Here are some things I learned. You have to seek beauty. To take a good photograph go to a place and let it speak to you. You will find it even when other people tell you won't find beauty in that place. This made Matthew 7:7, a verse I have quoted a million times have a new meaning: “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened." God promised that we will find beauty.
Sometimes we must seek beauty in unexpected places. If we find the good light then we will find the photograph. And God's word says in 1 John 1:5, "This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all." When we find the light we find God. Look for him and he will show you his beauty - so much beauty to see if we only look for it. If we don't look in unexpected places we will miss it.
To take a good picture you have to get out there and shoot. It may not be the perfect day, the perfect light, the conditions may be all wrong. Even if everything is wrong and you come back with no good photographs you will have learned something. Many times in our lives it is in the trials that we learn and grow closer to God. The picture in the blog is one I took Sunday. I had about an hour and a half between the sessions. At first I just decided I would walk a little outside but I just got in my car and decided to try to drive to the mountains. I didn't know if the Gatlinburg Bypass would be open now, since it had warmed up quite a bit. It was open and I drove to one of the places mentioned in the first session, Cataract Falls. It is right behind the Park Headquarters and easy to get to. It was late in the day and there wasn't really enough light. It was a little muddy and slick so I was afraid to get to close to the falls but in the steam I saw how the ice was melting a little into the creek. It was my beauty in an unexpected place. I sought beauty and I found it. God's word is true.