The Mystery of Beauty

High Calling blogger J. Schaap writes about his love of digital photography, how it has changed him and how it has opened his eyes to the beauty of the world.

Digital photography has made a ton of people into amateur photographers and, I'm told, changed the nature of professional photography just as well. Count me among those who love to shoot. I always have. Anyway, I'm often dumbfounded by what exactly it is that makes me say of a particular landscape, "Now that's beautiful." I assume that, were I trained as an artist, I'd know at least something of the answer to such a question, but I'm not and therefore I don't. I do know what I like, however--I can see it in a moment. What baffles me, for the most part, is why. A couple days ago, I took a walk out into the New Mexico desert. The sky was full of drama, and the earth itself was famously red. Here and there, wild flowers festooned the place, but for the most part, what I saw was the desert's ordinary livery this time of year, I'm sure...Read More