Lighting makes all the difference.

Have you ever had any experience with working a camera? I haven't had any. You do learn quickly, because after several extremely crappy pictures, you give up and ask someone with a little know-how for some help. Even a stubborn guy like me had to ask for help eventually!

I enjoy the concept of photography, and although I've got a crappy camera, and barely know how to use it, I've been diligently documenting a lot of what I've been doing so far at Olivet. I've taken it to the awesome acreage of Perry farm, which is a paradise of Indian caves, trails and potentially beautiful pictures. I went there with several friends about a week ago and it was an experience that all of us thoroughly enjoyed. We walked trails, climbed the rock walls over a stream, found an enormous wolf spider, and even got to go into some small "Indian caves"! I took a lot of pictures and even got a couple in focus!

Another great event for photography was the Tenth Avenue North concert with Addison Road and a few other smaller bands. This is where I came up with the name for this post. You see, I didn't really know what works best for different lighting, whether or not to use flash, etc. So I asked my friend Crystal during the concert whether or not I should use flash. She said it depended on how close I was, the lighting of the room, and if I wanted natural looking pictures. So I messed around with it and thanks to her good advice I had a lot of fun taking pictures of the bands at the concert. I even learned how to mess up and make pictures look awesome and distorted with color!

So when I say lighting makes all the difference, I think the concept can be applied to more than simply photography. It is just a matter of perspective. If you look outside and it's pretty gloomy you are probably more likely to feel a little down. Seattle, after all, has the most suicides of any other city in the U.S. But think about how much a simple thing like the amount of sunlight can drastically effect your outlook on the day! It's almost absurd that sunlight affects our mood.

So I propose we deny sunlight his power, and rather look for different types of "lighting" to inspire us, and keep us going. I know for myself, my friends are like enormous lights in my life. They are always around to encourage me and get me off my butt and get out into the world. So I guess if you're going to take something away just remember: Lighting does make all the difference, yes, but we can control what we see in our lives and if the sun is letting us down we can easily find something else to lift us up; find your light, and always remember that only you, not the sun, or anything else, can control your mood.