Twas Brillig

Looking for Wordless Wednesday? You’ll find it below this post.

Once upon a time, in a strange and bewildering world called Bloglandia, there was a beautiful peasant girl named Brillig. She was charming, smart, attractive, funny, witty, delightful…

…wait. Where was I going with this? Oh yes…

Our Peasant Brillig was pining for something to keep her mind active, somewhere to focus her need for art and creation. The fates smiled upon her, and brought her Looking Into, a website run by two very accomplished women: Lady Jenn and Duchess Allison. Brillig found herself gazing at, nay, into the photographs posted there and therein learned that her dear friends were, in fact, brilliant photographers, not just outstanding writers.

And so Brillig, humbled by her dirty insignificantness, said to Allison, “Dearest Allison, of outstanding photograph-ness, wouldest thou that I should learn the art of image-capture under thy tutelage?” But immediately, our fair Brillig realized, with horror, that she would likely be instructed first and foremost to discard the filthy camera that she had purchased cheaply at her local peasant-market (Walmart). For surely, true photographers must work with only the costliest of instruments.

“Fret not thine self!” exclaimed the kind, sweet Duchess, whose station in life did not require her to listen to such peasants, but being kind and sympathetic, she did anyway. (And oh, how it warmed our Brillig’s heart!) “Thou canst capture images with something so simple as a box and a pinhole!”

“A box and a pinhole!” scoffed our Brillig. “Surely not!”

“Yea, indeed, fair Brillig. A box and a pinhole,” replied the ever-patient Allison. “Forsooth, a costly instrument is not necessary for true art and beauty. Nay, one can indeed acquire perfection through inexpensiveness.”

“Indeed?” questioned Brillig, her eyes dancing with the joy sparked by a new idea. “Why, then, I hereby challenge you and that Hollandy Jenn to take a picture with the cheapest camera in your household! Not a photograph from the past, nay, but something which thou snappest this week. Prove to me that you both can, indeed, capture something outstanding through inexpensive means.”

“I accept thy challenge, o thou Brillig of Brilligness!”

“As do I!” chimed Princess Jenn, who had heretofore been most silent on the issue.

And so, our fair Brillig waited with bated breath until she received word via courrier (gmail) that the challenge had been met.

And just this evening, word arrived.

Allison (who you likely know better as “SMID”) and Jenn have posted their outstanding photographs tonight here, and Allison has posted her version (slightly less Hans-Christian-Andersonian than mine) of the challenge* at her site here. Go look, comment, admire. Because, as it turns out, a true artist really doesn’t need an expensive camera–just eyes to see.

(*In this same post, SMID also includes helpful tips to budding young photographers, like myself. Great advice! And thanks, Jenn and SMID, for accepting the challenge so beautifully–and do remember that if you have a challenge for me, I will happily accept, seeing as I owe you one!)