I'm following L. Nimoy

I'm following Leonard Nimoy on Twitter.  I think it's just a way for him to encourage people to check out his blog and buy his photography books.  I didn't know that he was a photographer, did you?

His fifth tweet poses a question: Does the camera actually capture a moment  in time when it does not capture itself or the photographer?

Cameras capture images.  An image is merely a representation of something, and the creator of the image edits that representation by what they focus on, to present their own view of the subject.  Nimoy has done a project called "Full Figured" featuring realy large women, in the nude.  He has focused on their strength, their pride, their personalities, and the portraits are so much more then mere figure studies.  Another photographer could have photographed the same women in the same poses and made them ludicrous caricatures.  And neither has actually captured a moment in time.

As writers, twenty of us could write about the same occurrence, and no two would write about the same thing.  A bride tosses her bouquet.  Everyone is laughing, but look around the edges of the crowd.  The flower girl is transported in the fairytale.  A sour spinster aunt has caught more bouquets than you can count, and they never transformed her into a happy laughing bride. One writer will be interested in the composition of the bouquet and the way the different flowers catch the light as they fly, the symbolism of the different blossoms, their significance to the bride.  Another writer will focus on the bride's father who sees her throwing her life away on that worthless man she's marrying.  Or perhaps the bouquet was thrown to Becky, but Courtney jumped in a grabbed it.  Or the ring-dog with years of frisbee catches in mind, snatches it out of the air and romps away with it.

Just be aware, no matter what you write, you will write with your own particular focus and interpretations.  Don't worry if someone says, "Oh, that's been done before."  No one has done it the way you will!