Grilling with Charcoal, Photography & Life in General

Lately I have been grilling with charcoal rather than gas. The reason is my gas grill has gotten to the end of its life. Now I should mention that I am one of those people who gill 6-7 days a week during the summer. To me it is a nice way to get outside and enjoy the back yard while not heating up the stove. Now I could go and buy a gas grill; and I will one of these days. But I do enjoy using charcoal. The main reason is it makes me slow down and take my time to get the coals ready and then cook over them. I do not have the option to simply crank up the gas and get it hot so I can drop the food on the grill.

Ok, that makes sense but what the heck does this have to do with photography or life for that matter? Pretty simple really, slow down. That's it, slow down and take time to truly see what your are doing. Slow down and enjoy the moment. So many times I find myself almost sprinting from one thing to another; go here, take one of the kids here, stop there; that a day can go by and now it is 10:30 at night and I missed the day.

The same thing can happen with photography. “Look at that sunset! I want to get a shot of that!” Pull out the camera, line up the shot, set the exposure etc.....click. Got it. Ok sometimes that is all you can do depending on circumstances but most of the time you can slow down. Take another look at the sunset. Line up the shot. Take another look. Wait a few more seconds for the light to change a bit or the clouds to move just a bit more. Set the exposure, composition etc. Take one last look now click. If you have a tripod with you take a long exposure or set a timer, press the shutter and sit back and take another look at the sunset. Slow down.

All this I learned by cooking with charcoal. I am glad my gas grill died even though I will replace it. For now I think I will make sure I have enough charcoal to make dinner tonight.