i originally posted this article on the grace lent blog but have pasted it below. you don't need eyes to see you need vision (and a camera helps)

in the last few years i have got into photography, mainly through cheap and easy to use digital cameras. the beauty of these is that you can point and shoot and it doesn't matter if your pictures are no good – you just keep the good ones and a bit of tweaking on the computer can always bring out a bit more colour. but gradually you develop an eye for what might make a good shot and give you an original take or angle or compsition or way of seeing…

this may sound weird but the process of taking photos is actually making me see differently. i tried articulating this at gracelet on sunday night (which was brilliant btw – thanks ben – must get those sheets on the grace zine pages) and steve knew what i was talking about – in fact he said it was the reason he took photos which made me think it was a good thing. maybe if i contrast a couple of photos it will help explain what i mean…

this is one that i took on the empire state building. the sun was setting, i was in a fantastic location, it was difficult not to have your breath taken away and be filled with a sense of wonder and amazement (whatever anyone says manhattan is visually fantastic). i didn't really have to do any work with the camera either – well other than point it. it was all about being in that fantastic location. the photo isn't actualy that great – the camera i had is a good little one but struggles in duller light conditions which is why it's all a bit fuzzy.

in contrast this is one that mark took in ealing. i absolutely love this picture. it is so colourful and has an almost sci fi quality to it as someone has commented on mark's flickr page. the thing about this photo is that it is ealing broadway station. i guess most of us have been there many times – it's hardly a station that you think will fill you with a sense of wow because of its beauty – it's very ordinary. but mark's photo transforms my way of looking at it. i'm normally in a rush, got my head buried in a paper, have a glazed look about me not really noticing the world around me. but this photo and others like it make we want to relook at the world and see beauty in the ordinary and the everyday. and i have found that the process of taking photos is doing this for me.

there's an obvious parallel with faith. i think i have often been told or had an expectation built to look for or think i need the empire state building experience – an amazing thing that being realistic will only happen every few years or maybe once or twice a year? but actually i need to learn to glimpse the presence of God, the beauty, the sense of wonder in places like ealing broadway station. God is present but it's easy to forget or not even look. in theological terms it's incarnational – God present in all of life and culture, or sacramental – God's presence mediated through the stuff of everyday life.

it was my birthday at the weekend and because of jen's kindness and generosity i have just got my first digital slr camera which i am very chuffed about. this is pretty much the first photo with it – a church roof – somehow beautiful, filled with contrasting light, peaceful and still…

in the words of maxi jazz of faithless you don't need eyes to see you need vision