Painting With Light

“Grand River After Dark” © R.L. Herron

I haven’t written much lately and I’ve been remiss in taking pictures, too. I guess I have a lot of other things on my mind. Being retired … early. GM going bankrupt (how will that affect my pension?). The economy.

However, all things considered, I’ve decided to quit worrying about it and get on with my business.

I’ve decided, like the shot above taken near the mouth of the Grand River in Grand Haven, Michigan, life is completely dependent on your point of view.

As I started setting up for the shot it was well after sundown. It seemed considerably darker out than the image you see now.

Most people looked at me as if I had grown an extra appendage when I took out my camera in that dark, set up my tripod on the boardwalk looking out at the lighthouse, and started taking pictures toward the mouth of the river where it empties into Lake Michigan at Grand Haven.

A couple walking by wanted to know if they would interfere with the shot. I told them no, and you can see their ghostly images on the boardwalk.

There were boats coming up the river, too. I imagine they were looking for familiar, safe moorings at which to spend the night. You can’t see them in this time exposure (about 10 seconds), but you can see their running lights.

Just like a lot of things in life, I wasn’t sure how this shot would turn out. Still, I went to a lot of trouble to set up for it and took it anyway, because I wanted to know what would happen.

The image is now one of my favorites. Which makes me realize, all over again, that life is for taking chances, learning from our mistakes and exalting over our triumphs.

Life, the cliche tells us, goes on.

And it’s true. My pension will be whatever it is going to be. GM will become whatever it’s destined to become. I will do whatever I need to do to survive.

In the end, things that matter won’t change very much. I can still count on the love of my family. The world will turn. I will write more stories, take still more pictures and continue to experiment with them both.

In fact, I think I will take the tripod out tomorrow night and set it up, just to see what I might see.

This entry was posted on June 13, 2009 at 12:10 am and is filed under Lifestyle, Photography, Storytelling. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.