God's Sense of Humour

Our mild November days would be optimal for photos, if the earth wasn't brown, grey, and leafless. In the winter months, I tend to back off the landscape photos and stick more to portraits, and close-up/macro photography. The only big exceptions are a). When it is pristine white with snow and a glorious blue sky and b). Sunrises/sunsets. There have been some really nice sunrises and sunsets lately--perfect shades of pink and orange. On these occasions, for whatever reason, my camera isn't handy, or I just don't have time to drop what I am doing and find a location at which to shoot. So I glance frequently in the rearview mirror, or out whatever window I can, and take it all in with my eyes. Which is fine. But I love capturing colour in my camera!

So I plan and prepare for the next day's sunrise/sunset: I leave for work a little early; I allow time to capture sunsets before my evening events. And every single time so far, the sunrise or sunset has been crap. God starts singing, "send in the clouds", and those shades of pink and orange disappear. There is no repeat performance of the perfectly clear sky of the day before, or the perfect spread of clouds to refect the colour of the light. Just the big, grey clouds that get in the way of everything. And often, these clouds lie just around the horizon, while the sky above is as clear as it had been all day long. It's so frustrating cuz lately it's been every single time! I just want a couple good sunset pictures, darn it!

Here--I'll show you two photos that I took of the same subject: our legislature building.

The first was taken yesterday at sunset. The second was taken almost exactly a year ago. Both are kind of cool, but I like last year's pic way better (despite the through-the-trees effect, which didn't go exactly as planned, but I digress...). Not only is the colour a bit more vibrant, but it fills the whole background--you don't have a giant cloud masking half the sky.

Sunsets are my eye candy; I want, I want, I want! Apparently, God would rather have me be distracted by the image in my rearview mirror than capture His glory safely on camera. Srsly.

Humming Along

I was just noticing that I haven't blogged in a few weeks. Busy? Yes, but not moreso than normal, really. But I find October/November, like February/March, is a 'blah' kind of time for the most part. There are no major holidays, it's cold and not very pretty-looking outside so I'm not spending much time out there, and there are no other exciting transitions or events during this time worth writing about, it seems. I think my most productive times of fun activity, picture-taking, and inspirational thinking come in the summer. With the winter comes hibernation.

I am actually in quasi-hibernation mode right now. I've been kind of thrown off by setting the clocks back, and am spending more time doing calm, evening things and then realizing it's only 6:30, and I have four hours of evening still to play with. On the plus side, my evenings have been relatively low-key; nice and relaxing.

Despite the brief introduction to winter with snow and cold at the beginning of October, November's temps have been relatively decent--anywhere from 5-15C (41-60F)--so I have been trying to enjoy a walk here and there, and taking kids that I work with outside whenever possible. And because the light is getting so low in the sky, the atmosphere is one of peace and tranquility most of the time.

So overall I've been finding that I am engaging in the regular daily activities, but I'm coming at them with definitely more of an autumn/winter pace rather than the excitement and gusto that I go at things in the summer time.

It's not all bad. Taking things slower is a good skill to have. I am finding, though, that I need to give myself more of a kickstart for the times that I NEED to go at something with gusto and excitement. In the car, for the most part, I have traded my Summer Fun Mix CD for my Grey's Anatomy self-made compilations--for those who don't watch the show, their choice of music is [fantastic, but] generally more... indie? 'Dark and twisty'? Less mainstream? ...Hmm, I am really at a lack of descriptors this evening. Well, their music is kinda like this:



or like this:



It's great music, but certainly not get-ready-for-fun type music! So every now and then I need to pop in that summer CD to rev myself up a bit. Once the snow falls, there will be activity to do (read: snowshoeing). And as we get closer to December, we start in on Christmas, New Year's, and Birthday fun. Without all that, it would be a long ride through the winter, that's for sure.

The Way God Answers Prayer

November already! Looks like we're getting our first taste of snow here in the city, although except for a dusting of the stuff on the tops of cars, it's still falling and landing much like rain. Rain! Warm enough in November for rain! Last weekend--Nov 1--it was sunny and 15C out (60F); that just does not happen in Alberta. ...I'm starting to wonder if global warming is really all that bad. ;) J/K--as neat as it is to have warmer temps around here, there are plenty of other ramifications of global warming that I don't even want to think about.

So God's been neat lately. Or maybe I'm just listening better. Or something. Since I've been a Christian, I've always known that I can go to God/Jesus with anything. He is the ultimate best friend. He is unwavering, ultimately patient, infinitely understanding, etc., etc., etc. God is the God of big things, but also of small things. He likes to hear my deep felt prayers, as well as the petty little stuff, and the stuff I keep complaining about week after week. I've never had a problem feeling that I couldn't or shouldn't bring certain issues to God. So many people often think that, "Oh, God doesn't want to hear me pray about that; that's not important enough to waste God's time with." Which is a big fat lie, and I've always known it. That being said, I am human, and I do have a tendency to pass over prayer about the little things on the basis of, "whatever, that's life. Stuff happens. I just gotta deal with it." Y'know, things like traffic jams, forgetting your lunch, discovering a hole in your favourite shirt. It's not that I don't think God doesn't want to hear about it; it's just so easy to deal with them on a human level (switch lanes, hit the McDonald's, get out a needle and thread) I often just don't take it to God. So I've been trying to do that more lately with 'little' things.

So last week at Bible study, we were doing our round of prayer requests near the close of the evening. I knew that I was getting a cold. I had already started the battle with echinacea ammo. But when it was my turn to announce any prayer requests, I stated, "I'm getting a cold. And I don't want a cold." Pretty much as simple as that. I'd never prayed through a cold before. It's just a cold, for Pete's sake. Buy Kleenex, don't drink milk, carry on.

Anyway, my cold didn't miraculously disappear (although God could have done that if He'd wanted to). And I didn't just sit there and not do anything to proactively care for my own body (I drank a LOT of tea). BUT--I realized afterwards that it was one of the shortest-duration colds I've ever had, and the only cold I remember having where I didn't feel lethargic and 'blah'. It was the best cold I ever had!

Overall, God's been showing me answers to those 'little' prayers that I've stepped out on a limb to pray about, and it's been just as cool, in a way, as the profound answers to 'large' prayers. God is so much fun.

Fall to Winter

Daylight Savings Time ends next week. I have mixed feelings about it every year. I revel in the extra hour of sleep that I get, but not at the thought that it will be dark by 6pm... and then 5:30pm... and then 5pm... and while I love the cozy, snowy darkness in December when Christmas is close, and I can curl up on the couch with a good book, a cat, and amidst Christmas lights and candles, I have to go through November to get there.

November is my "blah" month. Nothing really exciting happens in November. The city is at its ugliest, too. All the fall leaves are gone, the grass is brown, and it's all exposed because any snow we've had hasn't really stuck yet. I bet if I went through all my photos, November has the least amount of photos taken each year. I'll have to check that out some time (I bet June or July has the most). I'm remedying that a bit this year, because the Edmonton Photography Club (which I recently joined) is doing a scavenger hunt mid-November. I just hope it's not -20 out!

One thing I am definitely looking forward to--albeit it is at the end of November--is Great Big Sea in concert! I have seen them five times, and will never tire of it! It will be the first time I see them in Edmonton without Chris and Lorie--that might be strange. But it will also be the first time I see them in Edmonton with a decent camera!

Lately I have been working on using my bounce flash. My dad had two flashes with his camera gear, and I recently discovered that one is way cooler than I thought it was, and it has now become my favourite flash. I have one that rotates just horizontally 90 degrees, and one that I thought rotates just vertically 180 degrees. WELL. I was going through the old manuals and such that my mom found while unpacking her new place, and I discovered that not only does the vertically rotating flash rotate L-R 180 degrees, but the body of the flash rotates side to side 180 degrees. This all translates into a flash that I can basically position at whatever angle I want (except backwards). Which is SWEET especially for photos taken on an angle, cuz I can bounce the flash off a complementary angle. It's been pretty fun playing around with this feature. So far I've only blinded my cats and a pumpkin, but I intend to experiment on people in the near future. :)