PREPARE FOR SOMETHING MORE

Photography requires understanding light, composition and technology. It also requires patience and openness. I can wait 40 minutes for a shot, but a friend once told me I needed at least that much time just to open my eyes because the best shots come to us.

Years since my friend’s passing, I still meticulously pick the place, time and subject before leaving home. Recently, I determined the perfect shot for a class assignment – an image defined by color.

PLACE: National Cathedral, where stained glass scatters sunlight into the full spectrum that bounces off all the marble.

SUBJECT: George Washington’s statue in the sanctuary’s southwest corner.

TIME: 11 a.m. to noon.

For a few moments during that hour, GW reflects a window’s colors. After adjusting my camera, I assured passersby that GW would be all aglow soon. In less than 40 minutes, the colors were reflecting off columns beyond the statue. They had skirted GW’s feet. (I learned that the season also determines where the reflections fall.)

Disappointed, I snapped some shots of the colors draping the column, then wandered into the garden where noontime sun shortened the shadows that anchor photographs. While packing my camera, I heard a woman and girl laughing. We didn’t speak the same language, but I joined them, watching frogs and goldfish in a pond. My camera caught one frog pushing around a lily pad and another just sitting.

I’ve spent years with photography, but 15 minutes with those frogs and my assignment was done: goldfish oranges framed green frogs. My friend would say, “Take time to open your eyes to see what’s worth seeing.” The best shots come to us.

Lent is a time of preparing and waiting. We can plan Palm Sunday, Maundy Thursday and Easter as always, knowing how the church will look, what scripture will be read and what the choir will sing. Or, we can live as though it were the first Lent when the picture was unclear; then we may discover that it is something else.

My frog photographs turned into something more. A childhood friend asked me to visit her as she faced cancer. Unable to visit for weeks, I e-mailed the images to remind her of when we would sit just watching frogs with nothing else to do. Over the phone, she promised to follow the medical regimen precisely but be open to surprises. I promised to go with my camera to discover some for her.

— Pat Everett

Courtesy of The Church of the Good Shepherd United Methodist