Breaking The Rules: A Life Lesson Found in Photography

Camera: Canon 5D | Lens: EF24-105mm f/4L IS USM | Setting: f/10, 1/100th sec, ISO 100

The late outdoor photographer Galen Rowell once said, and I might be screwing up the exact wording he used, "When you're photographing a nice sunset, turn around."  He was giving a very powerful tip regarding photography.  The sunset is pretty, yes, but the light it's casting on the scene behind you is where you really want to point your camera.

As you can see, I defied that tip and aimed the lens right at the sun.  Rules were made to be broken.

Something you might not know, because I haven't told you, is that we have a high school girl form Ukraine living with us for the next year. Her name is Ania. She's been here for two weeks and today is her 16th birthday.  We framed a 20"x30" print of this scene for her because Ania saw the picture and said, "Wow.  I like that."

More than one of my friends warned me about 16-year-old girls living under their roofs.  The defiance, the shimmying down the lattice from the second story and hopping on the back of a motorcycle, the eye-rolling, the soaring emotions, the cell phone bills plagued with criminal texting overage fees.

But Ania is a great kid; she's doing her homework, working hard on a difficult essay about American democracy, taking on pre-calculus, French 3, and still waking up on time every day of the week.

I guess that I'm the rule breaker in this house.  She has evidence of this hanging on her wall now.