Before the Wind Came

I was strolling through the sunny and shady patches among the trees, throwing my jacket open at one moment, wrapping it tightly at the next, when I began to notice how the low October sun was filtering through the yellow pigment of the autumn leaves. When I was a young lad, I was told that the sun must always be at your back when taking a photo. It became my delight, not much later, when I bought my first SLR camera, to defy the rules and point my camera at the sun. I had a fear, at first, that like the retina of the eye, when exposed to direct sunlight, my lens, or light meter, or film, would fry in the intense light of the direct rays of the sun, especially because it was being magnified by the lens. Much to my delight, I have discovered that the major influence that makes a photo good or bad, is the lighting. Unique lighting is interesting to look at and when we see a photo taken into the sun, we delight in it because we ourselves would not look into the sun, but now by looking at the photo, we can see what that would be like. Many of my favourite photos I now take that way.