Finding delight in the ordinary

Budapest Times

17-05-2025

It seems like an easy thing, to find beauty in everyday life. Yet for many of us, including myself, it requires a conscious effort, particularly when we're fighting the tide of madness and mayhem that is engulfing our world.
Each new day is a new news day, bringing with it accounts of something that pushes the boundaries of morality and attempts to erode our sense of goodness.
Finding delight in the ordinary is an effort worth making.
Finding delight in the ordinary and in doing so making it extraordinary, that's quite something.
Enter István Eiter.
No matter how bad my humour, how despondent my mood, how hopeless I feel about our collective tomorrow, Eiter's work gives me pause.
Each day he publishes a new photo is a good day.
For me.
Born in Pécs, Eiter first majored in ceramics, then studied woodcarving. Two years of military service prefaced several years working at the town's Bóbita Puppet Theater. As a puppeteer and set designer, he discovered how objects come to life, how they become characters, and heroes of a story.
Talking to him in his home in Balatonmagyaród in southwest Hungary, where he lives with his wife, Maya, Eiter embodies the natural bonhomie of a good storyteller. His innate likeability draws the listener in. His quiet certitude adds a layer of assurance that what he has to say is worth listening to. Here's a man who quietly wrings every last moment of joy from life.
The couple (his wife is a ceramicist) originally moved to the village when commissioned by a production cooperative to make ceramic stove stiles and unique wooden furniture. They'd sold their apartment in Pécs and when the coop wound down, they decided to stay.
Moving his planing bench from room to room as they renovated their village home, Eiter began making signs, sculptures, and furniture. He now works out of the workshop he built on their property. The work came pouring in as news of his abilities spread. He employed other carpenters and students and began to take on more serious work, all of which he documented himself. In photos.
While I've a fondness for intricate carvings and practically salivate over photos of some of the woodwork he's done, it's not Eiter's mastery of wood I find restorative, it's what he captures with his camera.
As a child, he'd watch his father develop film in the bathroom of the family apartment in Pécs. Enthralled by how the stories slowly appeared on paper, gradually coming into focus, his love of photography blossomed.
His property in Balatonmagaryód backs onto the Kis-Balaton, a huge wetland habitat home to more than 250 species of birds and listed as a UNESCO Wetlands of International Importance as Waterfowl Habitat as part of the Ramsar Convention of 1971.
[For some sense of how this used to be, watch this wonderful short video by British Pathé from 1930 showing the Kis-Balaton in all its glory.]
With Kányavári Sziget literally in his backyard, it didn't take Eiter long to forge a lasting relationship with the inhabitants of the wetlands. He is, you could say, their press photographer, their publicist.
It's the early bird that catches the worm, as the idiom goes. So, too, with nature photography. Eiter is up and about when the rest of us are turning over for a second sleep. This is when the light is at its most beautiful.
With so many birds and so much wildlife to choose from, you'd think it would be simply a matter of point and click.
It isn't.
Looking at the photographs Eiter published in May alone, each has a story there. The deer swimming across the lake – they could be going or coming, leaving something behind, or moving towards something new. The Eurasian Hoopoe ( Búbos banka ) on a twig – it might be addressing the nation, singing a song, or saying its prayers. The Cormorant family reunion – or a council of war, a family holiday, a community meeting?
Each photo has a story. Many stories.
'A photo is ready in a matter of seconds, but to make a good photo, a good camera is not enough; the circumstances, the subject, and the thought I want to convey are important. The sum of these is what makes a picture really good,' Eiter explains.
I savour each image, taking a few minutes to quietly contemplate the magic that is nature, appreciate the patience and artistry behind each shot, and celebrate the joy that comes with finding the extraordinary in the ordinary.
Contemplate. Appreciate. Celebrate.
It's a lovely way to start my day.
'From the embers, to leave a few sparks as a memory like tiny stars, I would like to do this with my photos and my woodwork,' Eiter says.
Job done, I say. Job done.
Photo prints can be ordered in the size and materials you need by emailing István Eiter at [e-mail]. See his work on his Facebook page, and if your Hungarian is up to it, check out this video bio.
Better still, get thee out of the city and into the beautiful Hungarian countryside. Visit the Eiters at their weekend café in Balatonmagyaród and see the magic for yourself.
Mary Murphy is a freelance writer, copyeditor, blogger, and communications trainer. Read more at www.unpackingmybottomdrawer.com | www.anyexcusetotravel.com | www.dyingtogetin.com