I’m no expert photographer and I haven’t spent a lot of time looking at lighting effects. I have no special equipment and rarely even use the flash on my camera for anything. Of course, photography is mostly a hobby for me so I’m loath to take it too seriously, but when asked what the best lighting setup is… I give my pat answer to everything:**”God has provided all that we need for anything we wish to do.”_* I’m sure the pros can get better results than I can with their teched out super junk, but I find sunlight to be the absolute best tool for light.

I can get all kinds of different lighting conditions depending on the time of day and the weather. I can look at my weather widget on my desktop and know if I’m going to get a good shot today. It’s just a darn good thing I don’t make my living on photography or I’d be too impatient to appreciate the awesome power of God’s light.

This afternoon my daughter wanted to play dress up so we got out her “Sunday dress” and danced around her room for a bit. At one point she grabbed her little chair and put it directly down in the middle of a 2ft-square block of sunlight from the window and said, “Mom, take my picture!” Even this girl knows something about lighting. I grabbed the camera and she posed like a veteran model (she’s had three years of obnoxious mom and her camera). We had a blast as she giggled “Cheese” for about ten minutes. I took mostly black and white because they just looked better with the harsh light of the sun.

I’m a mom, so of course I’m going to say my daughter’s beautiful, but really, I think most everything can look incredible when in the right lighting. For me, for her, and this moment, that direct sunlight was the right lighting. Other times, the morning rays fall just right on the dew-stricken grass. My favorite lighting though is the soft haze of an overcast day… no shadows, no sharp glares, just a soft light, like an angel’s wing is filtering out the brightness of the sun.