Lenten Challenge: Week Two

Moon, cloud, and streetlight on my way home.

It turns out that I'm doing okay with the mental discipline of looking for beauty in what does exist, made by man or grown by nature.

It's the perfect time of year for sunrise fantasies over our house. The light turns the sky all shades--seashell pinks and blues some mornings and tropical oranges, fuschias, and turquoises other mornings. Seeing that soul-satisfying light over, above, and around our home fills me up. And it creates intricate silhouettes of the oaks and palmettos of our newly cleared back yard. I'm looking to learning to catch those with the new camera.

And it turns out that will be the biggest obstacle for me. While I have a decent eye for composition, thanks to my theatrical training and my husband's years of coaching, and I do understand the principles behind photography, I have two languages to learn. I need to learn the technical jargon of photography and then I need to learn the symbols, buttons, and dials on the camera. Then I need to learn some sort of processing software. For me, this is huge. I am not into formulae, symbols, jargon, compu-speak. At all.

My husband and I debated whether we should dig out his old classic Cannon with entirely manual controls, but then we had to ask. Where would we buy film? Where would we get it developed? And then I thought, If we do find a place, do we really want to spend money on my endless experiments?

So I decided to keep trying with the our bells-and-whistles modern Cannon. The moon has been full and I wanted to give low light shots a try. What do you think?

Yes, I know they're just RAW. Yes, I know there are free converters online. I have a work deadline, people! Okay, I'm not yelling at you--that's really to make me feel better about not being able to set aside the time to make a technical success of this challenge. But it's not about "technical" or "success"--is it?

Really, I set this challenge to learn to appreciate an inevitable change. I wanted to let go of bitterness and sorrow, replacing them with acceptance and hope. That part, I feel, is going well.

How could it not be? I did manage to catch one stunning photo with my phone, after a windstorm came through. Ladies and gentleman, I give you "The Fall of the House of Flusher"!