Do you ever see beauty in something mundane, random, or plain awful? There was an artwork once from someone young that I saw and I love it even though it would perhaps be considered poor in the general sense.
I've heard of - and experienced - something similar. I doodle here and there. Well, they are considered doodles by most, I'd say. They aren't too good, and when I redraw it later in more detail or a bit of a larger scale etc., then I see what others likely do. Until then, however, a small doodle can look to my eyes like one of the greatest things I've ever created. Or, simply, a piece of art. I know that it's not very high-quality, but it is appealing to my eyes or it is nice, I'm not sure how to explain that part further.
But, then there are accidental lines that curve just right and look great but are unreproduceable (is there a word for that?) Or something more than just a line or few. Then, when color is added, things can look amazing. I'm not sure how to describe this all, but certain things- generally art, even unintentional, but also nature or landscape as I'll get to later. By unintentional, I mean... idk, actually. But there can be something intended to be a doodle or collection of doodles that is beautiful to me.
For the nature/landscape aspect, I very much enjoy taking pictures (just on my phone camera, and I'm not a professional or anything) of the landscape and scenery around me. The clouds are a big focus. I have many pictures of the clouds, and unfortunately have to delete some, mainly duplicates or "ugly" ones, to clear up space... I might look into getting some printed out, as I would very much like having physical photographs of them. Both the permanence ot tangibility of a physical photograph rather than digital file, and also being able to flip through them- either by hand or in a photo album of sorts.
Anyway, I love the clouds. I have pictures of when they were pink, when the sun was shining through, the winter clouds, sunset clouds, etc. I don't always get photos and I wish I did. I feel like I have less than I think, to be honest. There is still this time that will possibly haunt me forever as a regret. It wasn't necessarily the clouds (as I take of landscape too), but it was sunset or so, and there was a building that was silhouetted and it looked beautiful in my eyes. Perhaps it wasn't to others', but it was to me- and I don't have many, if any, silhouette photographs. I did not take a picture, even though I could've, and I regret it. But it's in the past, and the regret has lessened.
For landscape, I love trees, elevated terrain, and others. I love the combination of cloud and land, especially. Like what's-his-name (Remi, maybe?) in the movie Ratatouille, when you put them together...
Sometimes I can't get a good photo, or it doesn't turn out good. Trees or buildings in the way, or I my fingers are numb from the cold and I can't frame it so I take more blindly. And zooming can be hard, as the full photo doesn't always look the best, or has things I don't want in it. But zoomed in can look less detailed and not have the full beauty of the landscape.
There was this one time, I was with someone and took a photo of some buildings and this column of smoke from some industrial thing I assume. They asked why I was taking the photo, or maybe "what could be beautiful in that?" I didn't respond, or gave a simple dismissive/avoidance one. The honest truth was that I saw a certain kind of beauty in it, and, though I've only perhaps admitted this to one person, I want to use photos as art. I want them to be art, and have meaning. I want to be able to use them in an art project or an album cover, but am reluctant to tell anyone for fear of them either not understanding, or breaking an illusion I perhaps don't realize I have - or realize subconsciously yet hide from - the illusion that these are not just ordinary amateur photos and that I will become someone or create something.
So, another thing is that sometimes I sit at my desk or somewhere in general, inside or out, and I really sit/stand and look at my surroundings in a new way. Perhaps it's a form of mindfulness, I am now realizing. But I look at something ordinary - not necessarily an object, but perhaps a collection of objects and the surroundings, or just the area - and I see beauty. I see something so ordinary and unassuming yet so... beautiful or... innocent, sometimes; since the scene or objects do not know they are beautiful, and neither do passerby. Perhaps that is not the right word, but yeah. It makes me look at the world - if only that one point - with new eyes, new wonder, new beauty and new seeing.
One night I was out and it was raining. It was completely dark save the street lights and occasional car. I don't remember all that of the night but I was hurrying to shelter ot enjoying the rain, I don't remember which- for a reason I do. The sidewalks and road were wet with rain, the light reflecting in them. I wanted to capture the moment, what I saw. Or perhaps I wanted to create beauty where I saw potential- the less desirable narrative, though perhaps more truthful. Either way, I took some photos in different places as I was walking or perhaps running, and some turned out fairly good- I still have them (it wasn't that long ago) and revisited them while writing this.
There is a beauty that I see in... buildings and such for lack of a more descriptive or better phrase. Signs of human life or presence, especially when none of the kind of their creators are present (in other words, no humans). When it appears as if the place is abandoned- that even the being behind the camera is not there. Perhaps this is described by the term "liminal photography," one I have discovered relatively recently. Perhaps not, perhaps sometimes.
Sometimes the oddest things can look beautiful to me, and I feel the urge to capture a moment in a photograph- a frozen moment in time.