ZIP-A-DEE DOO-DAH

365 Days of Thanksliving — Day 268

I bet you saw the title of this blog and started to sing that oldie but goodie of a song. You remember how it goes, right?

Zip-a-dee-doo-dah, zip-a-dee-ay

My, oh, my, what a wonderful day

Plenty of sunshine headin' my way

Zip-a-dee-doo-dah, zip-a-dee-ay!

That’s kind how I felt about my day, as I zig-zagged across the countryside to find interesting subjects to photograph. I found a neat church still in use not far from Walnut Grove called St. Olaf Lutheran Church. Now, I just need a clear night sky with little moon, and zam-bam, I’ll be at it.

I found the church on Google Maps, just doing a grid-by-grid search across our area for what seemed interesting on my screen. I saved the address, tossed my gear in car, and zoomed out of town to find the old Scandinavian church.

After a quick nibble along the way, I sped down the highway and biways to find Olaf’s assembly. Just miles off the Laura Ingall’s Highway, I found St. Olaf’s nestled-in by farmland as far as the eye can see, sitting brightly under the afternoon sun. And OH MY was the sun a shining brightly – almost too brilliantly.

Sounds odd, right? The harshest enemy of any landscape photographer is a bright sunny day. A cloudless day and a high sun negate any shadows and make planning a moonless midnight shot challenging. But when there’s a will, there’s a way.

Sitting in my car along the roadside, I opened my astrophotography app, held my phone towards the church, and using AI imagined what the church would look like beneath the Milky Way. It looked perfect to me. But, to get a better idea, I wanted to make sure.

While St. Olaf’s isn’t that far from home, it’s far enough that I wanted to be sure. So, I took out my gear, set it up near the edge of the St. Olaf cemetery, and framed it all up.But Ruh-Roh Rhaggy (catch the Scooby-Doo reference) I couldn’t see a thing through on my camera’s flips-screen or my phone.

That glorious sun at one-a-clock high was so magnificent, it was preventing me to see a thing. A few adjustments later, putting my eye into the viewfinder, I was able to frame my shot. Wheh, I thought.

That glorious sun, without it we wouldn’t exist. It’s light and radiant heat give life to everything on planet earth. And for our sun, and God’s only begotten Son, who spoke our sun and all life into existence, I have the Lord to thank.

I thank God for life, the universe, and everything in it, and for the blessed opportunity to be able zip around the countryside with the joy of that old childhood song, to just plan a photoshoot of a beautiful old church sitting beneath the glorious heavens above.

What are you thankful for today?