"Are we there yet?" and "I'm bored" are probably some of the most overused phrases of childhood. It was so easy to be glib with my children: "Enjoy the journey" and "Only boring people get bored" were my arrows of correction, lost in the untamed wilderness of my children's minds!

In our years on the St Johns, we have made many a slow trip wandering down our river in a lumbering houseboat and usually I just sit back and relax. But one day, I was in a hurry to get back home to an unfinished project in my studio. My preoccupation blunted me to beauty of the forest going by and the swoosh of wings as river birds darted into their evening roosts. After all – I had seen it all before. That’s when those old conversations with my children surfaced to taunt me!  

It seemed there was still a bored child in me somewhere, and that insidious familiarity could blunt me to the sheer riches we live with daily. There was only one solution. I had to see with fresh eyes, so I picked up my camera, framing one scene after the other, looking for something to refresh my jaundiced soul.  The familiar took on fresh form, and previously dismissed delights became images of joy.

Nothing had changed except my perspective. I simply needed a change of lens.  

‍