Season of Light
For a photographer, every season – every month, every moment – is a season of light. One of the earliest lessons I got with my first SLR camera was “Don’t starve your film of light!” I pictured the nicely ordered clumps of light-sensitive chemicals sitting patiently on the film waiting for the meal of light that would make them burst into the reds, blues and yellows that would miraculously transform into a sunlit iris, a ripple on a pond, a brilliant autumn leaf, a full moon in a dark sky, the smiling face of a loved one. Digital cameras replace chemistry with math and pixels, but the principle is the same – from light comes miracles.
With my camera in hand I see light everywhere, revealed in the texture and structure of the world around me. The quality of the light, its direction, its temperature, will reveal different things. Low light across a snowy beach traces patterns the wind left behind. Strong backlighting uncovers the architecture of a dogwood branch. Soft, indirect light warms the smile on a grandmother’s face.
To be surrounded by light is a gift. It’s no wonder that light is a theme woven throughout Christianity. As C.S. Lewis said, “I believe in Christianity as I believe that the Sun has risen, not only because I see it but because by it, I see everything else.”
Let us make this season of light a season of seeing.
– Barbara Ryther