The range of light

There is a quality of light that seems capable of making everything appealing -- even the peeling paint on this little seaside cottage.

What I don't really know for sure is if this is so appealing to me because light doesn't tend to be this strong where I'm living; it's usually filtered -- especially this time of year -- through the clouds.

But then that same filtering is what makes it so easy for me to shoot pictures I like here, whereas when I go back east my camera can't seem to take in the range of highs and lows.

Maybe it's just that my camera is no fonder of drama than I am; perhaps we both prefer a somewhat narrower range of light to dark.  Certainly it's true that if we cut ourselves off from our darker feelings we also limit our ability to sense the brighter emotions...