off to see some nearby things and places, which is something they might tell you about if they were blogging but I don't think they are. Anyway, the real excitement started at the end of the week. Carly and her mom took an overnight train to Vienna on Thursday/Friday and Jenna and I had to wait until Saturday to go. We took a two-layover train; once in Verona to turn to the north and then a second stop in Innsbruck to switch onto an Austrian (OBB) train that would swoop through southeastern Germany en route to Vienna. It was a nearly 12 hour day of trains and, believe it or not, it...
Post a Comment
Read more

New Year's Eve

One thing that seems to be a true worldwide phenomenon is the realization that my last name is used on New Year's Eve signs around the globe. At first I felt slighted, as if someone were cheapening the worth of my last name. In more recent years I've taken is as a weird sort of compliment and even occasionally tried to make it into a pseudo-attention-getting thing if I'm feeling very "look at me" on a particular day. But that's not what I'm supposed to tell you about because that's boring. What's not boring is that most of the big cities around the world do big exciting fireworks displays and celebrations that stretch way beyond a ball dropping down a pole and standing in a crowd of 500,000 people for nine hours. In short, New Year's in the states generally blows. In the northern US you either go overpay by insane amounts to go to a bar and then wait for three hours for a cab back home or you go to a friend's house and it's...fine. ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Statement Art

In 2012 I had the chance to visit Europe with my friend Graham. We spent a couple weeks going to a few different areas - one of which was Milan, my future home. We planned to go there for a soccer game, see the famous Duomo, and use the train station as a launch-pad for the Lake Como area. In our time in the city we wanted to browse a little bit of the local art scene but unfortunately couldn't get a time to see the Last Supper (Jenna and I were able to see it during our time there. It was awesome). We walked the city streets though, and not surprisingly there was a lot to see. Statues abound in Italy - guys you've never heard of and extremely famous people alike. There are buildings older than the USA, there are fascinating shops, and there are restaurants that offer burgers named after Native American tribes in a vaguely offensive atmosphere . So one day we were walking from our hotel to a random corner of the city. We started by passing a shop that offered pens - the w...
2 comments
Read more