When we look more at the horizon than at the cell phone screen

That's when we pay attention to our surroundings. We don't always do that, almost never now, busy as we are with our little telephone devices that we don't even use much to talk to one another these days. I find myself on my cell phone many times during the day, but I try to look more at the present and the environment I am in. 


It was in one of those days of observing that I noticed a couple who were admiring the beginning of a sunset here in Maui. They seemed very present there, in that moment. They didn't have cell phones. They had a polaroid and they were trying to take pictures of the two, I mean, the three of them. They were expecting a baby. I think presence draws attention to the present as well. When we get a little alienated from the screens we carry in our hands, it seems that everyone is momentarily invisible. 


We saw each other and I approached to talk to them. Claire and Austin were expecting the little Sebastian. We talked for a bit... They were very receptive, again, that presence in conversations that you look into people's eyes. I mentioned that I'm a photographer and that I do photoshoots in Maui. They were excited about the idea of ​​being photographed here and we decided to do the session in the place where they were staying and which I hadn't been to before.


We met one morning at Lumeria, a retreat in a higher part of the island, full of nature and simplicity. The reception of the place resonated with the receptivity I had when suggesting the photoshoot to Claire and Austin. Everything was so light, hammocks among the trees, tangerine trees, everything in the format I always imagine photographing in nature. I was told how the trip to Maui wasn't in the script, but it happened; that little finger of fate. The conversations, the presence in the present moment, everything became very clear when I saw the memories we made there. 


At the end, I attributed this connection to the disconnection of cell phones at that moment when I noticed the presence of the two, who now are three and who I hope to meet again in Hawaii. Perhaps like that, unexpectedly, how it was their trip to Maui and the memories they carried from here with them.