up close

Wednesday, June 25, 2008


I got a new lens recently, and am enjoying getting some shots with this speedy guy. I can get shots in much lower light than I could get with my kit lens. It's this one here, if you want to know more.

my dad bought me my fist slr camera when I was 15. It's a Pentax K1000 that I still use occasionally to this day. (now ask me the last time I had a roll of film developed from it!) I had always intended to collect some lenses for it eventually, but never moved past the 50mm that came with it. I'd have to check to see what the f-stop is, but I know that I loved to keep it wide open to get a real shallow depth of field pretty much all the time.

you'll find a lot of people who think that if they just get a bigger, better, more expensive camera, they'll be able to take better pictures. More megapixels must mean better pictures, right? Actually, more mp just means more information, and if the camera is pointed at the wrong information, you're still going to get a bad picture. I can take some pretty terrible pictures with my great camera! And I've seen some fantastic photography lately coming out of old polaroid cameras.

It's really more about the eye than anything. Mind you, I'm not saying I've got the best photographer's eye out there. I'm FAR from it. But when I see a photo that draws me in, I more want to know what drew the photographer's eye than what kind of equipment they are using. It's about seeing things differently, and capturing what you see in the viewfinder…whether that viewfinder has a three thousand dollar lens attached or if it's a hundred-dollar point-and-shoot with a 2-inch screen as a viewfinder.



There's a verse in the Bible that I've always thought a little odd & mysterious:

"The light of the body is the eye: therefore when thine eye is single, thy whole body also is full of light; but when thine eye is evil, thy body also is full of darkness." (Luke 11:34)

What we look at both affects who we are and is a reflection of who we are. I think when this is talking about a "single eye" it's talking about focus, and purpose. One thing is needful.

What am I looking at? What am I focused on? Is my eye full of light? or evil?

I'll let you meditate and see what you come up with on this verse!

A couple of definitions I found of single:
Uncompounded; pure; unmixed. [1913 Webster]
Not deceitful or artful; honest; sincere. [1913 Webster]

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

i hope you don't mind if i post down here, instead of on the most current one. i've been mulling this Bible verse over. i have often thought it was puzzling, but having your Webster 1913 definitions there does enlighten the meaning.

silly thought:
flies - have compound eyes and even though God created them, they are most surely evil.

on a more serious note:
my first thought was how shocking for God to compare something singular to something evil. but the more i mull it around, if your eyes are *bad* and you can't focus on anything, you might as well be in the dark. but when your eyes focus properly (or when Jesus fixes our sight, like a pair of glasses can rectify vision), that is a very *good* thing.

i agree, too, that we need to be careful what we put before our eyes, just to maintain that purity of vision, purity of mind.
Rachel

jen said...

ran across a post that reminded me of the part about not needing the best tools…wanted to keep the link handy, so here it is:
http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2008/07/i-need-to-build.html