Shooting from the hip

At least once in a blue moon,
you should shoot a roll of film
from the hip,
quickly,
without looking through the lens,
to learn again
that the horizon is not always
as straight as you'd like it to be,
and that what you frame
won't always have in it
what you thought to include.
From where you're standing,
the subject won't necessarily be the size you anticipate-
perhaps smaller than it should be,
or larger than
you can deal with.

Life is not straight
up and down.
The edges don't always meet
at right angles,
and points of intersection are
off center much of the time;
even lines that curve
are not round
or regular
or predictable.

Don't think you can frame life
in a neat box,
and in fact,
it may be more accurate
to create your images
by shooting from the hip,
where you can only guess
at what will take shape
inside your lens.