Embracing the Sky Above | by Kristen Ryan
Here is my friendly public service announcement to all my fellow photographer friends: make sure you look up! There is magic in the skies above you.
There’s a special sense of being present in what nature provides for you. The skies don’t perform on command; we must be ready for them—watching, waiting, and open to dropping everything we are doing to capture them when they’re ready to show off.
The sky is in constant motion; what is spectacular in one moment could be gone in minutes or seconds. We must take notice of them in that moment. Allow them to be a character in your frame, or let them become a stunning background that only nature could truly create.
Colors of the Sky
There are a multitude of reasons why I love to capture the skies in my world. They provide a punch of color to any scene I come across, and if you follow my work, you know how much I appreciate color, especially in nature. Even a cloudless sky can create a gorgeous layer of color within your frame.
I have noticed that in specific seasons, the sunsets on the cloudless nights even take on a different hue. Spring and fall provide a beautiful ombre effect, while summer can create an incredible orange glow. Then, if you are lucky and catch a gorgeous cloud-filled sunset, this is when true magic happens, and you are gifted with a variety of stunning colors and light that put on a show as the colors shift and change as the sun sets below the horizon and beyond. Sit and watch for a while.
Adding Depth
Skies add a unique depth to a scene. It is like having a painting as your backdrop—one that only nature could create. The way so many artists are inspired to do, yet could never truly replicate. As photographers, we have the honor of capturing those scenes and weaving them into our own creations. Take note of these scenes as they are given to you, like a gift just for your eyes. Take your talent and capture it.
Skies as Storytelling Characters
The skies can become their own characters within your frame. I love coming across scenes that typically wouldn't be very visually interesting, but because I was graced with some stunning clouds, I was able to tell a story I might have walked right by otherwise. I also love to tell the story of the seasons; they can be part of your narrative when telling the story of your family or yourself. I love finding moments when nature replicates a feeling I am having, and I can use my sky to share the emotions that maybe words just won’t do.
Find Presence in the Moment
However, I think the most important reason I love to stop and capture my world above is the simple fact that it reminds me to stay present. In this ever-moving world we live in, the days go by in a blur, and if I’m not careful, the week is over before I know it, then the month, then the year, etc. It's gone, and I’m looking back like what just happened?
What causes this effect is that when our day-to-day becomes routine, we stop paying attention to the little things. We are conditioned to go from one task on our list right into the next, until that day is over, and we begin again the next day. The in-between gets forgotten or often times unseen as we move from one activity to the next.
To fully live life, we need to experience each day and what that day has to offer. It is not always good, but we can sit with it, feel it, try to find peace with it as we let it go and enter a new day. I understand this can be difficult. Life is busy, hectic, unsettling at times, but try this for a week or two, find five minutes in your day. Sit outside, take in what you feel, hear, see, smell, or even taste. Use your senses to experience the world around you, even if just for five minutes.
Find presence in this moment. Use your photography to capture this time. I love to try to do this in the evenings. Especially at sunset, I love to see what the sky will do, and it helps to give me something to focus on as I sit with myself. I will grab my camera and sometimes a glass of wine and take in the day. I don’t do this everyday but I can tell you, at every sunset I think about it and it gives me a pause to be present. Even better when my family sits outside with me, and we can have that time to simply be together.
I love that this is what the skies above me now remind me to do. I hope you take some time to look up and find the magic in those skies above. The skies are a gift—not to be taken for granted.
