Does That Make It Any Less Special?

“Here we go with Indian Creek scenic shot number seven thousand, two hundred and eighty four.” Staring out at the panorama of Wingate walls, the afternoon light highlighting endless corners and cracks, and the desert green with the coming of spring, how could I not snap a photo? There was nothing that would make this one stand out, however. No rainbow or cool clouds or particularly inspiring light. Just your standard, take your breath away, Indian Creek vista. Which, of course, I have taken a bazillion pictures of over the course of the last decade that I’ve been visiting the area.

And then I wondered, just because I’ve taken a similar photo many times before, does that make it any less special? That photo won’t likely end up anywhere other than languishing in obscurity on my hard drive. Perhaps someday I’ll come across it while looking for something else, and it’ll be a welcome reminder of a fun weekend, but it wont be a screen saver or end up as a print on the wall of my house. Still, I snapped the photo anyway, it just felt like the right thing to do in that moment. To try once again to capture the magic of a place that often seems to lie just out of the reach of my ability to put that feeling into picture form.

And maybe just like in climbing, it’s not the end result, but the process that really matters the most. The pursuit of magic and wonder and awe, knowing that most days, nothing special will come of it, but sometimes the effort pays off in a way that is truly spectacular.