Sunshine

Recently I found myself very dis-satisfied with every picture I took. I've actually gotten some wonderful (at least in my opinion LOL) pictures in the past and considered myself a fairly good photographer. But I just couldn't get the look that I wanted and I couldn't figure out why. My pictures were either washed out

or dark and grainy

or super blurry

It was awful. I knew it wasn't the camera's fault. Then I remembered I'd had this problem before. It was wintertime that was the problem. So I started doing some research online on how to get good pictures indoors during winter.

It turned out my problem was light. There just wasn't enough of it. The shutter was moving slower (because of lack of light) letting my small movements show up in a blurry or grainy picture.

So I asked Mike, who is a much better photographer, for help and he showed me where to change some of the settings on my camera.

We tried changing the color settings, but I felt it was still kind of washed out.

A higher ISO made for a *decent* picture, although still just a little grainy in my opinion - and just not a *great* picture. I wanted pictures that popped! Pictures that looked *alive*!

Finally, one of my online friends suggested turning off the flash, waiting for a sunny morning, and using natural light coming in the windows.

Wow! What a difference! I finally had pictures that had life in them! Pictures that I wanted to keep and share with others.

What a difference light makes! And not just any light. I turned on my flash in several of those earlier pictures, but they still fell flat. It was natural sunlight - God's light that breathed life into those photographs. It was the play of light and shadow more than just having enough light that made the difference.

And then I realized it was another metaphor from God. :) Isn't He cool?! In my life, there are times of darkness - wintery times. Often, I've tried to force my own ideas of light into the situation, but although they may seem to help a little, they lack the power to tranform my life into something truly beautiful. It's just a flat copy of what could be.

But when God's light shines into my life, it makes even the shadows part of the beauty. A beauty that glows with true life!

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