Still Life with Pepsi

I've been thinking a lot about finding new subjects to write about and shoot. Sure, part of it is because the people in my life literally run from me with talk-to-the-hand motions whenever they see me take off my camera lens cap. Also, after 4 years of daily photoblogging a city of only 3-odd square miles I worry that I might be running out of things to cover...

But it's more than that.

We live in an age that allows us to lay in bed and check out a Paris webcam from our iPad. We can digitally call up images of all the world's great landmarks, great artworks, great moments in photojournalism and enough YouTube cat videos to fill the National Film Archives. Photography tricks that once took decades to learn in a darkroom can now be replicated with an iPhone app. The complete works of Shakespeare, The Age of Reason and Grays Anatomy and can be downloaded to your Kindle in less time than it takes to walk over to a bookshelf.

There's a whole lot of big stuff to see, read and do, right at our fingertips. There's so much to see, in fact, that we're often buried in our smartphones instead of taking in the scenery around us. Although, to be fair, we're not always looking at great works of art or reading Shakespeare. There are all those cat videos, after all.

My point? Let's not forget about the little stuff around us. It's the little stuff around us that counts. It's always the little stuff around us that counts. In fact, I think that right after Socrates said "I know one thing, and that is that I know nothing," he backed it up with, "Hey! Look at the cool footprints I just left with my sandals!"

Or maybe I just read that on a blog somewhere.

I was sitting in my office the other day trying to figure out something big and important to write about. Then, I noticed my cup on the table. It's not worthy of mention on Mashable. It will never have its own webcam. It won't be included in a Century's Best Invention website and it doesn't even include a cat. But it's a nice grounding reminder of the little, insignificant wonder that is all around us.

There's no app for that.