by L.D. Kirklin
Lens Caps
My first digital camera was about the size of a deck of playing cards and it suited me perfectly. It fit in my pocket and went with me to family gatherings, on nature hikes, to sporting events, and more. Yes, I would often be found behind the lens of my compact device, attempting to capture a scene and tell its story.
One of the best things about that pocket camera was that with one flip of a switch, the shutter would open, and it was ready to zoom, focus, and fire. It made life, well, my photography life anyway, simple – and I am a fan of simple.
Of course, like most hobbies, the more I got into the art of photography, the more I wanted to try new aspects of the artform – aspects that were beyond the performance level of my pocket camera. So, I got another camera, slightly bigger with more settings and more capabilities. Once again, with one flip of a switch, the shutter would open, the lens would come out of hiding, and together, we were ready to make the world stand still.
Fast forward a little bit and two cameras became three, then three became four, each one bigger with more settings, more capabilities and frankly, more complications. While each camera came with a learning curve, few lessons are as memorable to me as the lesson I learned when I got my first camera with interchangeable lenses.
There I was, excitement abounding as I worked to set up my new, and biggest camera to date. I programmed the essentials and tinkered with the settings. Then, when I was sure I was ready, I raised the camera up, looked through the viewfinder and … nothing. There was nothing there. I pulled back from the camera, checked the settings, turned the camera off and on again, looked through the viewfinder and … nothing. I remember being quite frustrated until I turned my new camera around to look at the lens. My frustration quickly turned to relief, not relief that I had discovered the problem, but rather relief that no one was around to see my folly. I had failed to remove the lens cap.
Now, even if you don’t know much about photography, I’m sure you can gather that removing the lens cap is a vital step in the process. For years all I had to do was flip a switch and everything happened automatically, but now, it was up to me to remember that key step. Without it, all I could see was darkness.
The other evening, I saw an episode of a mystery show from back in the day and it reminded me of my lens cap lesson. A detective got called to investigate a crime at a stock brokerage firm on Wall Street. The detective was convinced that one of the stockbrokers was guilty and refused to look at any evidence that suggested otherwise. You see, the detective had lost some money because of a bad stock tip, and he was certain that all stockbrokers were crooks. He could not get over what happened to him, and it blocked his ability to see anything other than the darkness. That incident became his lens cap and not only did he fail to remove it in an important situation, he refused to remove it.
The truth is, we all have caps we can put over our lenses, caps that prevent us from seeing not only the picture in front of us, but the big picture around us as well. Just like the detective’s lens was capped by anger over his financial misfortune, our lenses can be capped by things like distrust, envy, anxiety, stress, and more. When we refuse to see the joy of the present because of the pain of the past, we cap off our blessings. When we compare our life with the life of someone else, we cap off our purpose. When we worry about what could happen in the future instead of enjoying what is happening right now, we cap off our peace of mind.
Let’s face it, no one starts out wanting to be angry, stressed or envious, but experiences in life can create such caps for our lenses. Broken relationships, job loss, financial strain and a myriad of other struggles have a way of distorting our view of the past while blocking our view of the present.
So, if you ever wonder why things tend to look dark when you try to look around, just consider that often the most complicated problems have the simplest solutions…even if they are, on occasion, quite humbling!
Let’s remember to remove those emotional lens caps … and never underestimate the power of perspective!
