First light

After 15 years, I took my cherished Nikon SLR out of my well-worn camera bag on Friday night and replaced it with a new one. I've been planning for this for ages, agonizing over models and specifications, waiting for the stars to align - and for my pennies to accumulate - so that I'd be comfortable with my final choice.

Once I got the new camera and lens home, I continued to agonize, this time over the first picture that I would take. Astronomers call it "first light". Whenever they build a new telescope or observatory, first light refers to the first image that it takes. It's usually fuzzy and not very significant. It's often used to calibrate the instrument and set the stage for more meaningful observations down the road. Yet it's the one that garners all the applause, that reveals to the world that this thing is indeed alive and vital.

I realize I know nothing about this pristine-yet-alien machine that now sits in my scuffed old camera bag. I realize it will take months for me to explore and internalize its controls, to commit their use to the muscle memory that so connected me to my old camera. Which makes its first light all the more difficult to plan. I want it to be a meaningful picture, one that sets the stage for all the amazing moments and scenes that I will capture in the years to come. But how can it be a good picture when I haven't yet mastered the device? A conundrum, for sure.

I ultimately decided that first light should feature my wife. She is the one who allows me to lag behind when a certain scene catches my eye. She tells me when my pictures are worth keeping, and why. She tells me when they're substandard. And why. She stands behind my rather oddball pursuits when pretty much everyone else would otherwise be calling me, well, an oddball. I wouldn't be able to shoot or write the things that I do if it weren't for her life-long influence and encouragement. My vision is my vision because she's been my guiding partner for what seems like forever.

So my camera's first light is a picture of my wife. She has been my muse, my filter, my sounding board, my best friend. In so many ways, I view life through her eyes. So it's only fitting that the first thing that I see through this new camera and lens is her.

I'm thrilled to share this image, and I hope everything I capture from here on out does her justice.