It was a picture of the log that I really wanted, stretching away from me toward the water. Then, Dewey my dog leaped up on it and his legs filled my viewfinder, like a muppet on the run. That was the picture. A shot of a log is hum-drum compared to those big, furry legs standing in front of me, waiting.
This makes me think of writing, and how we find the stories we tell. We may start out, perhaps with an assignment in hand from an editor, thinking the story is about one thing, and we discover it is another. Or, we realize that narrowing in tightly on one part of a story (the furry leg part) actually tells us and the reader a bit of wonderful about the whole.
Oct.10/2012
I love it! Fuzzy dog legs. What you write is so true. We think we know what we’re looking for and can sometimes miss what is right in front of us.
I want to take a photo like that of my cat’s fuzzy black legs.
If you do send it to me, I want to see it!