Photography Lessons

Sandhill cranes in Citrus County, Florida

As I have advanced in my photography skills, I have also realized that I have not only learned more about how to use my camera and lenses, but in the process gained valuable life lessons.  I now know there is also a lot more to learn. Some examples and illustrations from my weekend in Citrus County, Florida follow.

Make sure you have all your equipment before you leave the house.  I rushed out the door to photograph the sandhill cranes when I heard them flying over the house.  Unfortunately, I left my flash card indoors and found out when I raised the camera to shoot and it wouldn’t cooperate.  Missed opportunity.

Sometimes when you mess up you get a second chance.  The cranes came back again the next day.

Wait.  Patience pays off.  I sat on the dock for 20 minutes without taking any photographs, just watching the moves of the sandhill cranes.  Sure enough, they came closer and closer until they were only 6-8 feet away. 

Clean up your files so you have room for new ones. There I was with the sandhill cranes almost close enough to touch them.  I had waited and I had the best opportunity ever to shoot great close-ups of them.  This time I had the flash card but it was full.  Instead of getting the perfect shot, I spent time deleting photos from the flash card to make room for a few more photographs.  

Sometimes a new angle makes all the difference in the outcome.  Photos of the same bird, same location, different angle do not alike. 

Get out from behind the camera and take in the whole view – you might otherwise miss something.  I was so busy photographing the sandhill cranes that I didn’t realize that other birds were all around me.

Don’t be in such a hurry that you miss what you were looking for.  Rushing to the spot where I thought the cranes would be, I nearly walked right into them as they strutted down a driveway.

Sometimes a view from a distance is worth more than being up close.  It was such a thrill to watch the fly-over of the whooping cranes behind their ultralight “mother”.  Up close the view might not have been as dramatic.

Share your joy when you see something special.  A woman on her motorized wheelchair, with her little dog riding where her amputated legs should have been resting, stopped to admire the sandhill cranes.  We spoke about them and their amazing beauty and grace.  I walked on down the trail and she and her dog stayed a bit to watch the birds, then continued their journey.

Your mind is the best photographer.  It was impossible to capture the beauty of the sunset.  These photographs are nothing like the real thing that is still etched in my mind.

A close look sometimes gives you a different perspective.  Who knew a weed could be so beautiful or interesting?

Nature and sunlight pair to create exceptional beauty.  These cypress knees in the morning light were hard to resist and moss in the trees looked pretty in the late afternoon sun.

Opportunities present themselves in the most unusual locations.  The Citrus County dump was a good place to see lots of swarming birds.

Be careful where you step.  Wild orchids grew in the grass and I almost crushed them.

Get out and Walk.  You are bound to see something interesting.  The Withlacoochee trail in Citrus County, Florida offers endless photo opportunities.

Up Close and Personal

I received a fabulous gift of a macro lens. It has changed my perspective and my photographs already. 

A friend told me my photographs make him feel closer to God. I replied that God is, after all, the big macro lens. God is in the details. We're not much without his ability to magnify and cannot forget that our role is to glorify, whether or not we have the perfect job or a full line-up of clients.

I tried out the new lens on a fly on the jack-o-lantern on Halloween. Poor Jack was a bit on the rotten side, sagging with his insides a slimy pool. The fly had already planned where his next several meals were coming from and kindly didn't budge from Jack’s eye while I tried to get my settings right.  It isn't one of my best photographs.  But life is like that.  Sometimes you macro a mediocre picture.

Looking at the details is something I have been doing in other parts of my life, too.  You can’t take a macro lens to yourself and photograph without a certain amount of subjectivity.  In our world, it is too easy to select the “trash” icon to eliminate what we don't want to see.  Exposing the details that might not always be so comfortable is what introspection and job hunting are all about. 

The gift of the lens as a good sign that I am about to start a new step in this process.  For months, I have looked closely at what I like to do and what I don't, what I am good at and what I'm not so good at.  Each macro step I take gives me a better picture of what the whole me really is and where I need to be.  This is all about dissecting down to the tiny details to see what you're made of.

Sometimes I take a step back because I don't love everything I see and if I am not careful I lose confidence, focus on the amplified negativity of the situation of my unemployment and its growing ranks.  It's like peeling an onion, only to find that it still smells like an onion, makes you cry more the further you cut into it, and sometimes there are ugly pieces inside that need to be discarded. And so it goes.

The resume, but one tool in the job-hunting kit, is designed to give the big picture of you so that potential employers can drill down and magnify the parts they are interested in.  It should be the book jacket of the best seller that is the employed me.  I can’t wait to take that photograph!

If I could take the macro lens to my eating habits, I wonder if I would find the reason why eating and cooking give me comfort.  Why is eating salad is not as comforting as eating garlic cheese grits with shrimp and collard greens?

There are endless analogies for this period of my life and I am choosing to focus on the positive ones, amplifying the things that are helpful and growth-inducing such as realizing that I really do want to run a nonprofit organization one day and that I love being in a consulting role when I can help nonprofits gain insight and move forward.  

When I get tired of focusing on the job hunt, I can take my camera and my new macro lens to the garden or down the street to the park and capture the tiny parts of leaves, plants, crawling things and other amazing works of our God who is so into the details.  Even turnips look good with the macro lens!