human versus camera: taking different pictures

You know what's odd?
When we try to capture a perfect moment,
so we can look back on that picture and recall those emotions,
it's nearly impossible.

Even our eyes and cameras often take "different pictures."

Take this picture for example:

I took this picture tonight because the sky was ethereal and breathtaking to me:

Moon hidden beneath the sky,

Cerulean and navy,

But smoked out by the angel's cigarettes

Feathered trees below, fluffed like a disgruntled hen

This is what I saw as I looked up toward the sky.

But this might be what you see in this picture:

Stupid iPhone camera,

Doesn't take pictures at night well;

I can vaguely see the smoky clouds,

But it's SO pixel-y!

We are always taking pictures. But rarely do they reflect what was happening at that moment, whether it's because we are told to smile even when we don't feel like smiling but this is what we are trained to do, or the camera gives us red-eye, or the picture makes us look better or worse than we do in "real life" (whatever that is), or because the happiness is subsiding as we are taking the picture. The camera alters what we see, and even though it's a device that attempts to help us remember, it also rewrites what we remember.

Nonetheless, I will try to remember the sky tonight and how I was almost feeling at peace, which hasn't happened in a long time.