Monday, June 12, 2017

Posted on Jun 12, 2017 in Devotions |

 

 

Devotional for Monday, June 12, 2017
“Understanding the Light of Our Lord”

 

light in the midst of darkness

by Dona Hake

So much has changed in the world of photography, and it continues to develop and improve as the world of digital shooting continues to advance.    I can remember being adamant in not wanting anything to do with a digital camera. I knew nothing but film and working in a film lab for almost ten years made it even harder for me to switch.   I worked in so many departments of the photo lab but my favorite was working with the printing of black and white negatives.  Each negative had to be carefully read.  The printing machine did not tell me what to do, I had to make the decision to administer  light or less light for a quality image.  Light, dark, whites, grays, blacks…it all had to be perfect to create the perfect black and white image. After printing I would take my huge roll of paper to the darkroom for processing.   In the darkroom where your prints were processed you could stand and watch the images you printed.   The paper passed from one chemical to the next and was being transformed as it reached its destination of completion.  I would stand there anticipating if I made proper judgements or not.  Honestly, I am glad I had that experience because it has benefited me even in the use of digital and making judgements while shooting manually.
 
I often think about photographers back in the day of film shooting that photographed  weddings.   I cannot imagine capturing an iconic shot not knowing that my settings were completely off, and the image was irreparable.     As I did wedding photography for seven years and shot over eighty weddings, I cannot tell you how thankful I was to be able to check myself with those very important shots.

 

In this age of digital shooting I hear many say they just shoot on their automatic setting.  In other words they just let the camera figure it out the settings.    I learned a valuable lesson from a photographer that I had the opportunity to work with.   One day he said to me, “Dona, you need to shoot manually. It is what creativity is all about with photography.”    My response, “Wow! that is too scary to  me!  What if I miss a good shot because I did not figure out settings correctly?”   His response, “Dona, it is more scary to me to shoot on automatic for I know I am not getting the best shot I can get.”   From that day forward I have been shooting manually almost 99% of the time.  

 

I embrace the opinion that photography is all about understanding light.  How much or how little you need.  It has to be perfect.  So it is when we encounter situations in this life. We need to have God’s perfect light at work for us in everything we do!   First you need to know what kind of outcome you desire and you need to know what to do to make it happen.  Along with our desires we need to desire to understand how to get to where we are going.  God knows what we need, and His Word has every answer for anything we face.  He knows the light we need to bring us the proper understanding in a situation.  Thank God that if we do mess up, we can start over with His help and reach for His light.  God is the God of ultimate light that can illuminate anything we need in our life.

 

Psalm 18:28

 

“For thou wilt light my candle: the Lord my

God will enlighten my darkness.”

 

I am ever so thankful that God is a God of all light.  There is nothing I face that He cannot go before  me and show me the way and instruct me how to get there safely.  Today I praise Him for being a God of perfect light!