Mystery in a Photo
One of the reasons there is delight in photography is mystery. While it seems our eyes and senses tell us everything about a scene, they do not. Frequently my surprise is renewed by a detail in a photo my eyes never saw before releasing the shutter for the photo. Photography reveals nature surprises. You ask, “shouldn’t the photographer see the subject, the background, know how to best utilize the light, and generally know what the photo will be? Doesn’t good photography require careful photo composition? How can it be that a photographer would miss details of a photo?
Almost every photo reveals a detail my eyes did not see in composing the photo. Perhaps it is my lack of experience. It could be my age; my eyesight is not as powerful as it was 3 decades ago. Yet, certainly, these are not the actual reasons. What happens in any photo of nature is the capture of a specific moment of time in creation. The photographer is focused on the subject. While the goal is for the subject to fill the photo, there are many things living and nonliving which can appear in a photo of something in nature. Even when the subject is large.
Are you with me? This is about mystery. Mystery is one of the rewards for a nature photographer. You get to see things in photos you did not realize were there. We like mystery. It spurs our imagination. Mystery in nature causes us to realize we are part of something much bigger. This is delicious mystery.
Sometimes the details of a photo escape me until it is edited. The specific photo being referred to is of a massive cumulonimbus cloud. The photo was taken near sunset. The clouds of the distant thunderstorm were miles away. Still, it was not difficult to fill the photo with the cloud, it was a colossal giant. There is delightful inscrutability in a distant thunderstorm, far off lightning, the muted rolls of thunder and if you carefully observe- the constant changing of the cloud are the stuff mystery is made of. Yet, to me, the tiny detail which came into view during the editing of the photo now dwarfs the massive cloud.
There was a distant bird in the photo. Between the enormous cloud and my lens there was a flying bird. What kind was it? That’s a part of the mystery. At first it seemed to be a speck of dirt on the lens. But my lens was clean, my lens is cleaned regularly. It’s clearly a bird, silhouetted by the massive thunder cloud. It was invisible to my eyes through the viewfinder. It did not show when I first looked at the photo either.
This was a completely unexpected event. Yes, there always birds in the sky before sunset. But this bird was between my camera lens and a giant storm. Questions add to the mystery. Questions grow the mystery; they add delight to the nature event of this photo. Here are my questions:
· How far from the storm was the bird?
· What was the air like close to a powerful storm the photo captured?
· Was there turbulence?
· What could the bird see about the storm that the photo does not reveal?
· What kind of bird was it?
· Could the bird hear the storm in ways I could not?
· Where was the bird going?
This is mystery. This mystery is filled with unknowns which can only be guessed at.
Now that we are thinking about mystery, consider the greatest mystery. It is the ultimate mystery. We have a name for it-heaven. That little bird before the immense cumulonimbus cloud jump starts our thinking about heaven, the greatest mystery. That little bird is visible evidence there is something more beyond life. The little bird plainly shows us the invisible. The eternal power and divine nature of God are seen. Take a moment, imagine you and I are that little bird. Now with our bird eyes let’s glance over at the mammoth cloud formation. We cannot see the top; we cannot see where the cloud ends. The rumble of thunder and flash of lightning put a shiver of fear in our bird limbs.
We cannot see heaven either. We cannot hear the glory of angel choirs praising God. We cannot imagine the splendor, beauty and breathtaking awe of it. We have no idea of the glory of God. These are mysteries. The little bird flying parallel to a gigantic thunderstorm gives us a glimpse.
The middle photo reveals the bird. Look for the speck in the middle. It’s a bird, believe me.
Look at the three photos of cumulonimbus clouds God made in one location on earth-during the evening of one day.
Gigantic. We have no idea of the joy, glory and beautiful infinity which awaits us in heaven. Cumulonimbus clouds provide a clue. Just as my eyes did not see the little bird in front, our eyes see heaven only dimly. Jesus said, “In my Father’s house are many mansions, I go there to prepare a place for you.”
The apostle Paul wrote these specific words about heaven…
“However, as it is written: “What no eye has seen, what no ear has heard, and what no human mind has conceived”— the things God has prepared for those who love him”—1 Corinthians 2:9