Your Best Photographs Aren't Always in Front of You

Every morning, usually around 6:30 am, Sheila and I head out for a walk. The sunrises have been spectacular, but I never take a camera with me. I think of it too late, and the lens fogs up the minute the camera hits the morning heat and humidity. This morning was another stunning sky, but I was ready for it. Well, these two images got me thinking about the way we often look at our lives. 

For example, we're so conditioned to appreciating beautiful sunsets we rarely notice a sunrise. Then there's one other perspective. We're so occupied by the brilliant light in front of us that we rarely turn around. The image above was facing east, and below looking west. The reflection of the sunrise in the clouds behind me had the same beauty, and minutes later the color was gone in both directions.

There's a point this morning following something my good buddy Tony Corbell used to talk about - saving that one last frame on the roll and doing something different from how you usually shoot. Neither of these images are award-winners, they're just shots of a beautiful morning sky - but from two different directions.

There are too many of you who are so focused on whatever is immediately in front of you that you fail to see what's going on around you. You miss some spectacular moments because you didn't look in another direction. And, it goes well beyond having a camera in your hands.

Think about any challenge you have in your business, and then take the time to look for other solutions. The answers aren't always as easy to find as the other side of a sunrise, but the answers are all out there. Don't be a business owner who only sees things from one direction - there's always another side and along with it other solutions - often more creative and rewarding.

Didn't mean to turn this into a sermon, but had I not turned around I would have completely missed the other half of the morning sky!

Note: Both images are right out of the can. The only thing I used in processing was the clarity booster in Skylum's Luminar 2018. Anybody can tweak the color in an image, and I wanted to keep it clean, as I saw it. Shot with a LUMIX FZ1000. And that spec that looks like dirt near the top is one lone bird.

Wishing everybody a terrific Thursday!

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