Find the light

    I had been waiting years in search of the perfect photography assistant.  Someone that I could mentor, that I could have a blast working with, that would learn and grow in life with me.  I had finally found that perfect assistant, until she decided it really wasn't her thing.  My oldest daughter wanted to learn about photography and asked to join me on a shoot one day.  I learned so much more about life from this one photography session.  In a world where depression runs rampant, it is vital that we spend our energies seeking for the light.  This is so hard to do when your neck deep or even deeper in the darkness of depression.  Therefore, when a opportunity to grow from the light presents itself, you grab onto it like the plague.  You give it your undivided attention in a desperate effort to add the knowledge attained or the light emulating, to your grab bag of life-gold. 
Life-gold nuggets are those treasures we gather in life experiences, and in my world, in hopes to share those treasures with others.  Has there ever been a moment in your life when something just clicks, and the clarity you gain from it nags at your mind like a toddler begging for your attention.  A toddler that has just learned a new trick and that's all they want to do.  Of course they need all eyes on them while they master it.  This is what its like to have what Oprah calls, an "ah-ha moment".  Don't let that moment escape, even for one second.  The best time to learn and grow from life-gold is when it is most clear to you.   
    I invited my sweet and very artistic daughter to join me on a photo session, per her request, and assist me with the lighting.  Occasionally she has come along to wedding sessions with me to carry my bags and help hold my lighting equipment.  Idaho wind tends to pick up my umbrella and carry it like a sail, so bringing her along to hold down the tripod is very helpful.  However, she hasn't always enjoyed that job; "its boring", she would say.  So when she was excited to go with me and help this time, I was elated.  This time, she wasn't there to hold stuff, she was there to work and learn.  
    Her job assignment was simple but required some technique, "Kya, find the light from the sun, and reflect it on to their face".  I am a lighthouse fanatic; the symbolism, its sole purpose, everything about the lighthouse intrigues me and draws me near its story.  When it comes to light, I am always looking for the analogy.
As Kya is my daughter, I found this moment of teaching her to use the reflector properly, as an opportunity to teach her about life and how our influence on others around us and the universe can affect how the world goes round, and how we can find peace and love in our own life.  Find the light, and reflect it on others. 
In my faith, the light we focus on is The Light of Christ.  All that He exemplifies in service and kindness, in sacrifice, in loving all people.  Finding this light in our own countenance is crucial to our own happiness.  Finding this light takes effort each day, through prayer and developing a solid and loving relationship with God our Father in Heaven, through service for others.  Often focusing our attention on other's needs over our own offers us to see others the way God and our Savior see them.  It brings empathy and honest love into our hearts, and helps to put our own "issues" or concerns into perspective.  Once you have found that light, then share it.  I like to use the word "reflect", not only because it directly relates to photography lighting, but once your light is shared, it comes back to you, it reflects.
I am also a firm believer in karma.  What you put out into the world, does come back to you, twofold.  I have seen this and experienced this first hand in my life, many times.  So when I teach Kya to "find the sun's light, and reflect it onto my subject", what I am hoping she gets from this practice is to find His Light and Reflect it onto the world that surrounds her, with her own glowing countenance.
Look how she glows! She takes her work serious! She usually doesn't like when I take pictures of her unexpectedly. hee hee. So grabbing this snapshot was tricky.
She found the light.  Its a skill and takes practice to find it and then be able to hold just the right amount on the subject as not to blind them, or cast too much highlighting.  And as Kya found, when the clouds are out, its a little more difficult to find the light, but it is always there, you just have to search for it.

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