Believing is seeing
Frequently life will provide a little humor for me and allow me to gain a little bit of insight into myself. Yesterday was such a day. You’ve heard the term, seeing is believing? Well, to turn the phrase a bit, believing is seeing. An example:
I left work at about 4:30 PM thinking that I’d have about 1 hour to shoot a bit. I wanted to take the Leica out and shoot with it as I’ve not really shot with it much since coming back from New York. My thoughts on the way to the parking lot were as follows:
- It’s been cold every day for the past week.
- Cold drains batteries. My batteries are probably dead, but I hope not
- I remember that I didn’t load film into the Leica the last time that I emptied it.
I got to the car, opened the trunk, took out the Leica. Sure enough, it was empty. I noticed, also, that I’d left the shutter speed dial set to 1/60 of a second, which means that if the shutter was pressed, the battery would be dead. No matter, though … batteries not required. I picked up the camera, looked through the viewfinder, pressed the shutter release, and just as I ‘expected’, no battery! Dang! Oh well, I can guess at the exposure or use one of the other cameras to give me the exposure.
Next, no film! I was right, there was no film to be found! I had several rolls of 120 film and a 645e just waiting for action. But I couldn’t ‘see’ it. I was so focused on using the Leica, when all that I wanted to do was to shoot a bit of B&W film.
Well, I gave up and when home only to find out, after taking the cameras out of the car and into the apartment, that the battery in the Leica was just fine. I hadn’t cocked the shutter! Doh! And the batteries in the other cameras were fully functional as well. I just couldn’t see the forest because of that one Leica tree! 
I saw everything that I believed. Everything!
All I could do was let out a nice big laugh when I thought about it. It happens that way too when shooting photos, especially when I go out with expectations of shooting something in particular. When I have those expectations only 2 things can happen:
- I will get what I was after
- I won’t get what I was after
If my mind is not open to other possibilities then I miss all other opportunities with such limited thinking. I have to remember this. It was shown in a huge way yesterday! Maybe I’ll try again, today!
Yes, that is exactly the way it works. The sunset above is beautiful. Hey, that reminds me, have you shot any color with your 645e?
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Paul Reply:
January 12th, 2010 at 9:28 am
No. I’ve not shot any color, yet. I have some color film and slides that Tom gave me, but I’ve not used any of it yet. I’ve used my D300 for all color work to save processing costs. The film is just sitting in the refrigerator.
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Wonderful scene. I think sunrises and sunsets are my favorite scenes to shoot. Yes, I have those times life lessons are taught and hopefully learned. I sometimes wonder what images I’ve missed because of the blinders I can wear. Another great post.
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