June 2, 2009 - First Clouds

The evening of June 2, 2009, was an amazing one. There were some MASSIVE clouds just floating around as the sun went down, making for a nature photographer's perfect evening. Later in the day I checked many of the clouds I had photographed on a weather radar, and most of them were heavy rain clouds. But the heavy rain clouds weren't all that I photographed that evening, and in the next five blog posts (including this one), I think that will become clear.

I first went down to the field west of our house where about a month later I got the "Against the Grain" picture. It's hardly ever boring out that way, and these clouds certainly lived up to that statement. I think if you click on the picture you can see a bigger version and see even the sun rays down underneath the clouds.

Next I headed down toward the eastern side of our property where we have a stone wall marking our border line. I only cross this wall ocasionally, but I confess this was one of those occasions. The clouds were huge! It's a shame these pictures can't show it, but this cloud was probably about 20 miles away! Simply massive.

This other cloud is the same one I think, just at a different time, showing just how fast the clouds can change shape. It looks like a giant scoop of ice cream without a cone, just hovering over the hills. It was pretty weird.

It was while taking this picture that I noticed something that led to the second section of the photography tour of 6/2/09.

Slow Down

August 6th was a foggy morning, and I love foggy mornings. So I grabbed my camera and ran outside to see if I could get any good pictures. At first glance it might look like I got some decent photos, but I probably could have gotten some much better ones if I had walked rather than run.

As I ran madly down the clearing to where the fog was best, I heard a crash up ahead. I stopped, looked up, and saw a deer just disappearing into the woods. I thought, "Oh man!" but kept right on charging down the path to get to my destination. More crashing. I stopped and looked again, and this time saw TWO deer disappearing into the woods. That was really sad. I only have one deer picture that's any good (I imagine it will show up in this blog soon), and it would have been great to have gotten some more.

But I got my fog pictures, and hopefully I learned a lesson too. Hopefully next time I go out on a photographic mission I'll slow down and keep an eye out for things I would otherwise miss.

"Desire without knowledge is not good, and whoever makes haste with his feet misses his way" (Proverbs 19:2, English Standard Version).

Against the Grain

Earlier this year, in July I believe, I entered my second photo contest, which was held annually by the Homeschool Legal Defense Association. The photo contest required that you submit a photo that followed one of three subject phrases: Beauty from Ashes, Journey's End, and Against the Grain. I was going to go with Beauty from Ashes at first, then Journey's End, but I finally settled on Against the Grain, because I had an idea of how I could portray that subject in a Christianish way.

The photo I actually submitted didn't have the Scripture verse on it, but that was the verse my photo was based on. "Then Jesus told His disciples, 'If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me'" (Matthew 16:24, English Standard Version). What Jesus says just sums up to me a life lived against the grain.

So I made a wooden cross in the workshop, and took it out to a field near our house. I stood out there trying to get this picture for a LONG time. The sun was getting lower and lower, but finally I got a photo that I was satisfied with.

It may not have been the most stunning of sunsets, but the sort of simple sunset seemed almost to make the photograph better. I didn't get anything in the photo contest, but the photograph has become one of my more favorites because it gives a picture of how Jesus said His followers should live.