The other day I found myself stacking firewood in 80 degree heat. Talk about carrying coals to Newcastle! It occurred to me that there was something wrong with that picture. Fortunately, the carrying was short lived. I do not do heat well. And that, my friends, is an understatement. This was made very clear to me when I received an email from a family in Indiana for whom I had just made family photos in the harbor. They were very polite and nice in the context of their email but expressed some dismay about the fact that the photos I had sent to them were not theirs. I believe the way they put it was, “Dear Mr. Mitchell. These are very nice photos, but they are not of us.” I had sent them a recent Georgia family’s photos by mistake. I apologized.

It is sort of like the time I was hired to make aerial photographs of one of Neal Reny’s pits in Whitefield or Jefferson. Somewhere up there. But from the air, in the land of many pits, the instructions I had been given on the ground did not match up well with the views from the air. Mr. Reny was Very pleasant when I stopped by with the photos, chuckled a bit, then told me the photos were very good, but not his pit!

After stacking wood in the 80 degree heat, I went into the house and watered plastic flowers. Are you beginning to see where I am going with this? After a very restless attempt at overnight sleep that day, in a bedroom wind driven by a super fan, I got up to make breakfast for us and burned the bacon! Some say “It’s not the heat, it’s the humidity.” I say its both.

HDR stands for high dynamic range. Without getting too technical, it allows more to be seen. By that I mean the process creates an image that shows more in dark areas and bright areas than is normally possible for the human eye. Like when you are sitting at the kitchen table looking at the cat litter box. You can see the litter box fine but the light out the window “whites out.” HDR, through the magic of technology, manages to see the cat litter box and the scene out the window equally well. Real estate people love this because now a photo can show a magnificent interior and the view out windows to the lovely oceanfront. For us, it means that we can see the cat litter box and the bird feeder in the back yard. Not that this is an essential “capture” as it is now called.

The new cell phones can make HDR photos automatically. My niece and her family recently visited from Pennsylvania. I think her phone had many lenses built in. The family went on a boat ride and she shared some photos with me. I freaked. A photograph which would have required me to use a flash to balance the light on little Ginger’s face and the sparkling bright ocean behind her was merely a simple button press. I mean the photograph was terrific. I have made photographs at family reunions for family members with their phones to take home. Astonishing! At weddings some photographs with phones (you know the drill, arms flailing in all directions at the bride and groom as they walk up the aisle) make me want to stack wood in 80 degree heat! The insecurity I have come to feel makes me want to rethink the investments I have made in high end digital equipment. Who needs me? I believe it would be very possible for an entire wedding to be photographed by phone. I bet it happens a lot. Jeez!

The photos I’m sharing today were made by niece Caroline with a camera she carries in her pocket wherever she goes, just like that. The moral of this story is — “what you see may not be what you get” or “ Ask Mr. Reny to wave from the pit!”