What I have realized is that photos can’t capture thoughts or feelings. Not exactly. They don’t capture the love we feel, the joy of a certain moment, the sense of place we may feel, or a feeling of belonging with family or friends. They just capture the light in the moment the shutter is released by causing a chemical reaction in a film or sensors in an array to record their states.
In this, photographs lie to us by showing an objective truth.
The image evokes recollection, or the image transports us through time, or invites us into a new way of seeing, challenges notions or perspectives.
The art in photography is that it makes us think and feel, even though our thoughts and feelings may only be loosely related to the subjects of our gazes.
All this from photons, transformed, in the tiniest slices of time.
When I snapped this image, I had been enjoying the contrast of the dark tree limbs against the orange and amber of the sunset.
By the time it occurred to me to attempt to capture it, launch my camera app on my phone, and frame an image I hoped might not be hideous, the sky changed.
The image doesn’t show any of that. Just an amateurish shot by someone who intended well.
But I remember.
