Weekly Photo Challenge: Experimental

One of the best things about purchasing a new camera is getting to experiment with the many settings. My camera could not be considered “new” anymore, since I’ve had it almost a year, but I may never stop learning the various features and capabilities that it possesses.

Canon EOS Rebel T6 – f/5.6, 1/500 sec., ISO 200, exp. bias -0.7 step, focal length 300 mm

A few weeks ago, while sitting outside on the back porch, I took a break from my writing to look around me just to see what I could see. Standing next to our patio is a tall, though young, oak tree. This time of year it is dropping scores of leaves and acorns on the concrete slab that serves as my outdoor office floor, so my broom is getting a lot of use. But that day I happened to look up, and my eye caught a bit of color. I put the zoom lens on my camera and pointed it at the bright spot in the tree, getting as close as possible. It looked like a flower, but it’s more likely to be a cluster of new leaves, coming in to take the place of the old ones. This is northwest Florida, and last year (our first year here), the oak tree was never barren. So I suppose that’s the way it is in a moderate climate such as we have here. The amazing thing about our climate is that we see spring, summer, and fall all at the same time. Even in this photo, there are brown leaves, green leaves, and the brand new yellow-gold leaves.

Canon EOS Rebel T6 – f/5.6, 1/400 sec., ISO 125, exp. bias -1.3 step, focal length 300 mm

Since my glasses desperately need an upgrade, I needed a good quality photo in order to see what I was looking at. I decided to experiment with some of the manual settings on my fairly stationary subject, and I ended up with 57 shots, but only 6 of them are here.

Canon EOS Rebel T6 – f/5.6, 1/500 sec., ISO 500, exp. bias +0.7 step, focal length 300 mm

Canon EOS Rebel T6 – f/5.6, 1/400 sec., ISO 250, exp. bias 0 step, b/w, white filter

Canon EOS Rebel T6 – f/5.6, 1/400 sec., ISO 320, exp. bias 0 step, b/w, blue filter

Canon EOS Rebel T6 – f/5.6, 1/500 sec., ISO 320, exp. bias 0 step, b/w, red filter

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Life is all about experimenting. We experiment with recipes, with hairstyles, with clothing fashions, and even with friends.

God wants us to experiment with Him too. He invites us to “taste and see” that He is good. I have tasted of His goodness, and I am here to tell you He is all that! Do I always get what I want? No. Do I always understand His purposes? No. Do I always get an answer to my prayer the moment I lift up my petition? No.

But such things don’t happen in life either. And things certainly didn’t always go my way as I was growing up. Sometimes the choices my dad made were hard for me to understand. Sometimes he made me wait for an answer to my questions. And sometimes the answer was ‘No.’ My dad did what he did according to what he believed was best for me and for the family. My heavenly Father is just like that—only He never makes any mistakes. He always knows what is best for me. I trust Him.