December 2020: Morning Sheep

 

The subject this month is "challenges". Something that everyone can relate to these days. The key to overcoming challenges is flexibility. You have to be able to adapt. To change. Sometimes in ways that feel pretty major, and which take you out of your comfort zone and into places you have never been before. While that can be scary, it can also be thrilling and enjoyable. If you focus on those more enjoyable aspects and keep your eyes on the goal, odds are your challenge will be met successfully, even if it turns out less than optimally for you personally.

I pulled this photo out of the archives to use as an illustration. The light was very challenging. It was a very clear morning, the sun was setting directly in my face and back-lighting the sheep severely. In such low light, color can go all wonky. The challenge here was to preserve enough detail in the shadowed fur without washing out the detail in the corn and grass, while preventing the colors from washing out or sliding toward the blue end of things. As you can see, the end result was not 100% successful in any of those areas, BUT...I had a really good time using my knowledge and experience to meet such a challenging shot and addressing as much of each element as possible even though I knew ahead of time that such circumstances meant that it couldn't ever be a stellar photograph.  I was happy as heck to end up with it being as close to a usable shot as this! 

The lesson is the same for us as we all spend the holiday season dealing with the necessary realities of a pandemic. The isolation, the uncertainty, and the accompanying challenges may seem very daunting and oppressive. But they, like all challenges, present the opportunity to extend yourself as well. To discover new ways of doing things which bring adventure and growth along with the challenge. And in the end, if you embrace these challenges and focus on making things as good as you possibly can within those limitations, you will look back on it and realize that you have accomplished something better than you thought possible, even if it isn't what you would consider to be ideal.