Innocence

I am not a very good photographer. I don't have equipment any more specialized than what's on my phone and iPad. I occasionally use my little Canon camera but that's starting to feel more and more old school these days.

My usual photographic method consists of "take 50 pictures and toss 48 or 49 of them." It's a decently productive method, and as long as I have the discipline to throw away the shots that are blurry, out of focus, too dim, or simply fail to have a dog part in them, it doesn't clog up the memory of my devices.

But in photography as in life, we sometimes get lucky.

 

I took this photo, unaltered except for a bit of cropping, on Saturday morning at an annual public event called Pet Day put on by the College. My assigned morning tasks were completed and I was taking a quick walk through all the booths and exhibits before the event opened up. This first-year vet student was in the petting zoo area with one of the dozen or so pettable rabbits. She didn't see me taking her picture. This was the third of three that I took of her using my phone.

There is something remarkably Classical in the way her hands are arranged, the way her head is turned towards yet tilted away from the viewer. You know that I would never have been able to get such a beautiful shot if I had asked her to pose.

It doesn't hurt to be reminded that, even though they seem to be in short supply these days, there is still beauty and innocence in the world.