Accept The Gift You Are Given

My late teacher and friend Nancy Rotenberg was a very wise woman as well as an extraordinary photographer. She recognized that by having too rigid or narrow an expectation of what you were going to be photographing you were simply setting yourself up for disappointment.  After all, how many times does one go out to photograph sunrise only to find the sky locked in with heavy clouds?  How many times has it rained during the workshop you were waiting so long to attend?  If you are not open to receiving other gifts when those types of things happen you are very apt to go home disappointed or feeling like you 'wasted your time'.

Nancy always felt that one has to have an open mind and an open heart and be willing to take the gift that you are given when it is offered to you.  Often that gift isn't what you planned for or thought it would be.

A couple of Sundays back, my friends and I went to photograph sunrise at Independence Marsh about 40 minutes from my home, only to be confronted by a 'double whammy'.  First, there was little water.  The marsh tends to dry out if there isn't enough rain and, while the marsh is frequently beautiful, when it is dry........well, you get about a twenty foot shoreline of mud. Second, the sky was extremely cloudy and there really wasn't much sunrise to speak of.

At first I was quite disappointed.  But then I finally remembered her words and let myself look around and openly accepted the gift I was given:

Autumn Colors At Independence Marsh In Western Pennsylvania

Copyright Howard Grill

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