As much as yesterday morning’s shoot was about darkness, last night’s shoot was about light.
I know that sounds upside down, but welcome to the life of Neville Ronan.
I had time to kill, waiting for a meeting (that eventually got cancelled) and rather than stay at home on the sofa, I decided to head down to Tampa to see what I might see.
In these COVID times, the folks that run Tampa have turned off many of the lights that add so much color to the inner city. I suspect they are trying to discourage people from converging on the city center.
And to a large degree, it worked. The crowds were sparse and those that were there seemed to be heading somewhere else. Unlike me.
I parked over at the University of Tampa on the opposite side of the river and so that became my starting point for this camera adventure.
And as I looked across at the skyline and pondered how the only change was the absence of lights on the river walk, since last I had shot it. None of the buildings had moved, nothing had burnt down, and everything looked too familiar to the last images taken.
So I walked deeper into the university grounds to where their boat ramp floats just inches above the water surface and I threw my energies into just capturing images of reflections of the city, rather than the city itself.
I enjoyed how they came out.
They are at the end of the blog here with a couple of light trace images and one of a people walking-blur to cap it all off. Hope you enjoy!
So anyway, today’s thought then is really all about adapting and being able to think on the fly about alternatives.
I have touched on this before in earlier blog form, I know. But last night’s plans were completely wiped out by lights turned off and a cancelled meeting, yet I still went to bed at evening’send pleased with how I had spent it.
In truth, I am not exactly certain what I was intending to shoot when I headed off downtown, but I thought I would have the riverwalk lights to amuse myself with while there. But that was not to be.
Sometimes we set out in one direction only to find that a factor outside our control, cancels or at least mitigates what we can accomplish.
We adjust to these situations and while some would stop and cancel plans, that isn’t a good option.
Adjustment to plans is a key way in which we learn … we have to follow an uncharted path, stepping outside our comfort zone and try to find a way forward.
Sometimes the adjustment doesn’t pan out. It leads nowhere or produces a dissatisfaction of some sort and that happens to us all.
But that’s OK
It’s how we expand ourselves. It’s how we knowledgeably know that an alternative is not what we want.
But sometimes, it does lead somewhere and we find ourselves looking at reflected light across rippling waters. And our mind stretches. We begin to see shapes and patterns. We take from it.
And that is a win.
I am not saying any of my images should win an award, but in my mind they are pleasing and at the end of the day, that is my real master.
Our own minds are the key instrument with which we decide to enjoy or dislike something. Other people can tell us until they are blue in the face how wonderful something is, but for it to stick, we need to feel it ourselves.
So, deciding whether an alternative action produced a good result or not is a personal position that we take.
It becomes very much a “glass half-full” moment and one that should be cherished, Remember, it only takes two such moments for our glass to be full.
… just a thought.
