{"id":2881,"date":"2019-06-16T17:09:44","date_gmt":"2019-06-16T17:09:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nevilleronan.com\/blog\/?p=2881"},"modified":"2019-07-21T17:11:57","modified_gmt":"2019-07-21T17:11:57","slug":"forests-and-trees","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/nevilleronan.com\/blog\/2019\/06\/16\/forests-and-trees\/","title":{"rendered":"Forests and trees"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

I went out last night and stood in a parking lot by a\nbaseball field. Stood there for an hour, hoping to catch some lightning in the\nnight skies. Mosquitos attacked my head and face, elbow and hand. The weather\napp on my iPhone said there was a 40% chance of thunderstorms and this time I\nhad my tripod, ready to capture the lightning that might come with them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There wasn\u00c3\u00a2\u00e2\u201a\u00ac\u00e2\u201e\u00a2t a single flash. Not one.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I had set up the camera with long exposure and timed release\nas the post-sunset skies faded to black. Took a few shots of that so I could\nget the focus and aperture right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But then  .. nothing. Not a single shot. I waited in hope\noriginally. But by the end of the hour, my wait was fear-based. Fearful that\nthe moment I turned off the camera, there would be some magnificent lightning\nstrike that I would carry as a regret for life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As I disassembled my set up, climbed back into the car and\ndrove away, there was a feeling of abject failure. It is the kind of failure\nthat you experience after you have raised your hopes so high that you have\npre-ordained your own destiny.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It wasn\u00c3\u00a2\u00e2\u201a\u00ac\u00e2\u201e\u00a2t until this morning, that I found these two pics which\nI had taken only to help adjust my camera settings. And as I stared into the\nwonderful colors of the fading sky, I realized how singularly focused I was to\nthe point where it had stolen my abilities to appreciate what was actually\ngoing on around me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The old saying of not being able to see the forest for the\ntrees rang out loud and clear. I allowed my own focus to overpower my other\nsenses to where I attached the label \u00c3\u00a2\u00e2\u201a\u00ac\u00c5\u201cfailure\u00c3\u00a2\u00e2\u201a\u00ac\u00c2\u009d to my hour of darkness. As I sit\nhere this morning, cup of coffee in hand and a good night\u00c3\u00a2\u00e2\u201a\u00ac\u00e2\u201e\u00a2s sleep behind me, I\nlook at these pictures and realize the only failure was in me. Thankfully Sony\ncameras have the ability to overule moments of personal failure and produce\ntheir own moments of wonder, regardless.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hope you have a wonderful week and get to spend some time in\nthe forest rather than the trees.<\/p>\n\n\n\n