One of the greatest spiritual truths is that we walk by faith not by sight. And I always think about how we walk, one step of faith at a time. The first step can be a doozy.
So recently, on a myPhotoWalk photo shoot in Temecula, California, I came upon this wooden dock in a small lake among the vineyards. There were no steps, no arm rails, no cheering crowds — just the dock. It reminded me of our need to step out by faith no matter what we are facing in life.
Then the idea sprung into life. The lighting was not ideal. So I decided to take a handheld 3-bracketed exposures with a view to HDR processing to bring in a full dynamic range of color to the image. It's always a challenge to take three images handheld, but I count on great programs like Aurora HDR or Photomatix Pro to align the resulting images. And I always know if they don't align, I can creatively do a composite of the images in Photoshop.
I used Aurora HDR for post–processing these three images and was surprisingly happy with the result. It aligned the three images perfectly and brought in the full dynamic range that I saw with my own eyes out there in the field. Yes, God's eyes are even better than the best camera.
I took the image into Photoshop and then applied some Noise filters from Topaz and Imageonic. I wanted to do something dramatic with the color to make this image special, so I took it into RadLab and applied a custom Vintage recipe that I have created in that program. I loved the result. I used the spot healing brush to get rid of some distracting plants around the edges. And then, I did a very small crop of the image.
I was still not completely happy about some of the noise in the water. So, what could I do? I remembered watching Scott Kelby apply a blur filter to one of his images to smooth out water. So, I thought, "Why not? Let's give it a try!" I created a new layer and the chose the Gaussian Blur filter. Because I didn't want the blur to touch the dock, I added a layer mask and filled it with black, then painted in the Gaussian Blue at about 40% opacity just to smooth out the water and get rid of any additional noise. It worked.
Finally, I added the Helvetica Neue text. And voila, we have a reminder to take that step of faith. I am encouraged to know that we always walk by faith, not by sight. This image reminds me of how seemingly scary it is to step out in faith, like stepping off a dock. But what we always need to remember is that the Lord carries us every step of the way and enables us to "walk on water" with our faith, just like Peter.
So whatever you are facing right now, remember to take your next step by faith in all that the Lord says in His Word.
Lord, thank You for giving us the strength and power to take the next step of faith no matter what we face today. In Jesus' name, Amen.
Blessings ♡ Grace
