"My Eyes, My Eyes"

[NashVegas]

I hadn't been photographing for almost 10 years when I took it back up, 1-2 ago.

After first noticing it only in photos, now it's spilling over to life without a frame: direct sunlight looks just plain *harsh* to me. Whether it's a photo, or walking across a parking lot at noon, it seems so unforgiving.

Is it age (I recently passed 40), or has the camera simply made me more sensitive to / aware of it?

[intheflow]

1. The midday sun is very unforgiving.

The best time to shoot is mornings (I prefer before 8am in summer, but can squeeze out some good shots before 10am) and late afternoon/evenings (after 3pm). Midday pictures always look washed out to me.

And then there's global warming. It could be that the sun is atually harsher. Here in Denver in the summer, I feel like the vampire Lestat when I walk into the sun at noon on a summer day--like I'll turn to ash in a second. Part of that is being a mile closer to the sun than I was when I lived in Massachusetts, but I can't help but think part of it is ozone depletion... :(