Time to reflect
Walking down the alley looking for dumpsters gave me a good amount of time to think and reflect on Christ’s birth. Shooting these scenes made me more aware of the reality of Christ’s birth. The very realness and rawness of his entry. A couple weeks later as I’m now composing these stories, I also did some research on what other’s wrote about the humility of Christ’s birth. Martin Luther wrote some interesting insight about being quiet and reflecting on the Gospel–the good news of Christ:
This Gospel is so clear that it requires very little explanation, but it should be well considered and taken deeply to heart; and no one will receive more benefit from it than those who, with a calm, quiet heart, banish everything else from their mind, and diligently look into it. It is just as the sun which is reflected in calm water and gives out vigorous warmth, but which cannot be so readily seen nor can it give out such warmth in water that is in roaring and rapid motion.
Therefore, if you would be enlightened and warmed, if you would see the wonders of divine grace and have your heart aglow and enlightened, devout and joyful, go where you can silently meditate and lay hold of this picture deep in your heart, and you will see miracle upon miracle. But to give the common person a start and a motive to contemplate it, we will illustrate it in part, and afterwards enter into it more deeply.
This idea of reflection and being quiet is something very familiar with photographers. As day grew to night, my exposures get longer and longer, which means more time to stand and be still with my camera.
Many of my photographs require multiple exposures, often at night they are long exposures. To keep track of what exposure I’m on, I like to use my left hand to keep track of the exposure number. If I’m on exposure one, I keep one finger pointed out. If I’m on the second exposure, I keep two fingers pointed out.
I tried doing it verbally. But when you are standing there waiting for exposures that are more than 15 seconds, you can easily lose track of what exposure number you are on. I like to shoot three exposures for every shot i do.