A WORD FOR TODAY, March 27, 2025
Peggy Hoppes
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Blessings. Peg
A WORD FOR TODAY, March 27, 2025
I was not a fan in the early days of digital cameras. I always said, “I’d rather use film,” as if I were some professional photographer that printed my own pictures. I liked the fact that my photos were what my photos were, no photo shop editing. Of course, if I made a mistake, then that photo was useless. And I made a lot of mistakes. For many pre-digital photographers, a successful shoot produced about ten percent of good photos. I don't mind telling you that I really do prefer digital now.
We lived in England before digital cameras were invented, so I often traveled with many rolls of film. I was always careful about composing my photos, checking the lighting, waiting for photobombs to move out of the shot. It wasn’t just that I was limited by the amount of photos I could take; it was expensive to get them developed. I have piles of useless prints of fuzzy people who moved just when I clicked the shutter. Or photos with bad lighting. Or photos that are just off center, missing the most important thing I meant to capture. I visited Stonehenge one day and had an hour at sunset to capture the incredible beauty of the place but ran our of film before the sunset peaked. I left a few minutes early because there was nothing left to do.
It is not unusual for me to take hundreds of photos in a day (or more!) especially when I am shooting moving objects. This is particularly true when I am hunting wildflowers. It is often windy when I’m out in the fields, and the blooms do not stand still. I suppose it would be more of an accomplishment if I pushed the button at exactly the right moment, but it is so much better to take a dozen photos of the same flower and then choose the one that looks best. I also move my camera so that the composition is different, sometimes with the flower in the corner, sometimes centered. I turn my camera in different directions to show the height of some flowers or get really close to catch the tiny bugs that are feeding on the pollen. Speaking of bugs, It is a whole lot easier to catch a butterfly in motion if you take a bunch of photos of a flower and hope the butterfly will come into view.
I am not always good about checking my photos on the go, and I don’t always pay attention to the settings that might impact a shot. I have one of those fancy cameras with settings I don’t even know how to use. I can go beyond the basics; I understand the necessity of choosing the right exposure, balance, and shutter speed. Unfortunately, I often forget to check these things, and I sometimes accidentally change the settings, which can be controlled on a touch screen. The advantage of digital photos is the ability to look at the pictures you’ve taken and change the settings to fit the situation.
Unfortunately, I’ve had adventures when I’ve made huge mistakes. During one wildflower hunt, U accidentally turned a knob that chooses the type of photography I was attempting. I couldn’t see the viewing screen in the field because the sun was too bright, and I didn’t take the time at the car to see what type of photos I was taking. It is hard to tell anyway because the screen is too small. Some photos look good in 2” x 2” but look terrible when blown up on the computer.
When I put the pictures on my computer, I realized that most of them were overexposed. This means that the pictures have too much light. I had to delete hundreds of photos that were simply unusable. The overexposure made a few interesting pictures, pictures that looked much like the Impressionistic paintings of Monet or Van Gogh. They are terrible photographs, but interesting art. I managed to make the best of the situation, but I learned a lesson (one I’ve learned in the past, but keep forgetting) to make sure that everything on my camera is set properly for the situation.
We might like to think of ourselves and our Christian life as if it were an easy shoot camera: all the settings automatic with nothing in our power to control. It is true that God does work through us. Our faith and gifts come from God. God will see us through hard times and keep us on the right path. God can accomplish great things with us even if we are nothing more than an easy shoot camera. But is that really the Christian life we want to lead? Don’t we want to take the gifts we’ve been given and become actively involved in the work of God? We don’t have to take control; we can’t take control. But we are called to be co-creators with our God, living God’s Word in real, dynamic ways. So, let’s abide in the things we have learned and know the God in whom we have faith in a way that will create something beautiful in the world.
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