Looking Up

Are you frustrated by the inability, for any of many reasons,

to travel to picturesque places and take pictures? Or, one

great idea, backyard photography. But even there you have

run out of things to photograph. Or, take seven thousand

pictures from different angles of the same thing? And most

of us do not have the patience for it.

Try LOOKING UP.

Perhaps you are tired of taking pictures of people who are

all trying to see how stupid they can look to get attention.

Try LOOKING UP.

Or even tired of trying to photograph the world around you

when mankind only turns it into and even worse looking

"dump".

Try LOOKIN UP.

LOOK UP. God has an ever changing canvas above you called,

"sky". It changes by the minute. It can range from drab to

sensational in a very short time. LOOK UP for your photo

opportunities.

Point of consideration. Are you taking the pictures for the

National Geographic - or yourself. YOUR SELF !!!!!!!!! Good.

Then you do not need to worry about a bunch of expensive

equipment.

It is true that a good moon shot, or night shot, or star shot

can require something more than your point or shoot camera.

But most sky, cloud, sun rise and set pictures do not require

great telephoto or macro lens. Just someone pointing it the right

direction at the right time.

My contention is, you do not need an expensive camera to take satisfying pictures

of the clouds, sky, sun rises and sets. Generally with these you are not after fine

detail, but color or formation.

This photo was taken with a Casio Exilim EX-S20U I paid $9.99 for. Why did I buy

it? Because it is a "cute" little camera. You can literally hid it behind a credit card.

When I slide it in my pants pocket I hardly know it is there. It is only 2MP and does

not even "zoom". So, just take it out of your pocket, look up and punch the tiny

little button.

Take what ever you have and go hunting the colors God paints in the sky every day.

You do not need an expensive camera to take good pictures. A short time back I needed several

pictures of thistle for my blog. [It was to make fun of a very popular THEORY.] I used my brand

new 16MP camera. The pictures looked great on the LCD - but not on the computer, and that

was using macro for detail.

So I went back into the office and got a 2MP Nikon COOLPIX 2500. I bought it off ebay with a

buy it now price of $6.50. That's right, $6.50. And it took this picture for me. [I bought another

camera off ebay with a $1.00 buy it now price. It is 8MP and takes great pictures. [The photo

for my bio was taken with it.] These cheap prices are enough to make you look up with thanks

giving.

The point is, take your kids toy camera, or spend ten or fifteen dollars on ebay for a cheap

camera. Then point it up. God daily paints some master pieces up there for you to take a

shot at.

"How clearly the sky reveals God's glory! How plainly it shows what he has done!

Each day announces it to the following day; each night repeats it to the next."

-Psalms 19:1,2 TEV

Does life look like mud to you? That is because you are not looking up to the one

who created you and life it's self.

"Some glo-rious morning sorrow will cease, Some glorious morn-ing

all will be peace; Heart-aches all end-ed, school-days all done,

Heaven will o-pen - Jesus will come. Some gold-en day-break

Jesus will come; Some gold-en day-break, battles all won, He'll shout

the vic-t'ry, break thro' the blue, Some gold-en day-break, for me, for you."

-Carl Blackmore

"The sky is the part of creation in which nature has done for the sake of pleasing man." 

- John Ruskin

Daily I look up to see the picture God has painted for me. Even the storm clouds have a

beauty of their own.

Are you looking up, or down?

"No one knows how the clouds move or how the thunder roars

through the sky, where God dwells."

- Job 36:29 TEV

"Do you know how clouds float in the sky,

the work of God's amazing skill?

- Job 37:16 TEV

"Softly the evening came. The sun from the western horizon

Like a magician extended his golden wand o'er the landscape;

Twinkling vapors arose; and sky and water and forest

Seemed all on fire at the touch, and melted and mingled together."

-Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

"My God, there go the chariots in which thou ridest forth to inspect thy

fields, garden, meadows, forests, and plains. - They are the curtains, which,

at thy good pleasure, thou drawest as a covering over the plants, that they

may not be withered and destroyed by the heat; and not seldom are they the

arsenal in which thou keepest thine artillery of thunder and lighting, at

times to strike the children of men with reverential awe, or inflict on them some

great punishment."

- Gotthold.

"But Jesus answered, 'When the sun is setting, you say, 'We are going to have fine

weather, because the sky is red.' And early in the morning you say, 'It is going to

rain, because the sky is red and dark.' You can predict the weather by looking at the

sky, but you cannot interpret the signs concerning these times!' How evil and godless

are the people of this day!...

-Matthew 16:2- 4a GNT

"LORD, your constant love reaches the heavens;

your faithfulness extends to the skies."

- Psalms 36:5 TEV

Another point. Why fix what's not broken. They do it all the time with electronics. That

is why we have so much trouble trying to use them. They are always changing things.

Which really means "messing it all up" again.

Regarding photos. My personal experience is, when I try to "enhance" a photo, it

only messes it up. Leave it the way God painted it. Maybe that's because I am just an

old man.

But look at a lot of the photos on the internet. They look more like a poster or the work

of amateur artist because they "over ehanced" them. Consider so many of the photos

with a running stream. They have learned to slow up their shutter speed - to speed up

the water. But it does not look like water any more. It looks like a cloud sliding down

the stream bed. The photographer needs to stop and look at the water and see what it

really looks like.

However. It is true that getting the camera to take a true picture of what is out there can

be a trick in itself, sometimes.

Perhaps if we sent more time looking up than trying to fix things that are not broken,

we would be better off.

"When I look at the sky, which you have made, at the moon and the stars, which you set in their places - what are human beings, that you think of them; mere mortals, that you care for them?" (Psalms 8:3,4 GNT)

"Those playful fancies of the mighty sky."

-Albert Smith

"Be glad, earth and sky! Roar, sea, and every creature in you; be glad fields, and everything in you! The trees in the woods will shout for joy when the Lord comes to rule the earth." (Psalms 96:11-13 GNT)

"When I admire the wonder of a sunset or the beauty of the moon,

my soul expands in worship of the Creator."

-Mahatma Gandhi

"Sing, heavens! Shout for joy, earth! Let the mountains burst into song! The Lord will comfort his people; he will have pity on his suffering people." (Isaiah 49:13 GNT)

OOPS! Must have made a mistake. However the sun seems to rise and

set on that little girl around here.

"It is God who fills the clouds with water

and keeps them from bursting with the weight."

-Job 26:8 TEV

"The sky is the daily bread of the eyes."

 - Ralph Waldo Emerson

Hey! They are pretty on top too.

This is one time that you can look down to be looking up.

"Show your greatness in the sky, O God, and your glory over all the earth."

-Psalms 57:5 TEV

Clouds add to the desert landscape as well as cool it.

"How fine has the day been! how bright was the sun, How lovely and joyful the course that he run! Though he rose in a mist when his race he begun, And there followed some droppings of rain: But now the fair traveller's come to the west, His rays are all gold, and his beauties are best; He paints the skies gay as he sinks to his rest, And foretells a bright rising again."

-Isaac Watts Quotes

"Ever since God created the world, his invisible qualities, both his eternal

power and his divine nature, have been clearly seen; they are perceived in

the things that God had made. So those people have no excuse at all!

They know God, but they do not give him the honor that belongs to him,

nor do they thank him. Instead, their thoughts have become complete

nonsense, and their empty minds are filled with darkness. They say they

are wise, but they are fools;..."

-Romans 1:20-22 GNT

.

"O Lord my God! When I in awesome wonder Consider all the worlds

Thy hands have made, I see the stars, I hear the rolling thunder, Thy

pow'r through-out the universe displayed, Then sings my soul, my

Saviour God to Thee; How great Thou art, how great Thou art! Then

sings my soul, my Saviour God to Thee; How great Thou art, how great

Thou art!"

-Stuart K. Hine

"That looked as though an angel, in his upward flight, had

left his mantle floating in mid-air."

-Joanna Asillie

"Now when these things begin to take place, look up and

raise you heads, because your redemption is drawing near."

(Luke 21:28 RSV)

"Look, he is coming on the clouds! Everyone will see him,

including those who pierced him. All peoples on earth will

mourn over him. So shall it be!

-Revelation 1:7 TEV

"Then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky;

and all the peoples of earth will weep as they see the Son

of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and

great glory. The great trumpet will sound, and he will send

out his angels to the four corner of the earth, and they will

gather his chosen people from one end of the world to the

other.

-Matthew 24:30,31 TEV

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