Even Owls have skilled friends who are wonders. For instance, a few of my friends are photographers. Since holding a camera with my wings is beyond my ability, I learn a lot from these people.

Their ‘eyes’ draw in rare and magnificent views that mere mortals and Owls don’t see. They reveal for me what their trained eyes can see, but mine can’t, until they take the time to show me. How so? Where I can appreciate a bird sitting on a branch, a photographer can, with a finely aligned camera lens, capture the very expression of an all-surveying, haughty eagle. The photograph’s eagle is pensive, anticipatory. He envisions a tasty snack of that scurrying field mouse which the photographer also saw, but I didn’t even notice was there.

There’s more. The mouse photo shows him bursting through wondrous ground colors of yellows, browns, and whites. He makes brilliant use of camouflage and shadow. Blended together, as in several other photos, these colors appear splashed by the trained hand of an artist. Even I can see a sunset, but it takes a master to reveal majesty, to show a world-encompassing glow of greatness as the sun mellows behind an orchestra of clouds. Or, my friends, the photographers, can elicit emotion from a two-dimensional frame. A candid shot of a distant man, walking with his dog down a country path, says ‘companionship’. No one is lonely when one is with a friend he loves, and loves him in return. In fact, such an event and place demand to be frozen in time, the better to recall this truth. When we wonder what helps make life worth living, we need only look at this man. His time is spent in constant friendship with ‘man’s best friend.’

Or what about when a photographer snatches forever a picture of his wife’s gardening? Can we come to appreciate a garden more when we see how even the bees spread its wonder?

This happens when we can clearly and starkly view such a ‘busy bee’ engaged in pollination in a well-designed photograph. Yes, and then we are astounded to watch a hummingbird hovering, whose wings move so quickly one needs a carefully selected shutter speed to display them. Even the surreptitious squirrel is caught in mid-spring by ready hands and clicks of the well-tempered camera.

Yet another photographer brings us along on his adventures abroad, visiting places we have only read about in books on exploration and discovery. (I certainly wouldn’t make it to the Arctic, or Antarctic, like he does! My wings would give out around Ardmore!) We watch as if in a dream as giant walruses lumber along, or oddly waddling penguins shuttle here and there, or merry sea birds bound from rock to rock. We are there to see with him because he’s got a gift which shares what few of us can even dream of; a trained eye for the essence of what he sees. We see what he sees in ways we didn’t even know could be brought about. We are the richer for that.

All of our schools here in Limestone County can draw on the skills of trained teachers in each and every discipline known. We live in an age where technology is changing, often for the better, every six months. What makes a photographer an artist, rather than a ‘shutterbug’, is an understanding of why we care to retain photos forever. What good, or astounding, or wonderful we see and remember from today, will be with us when we are lonely, nostalgic, or unhappy. It will be with us even more if we can imagine happier times, more astounding events, or touching scenes as they are captured by a master. If they happened once, we’ll say, why not again, and again for generations to come?

Mastery can be accomplished by anyone. Reading, understanding nuances, listening to others’ experiences, knowing all facets of historical events, or viewing great master works can bring us all to new dimensions of comprehension. Our library has brought us great themes over the years. Lifelong learning opportunities abound, and we have whole universities and colleges where we can always add more to our treasure house, which is our understanding.

Live each day to learn something new. Meet masters, learn and enjoy even more.