Glimpses by Jeannette

Despite there already being fifty-six posts here, this is the first post on my "new" blog. Jeannette's Blog has morphed into this, and so I decided to take the opportunity to do what I have wanted to from the beginning: name my blog. I'm still not sure that's what I want to call it, but at least it's more interesting than Jeannette's Blog.

A few years ago, someone asked me what I wanted to do. I forget what exactly I said; probably that I wasn't good enough, but I would enjoy being a photographer. "What are you going to name your business?" he asked.

I didn't know. I'd never thought about it.

"Why not? You should have a name for it."

I have thought about it since then. I know what I want, but I don't know how to say it.

Photography is, for me, a record, a way of remembering the way things were. I think that is why, when deleting, there is an optimum time for me: long enough away that I don't remember little things that happened that make me want to keep a picture, yet not far enough away that people look vastly different and, especially in the case of babies, it feels like deleting history.

It is a way of remembering the way things were, but it is also a way of noticing the way things are. Things that otherwise would be overlooked. Taking notice of the beauty of the little things-which I have done as I do my photo of the day, since many days I haven't taken a picture before evening, so I have been forced to enjoy little things about the house. Though I don't usually succeed, if you get close enough or have the right light, anything's interesting.

I love taking pictures of people, especially kids. I enjoy nature as well, but there's something about people. And photography is good for appreciating people. Noticing the gorgeous eyes my little sister has, preserving that cute little Curious George smile my little brother is sure to lose at some point, causing my friend to give me that look of annoyed amusement.

I knew the feeling I wanted my title to convey. The idea of capturing in nature-and by this I mean the natural world, human beings included-a vision of glory. In the eyes of a child, in a group of kids, in a stuffed stocking (Christmas is on my mind, I guess), in a sun-bathed cat, even in a random object on the armoir, seeing a glimpse of God. His creativity, majesty, beauty, order, superfluous kindness. Finding the joy of photography to be because it is a way of showing God.

But what name would convey that? I can't quite explain it, so how could I capture that in one little phrase? Maybe I would just call it Jeannette's Photography. Or Photography by Jeannette, if I feel like switching it up.

I brainstormed. Vision...something with vision? Nah, too...something. Glimpses? Maybe. I considered things like Glimpses by Jeannette, dismissed them, went all the way around a couple blocks, and returned.

Glimpses was about what I wanted, but I wasn't sure how to even explain what I wanted. In a Wink? What I meant was that time is precious, and photographs help us to see that. In a Flash? Nice pun, but no. Just Jeannette's Tiny Glimpses?

I tried designing little logos, which is a fun thing to do. Later I tried playing around with a watermark for fun.

 

I enjoyed trying it out on different pictures.

In the end, I began to think of it as Just a Glimpse Photography. That, or Tiny Glimpses. It's not official, and it is subject to change. But it sort of gets at what I mean.


And as for my blog, it's the same sort of idea. It's glimpses of the heavenly in the earthly, as seen by me. Or maybe more often just a glimpse into my thoughts. I don't know if anyone else finds that interesting, but I always find it an interesting thing to think of. Which is why I like writing things like this, for I realize things I didn't really know I thought.

Some time ago, in an attempt to describe what I meant, and because it's one of the sort of things that is fun to write, I wrote something like what I might have on an about page. I couldn't think of any more puns to put in it, unfortunately.

Tiny Glimpses developed from the shutter-happy fingers of Jeannette Beerbower. Her propensity for snapping away has been pushing the buttons of family and friends since the first digital family camera she got her hands on in her preteen years. As she progressed from family photographer, her love for photography grew. It is her desire to use her photography to glorify God by focusing on, enjoying, exposing, and recording the oft unobserved and quickly forgotten blessings of beauty He gives us in the world and people around us before they flash by.