Passionate Interests

I had an interesting conversation with a friend of mine who is a passionate bike rider.  Similar to the way I might go on a week long photo trip, she might go on a week long trip away to go biking.  She was describing to me the 'zen' of being out on the road or trail pedaling her bike when she made an interesting statement that caught me by surprise. "Howard", she said, "the amazing part is that you could be out there biking with a friend on a trail and be coming up to the top of a hill.  And, even though you might have biked that trail a hundred times before, the light might be hitting a patch of grass or something else on the top of the hill in a way that is different from every other time that you have seen it before so that it looks totally different and so you notice something new on each trip that you've never seen before, even though you might have been there many times."

What could I say?  I just told her that it is exactly the same when you are out photographing.  Maybe the same heightened perception occurs whenever one is involved with something that they are deeply passionate about, no matter what that might be.