Capturing a Slice of Life

Each time we go to Muir Woods, I am compelled to take photos. I click,
click, click the whole time we’re there and then we get home and I
download my captures of the day and I am always disappointed. My photos
never come out well. They can never convey what I actually saw. I feel
this way in several places, but I think Muir Woods is one of the worst.

I was thinking today that it’s because there’s so much more to Muir
Woods than what’s visible to the eye. There’s the smell. The beautiful
scent of wood and the humidity and the plants. There’s the texture;
everything that practically screams for you to touch it. There’s the
sound. The streaming water. The birds. The little critters. And, most
importantly, there’s the feeling. The overwhelming sense of being
enveloped by nature. Protected. How negligible one’s existence is in the
face of these trees who’ve been here for centuries. All of those things,
combined, make Muir Woods the magical place that it is.

And these things cannot be captured by the camera. At least not with
someone at my level of photography skills.