ESTABLISHED 2010 - Beyond The Campfire was created to encourage readers to explore the great outdoors and to observe it close up. Get out and take a hike, go fishing or canoeing, or simply stretch out on a blanket under a summer sky...and take your camera along. We'll talk about combining outdoor activities with photography. We'll look at everything from improving your understanding of the basics of photography to more advanced techniques including things like how to see photographically and capturing the light. We'll explore the night sky, location shoots, using off camera speedlights along with nature and landscape. Grab your camera...strap on your hiking boots...and join me. I think you will enjoy the adventure.

Friday, September 13, 2013

Insights: A Pure and Perfect Light

A thought crossed my mind the other day, one that carried a profound image across its depth. As I played with the idea the basic concept behind it revealed a deeper meaning that I had never before realized.


You see, in photography we often use filters to change the light into a form we want it to become. Sometimes we darken it, somtimes we shift the color cast, sometimes we ruin it, but overall, attaching a filter to our lense allows us to use light in a different manner than its original strength would otherwise provide. We may believe what we've done creates an improvement, but more often than not what we have accomplished is to distort the light so that it no longer retains its natural look.

As I thought about it, I realized that we do the same kind of thing with the light of God. We mistakenly want to place filters between ourselves and his light so we can change it into what we want it to become instead of simply using the natural purity and truth of what it represents. Doing so never improves it, it only serves to create a distorted image that limits our ability to enjoy it as it was intended; a pure and perfect light.

Wednesday, September 4, 2013

Insights: Moments of the Heart


 
Moments of the Heart are what I call them - moments of time and place blended in such a way as to carve new meaning into a faded identity. It is during those times I am most at home - most in tune with who I am.  As I drift alone on silent waters and experience a new day come to life - I find myself no longer attached to the past - I discover something new - something remarkable - for as surely as the sun will rise - I rise with it…suspended above boundaries of light.