Life Is a Highway

Speeding Along

Recently, I had one of those experiences where you have to add to your age, since I finished up another trip around the sun and started the next one. You know, a birthday. It was a good one, as most of them are. But it is a reminder of the passage of time.

Yes, I know there is a song titled “Life Is a Highway,” the same as the title of this post. But I am probably not thinking about it in quite the same way as that song. Rather, I am thinking about life as a highway in the fact that we are speeding along, seeming never to slow down. In fact, the more we go down that highway, the faster we seem to go. Speeding more and more toward that sunset at the end of the road, like in this photo here.

Don’t worry, I am not planning on reaching that sunset any time soon. I would like to think I have a good bit more road ahead of me. I may be slightly past what is technically considered middle age, given the normal life expectancy and all. But I still don’t feel all that old. And I still enjoy life.

And when it comes down to it, that is what it is all about. That is what is really important. In the Bible, the book of Ecclesiastes looks at all of this as well. Life is just a vapor, something that is here and then passes quickly. So what are we to do about it?

The answer comes at the end of the book, in Ecclesiastes 12:13, which says, “When all has been heard, the conclusion of the matter is: fear God and keep His commands, because this is for all humanity.” If you do those things, you will enjoy your trip down the highway of life. There may be some bumps or some unexpected turns, but you can handle them and keep on going. That’s what I try to do.

About the photo

This photo was taken on the highway, as you might can guess, when we were on the way home from our July 2017 Florida trip. Laura and I had enjoyed a great week together (see more photos at the July 2017 Florida trip archive), but it was time to go home.

As we were driving along, there was a great sunset off in the distance. Laura was driving at the time, so I grabbed my camera to get a photo. I purposefully left the fisheye lens on the camera, because I wanted to capture the perspective of sitting in the car with the sunset at the end of the road, just as you see here. At the time, I had no idea that it would be used as a metaphor in a post like this one. I just liked the view. Dual purpose? Even better! I also used a slightly slow shutter speed to blur the trees on the sides of the highway to add a slight bit of motion into the photo.

In processing, I gave everything a more bold look than what the original photo had, and I especially brought out the sunset colors even more while keeping the rest of the colors a little dark. I wanted it to be obvious that this was taken from inside the car, but I wanted to keep the sunset the main focus. I think it worked.

Photo: A single Raw exposure, processed in Photoshop. Read more about photography tips, photo software, camera gear, and more at Steve’s Photography Tips. Camera: Olympus OM-D E-M10 Lens: Rokinon 7.5mm f/3.5 Fisheye Lens Date: July 22, 2017 Location: Somewhere in Mississippi