I spy with my eye...

I have a paradox that I would like to talk about: how I feel, recently, about photography.

First of all, just by looking at my Facebook profile, you will know that I love taking pictures. I love taking pictures, being in pictures, looking at pictures, etc. Maybe this has something to do with the fact that my mother was a professional photographer for many years. Another reason I love photography has to do with the photography class that I took my sophomore year. It really made me look at the world. Do you ever feel like you are just floating along, not paying attention? I haven't felt that way since sophomore year. Kira Baldinger did her job and taught me to look at the world the way a lens would see it. The way an artist would paint it. The way a sculptor would sculpt it. I love it.

Unfortunately, there is something about photography that I hate. I am in a Digital Imaging class this semester and we are learning about the color wheel and the way you see light and color and how what you see can never fully be recreated in print because there are some colors that just aren't in the color spectrum of RGB or CMYK. To me this is depressing because I see the world in this beautiful way all of a sudden, yet, I can't seem to capture it. I want to save it forever. Like a reminder that God is out there... because I don't think that the big bang or evolution could create something so beautiful.

Here is why I starting thinking about this. Today, I was driving to Runza to get some supper and the simple yet gorgeous colors of nature seemed breathtaking to me. Nothing out of the ordinary was even going on. There was a white blanket of snow on the ground and the sky was deep, dark blue. But the way the light from the street lamps reflected off of the newly dusted ground put off an amber sort of reflection on the crooked brick streets. It was like a lantern in the darkness leading the way. The colors worked so well together, it was gorgeous.

And then I took out my camera and snapped a photo. I wanted to drive my car over my camera I was so disappointed. There was no light, no glow, no slight blur from the water on my windshield. Just darkness and dullness. It was sad. All I could do was take a mental picture and say a prayer of thanksgiving to God for creating such beauty.

Part of me almost thought, "Maybe that's just the way He wants it. Short and sweet." And it made me thankful that I had seen it at all.