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May 12, 2008 12:33 PM

GUEST BLOG: Martina Reilly

Lovely Martina Reilly has a new book out, The Summer of Secrets and she's written us a lovely guest blog too!

“There he is!”

A stampede ensued. Everyone made for the left hand side of the boat. I lifted up my camera, pointed it in the general direction and ... click . . . missed the shot of Fungi, the famous Dingle dolphin leaping out of the sea.

Another chance presented itself a few minutes later. Another sighting.  Another stampede - this time to the right. And yet again another missed shot.

In fact, I missed him four times. Four fantastic jumps and your truly missed every one of them. An old woman informed me delightedly of how Fungi’s whole body had leapt out of the waves like a great big grey banana.

“Magnificent,” she said.

I consoled myself with the thoughts that a big grey banana wasn’t that attractive. All was silence for another bit as we waited for a further appearance. I wondered if the Second Coming would be anticipated with as much fervour.

The old woman was regarding me sceptically. “You should put that camera away,” she said. “You’ll miss everything if you don’t.”

“I want to capture it so I’ll have it forever,” I said.

“You’ll have it forever anyway,” she said as if I was bonkers.

It dawned on me that she was right. What would be the point of having a photograph if I couldn’t experience the moment? A real live view of a big grey banana.  So I tucked my camera away and prepared instead to enjoy the spectacle.

After that, I saw Fungi leap out of the water higher than the share price of gold, only to plunge back down, in a manner reminiscent of the US economy. No photograph could capture the thrill of the experience. I realised that having lots of photographs can tell the story of a happy life but the absence of photographs may be the sign of an even happier one. In trying to capture one perfect moment, I realised that I would have missed out on ten other perfect moments.

My Fungi scene made it into Summer of Secrets. In fact, tiny scene though it is, it is one that defines the essence of the book.

Just like all those photographs never taken. 

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Posted by Keris on May 12, 2008 in Guest blogs | Permalink

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