The Flash Distorts the Picture

If you are a friend of mine and haven't been asked what kind of camera you own, consider yourself lucky.  For the last few months, I have been researching (aka asking everyone I know) and saving up for my first DSLR camera.  We have had a Sony Cybershot that hasn't steered us wrong for the last five years, but as I dabble into more photography, our aging camera just isn't getting all the shots I need anymore.  I finally saved enough, and just before we left on vacation, I ordered a Nikon D3200.  Wow, have I got a lot to learn!  Thank goodness for the owner's manual and for the 95 minute video tutorial that the nice man at the camera shop convinced me I needed.  

Learning this thing is going to take time.  Yet, amid all the things I have to absorb, one thing this novice knows- the flash distorts the picture.  I have found this out time and time again when I try to take a shot with the flash on and it turns out too bright, eerily unnatural, losing all the great detail.  It happened this spring when the kids discovered a bird's nest next to the house and asked me to photograph it.  When I leaned my iPhone carefully into the boxwood to get the perfect shot, the flash totally disfigured the appearance of the nest and eggs.  It wasn't until I turned the flash off and took a shot in the natural morning light, that I got this:

The flash distorts the picture.  That truth has got me thinking about some things.  How many times am I using the bright and shiny things in life to represent who I am?  Who my family appears to be?  Doesn't that altered reality distort the real picture?  We are not all as glossy and shiny and flashy as we make ourselves out to be on Instagram or Facebook, myself definitely included.  What if I could go with some natural light for a change and see what happens?  It might be real.  It might be refreshing.  I just might get the best shot.