A Nice Camera?

 

 

“You must have a really nice camera,” the lady told me.  “Your photos always look great.”

“I guess I do have a nice camera,” I said.  “Although, I have learned how to get the most out of my camera too.”

“It must be nice to have a camera that can capture such beautiful colors,” she said with a sigh.  “I just use my phone for most things and I guess it’s OK.”

“True,” I said.  “Phone cameras are quite capable these days.  They are probably more capable than a lot of the film cameras people to use in the past.”

“You probably have special filters you use on your pictures?”  She asked.

“Not really.  I tweak things in Lightroom, but I try to get things right in my camera so I don’t have to do a bunch of editing after the fact.

I have found the discussion of photography to be a discouraging one.  Most people are convinced that the true source of great photos (not saying mine are great) is awesome cameras and lenses – with a hearty helping of Photoshop poured on top, like sausage gravy on biscuits.

The reality is that taking good landscape images requires waking up early (sunrise is often somewhere between 5:30 and 6 am depending on where you live) and struggling out to a location where you can capture some beautiful light – before the sun ever peeps above the horizon.  Using a tripod is helpful too, as it allows you to keep your camera steady in those moments when it is too dark to have a fast shutter speed.

More than all of that, it takes effort to learn how to get the most out of a shooting situation.  When your photos don’t look the way you want, you need to sit down and think about what settings you messed up and how you could fix it in the future.

This is the way it is in life.  You generally get out of something what you invest in it -- and maybe just a little bit more.

The Apostle Paul said, "Not that I have already attained or am already perfected, but I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold on me. (Phil. 3:13)

So many people claim that they want a deeper relationship with God.  They want the sort of confidence that the great men and women of faith had.  I am convinced that the issue is not that people don't have the right version of the Bible, or lack the right devotional books.  The issue is simply that folks aren't willing to sit down and focus themselves on their Heavenly Father.  They don't cry out to Him and they don't listen to His voice.

If anyone could have claimed to have things down perfectly, it was Paul, but still he saw much that needed perfecting.  Still, he pressed on to deepen his relationship with Jesus.

So the question comes clearly, what do you spend the moments of each day on?  If you spent half the time you spend online or Netflix on your relationship with God, what would it look like?

There is no investment better than pouring ourselves into our connection with our Heavenly Father.  What we do today will decide who we are tomorrow.

Let's not live as though the only reason that someone has better pictures is because they have a better camera.