“One summer when I was about forty, I was up in the Yosemite backcountry taking photos as usual. When suddenly it dawned on me that I wasn’t able to see Yosemite anymore. All I could see was how this meadow or that sunrise would look like in a photograph. I had lost all personal awareness of my true surroundings.” “You mean your lens was blinding you from seeing things through your own eyes?” “Exactly. And not just seeing—feeling. From then on, I left my camera at home, except of course on family vacations, so that I could directly experience everything around me.”
