Fitting in, living in it

"The environment is not tailored to man; it is itself, for itself. All its creatures fit in. They know how, from ages past. Man fits in or fights it. Fitting in, living in it, carries challenge, exhilaration, and peace."

- Margaret E Murie

All there is... reflected through his eyes,

"There is a brief moment when all there is in a man's mind and soul and spirit is reflected through his eyes, his hands, his attitude. This is the moment to record."

-- Yousuf Karsh

Place

From The River of No Return: Remembering the Mississippi

Liquid Light

Weather in the southeast US has forced shifts in travel plan, meaning more editing time. Fingering through hundreds of images sheds new thoughts on creations weeks and months past. Three months ago I was standing in the humid morning Light; A beach on the Caribbean shore of Costa Rica. No image obligations, just sand, surf and shorebirds to play with.

Light merged with liquid, pouring over sand, cresting off surf, illuminating sea, silhouetting sandpipers. Light casting a monochrome brassy-gold glaze over all it touched.

The morning was like being a guardian of the moment, less about creating, instead more about recognizing what was. It is the hardest and simplest of photography. It requires stepping out of the way. Trusting the eyes. Letting the Light speak, letting it shine in.

Monochrome Sunday

Mood, some days it is the Light that creates it, some days it is the mood that creates the Light.

Sunday, birding with Jenn in Ridgefield National Wildlife Refuge mood created the impression; still, curiously quiet, muted, monochromatic.

I created but one image all day, a fraction of the norm, but only one whispered, caught my eyes.

End of the Land, Edge of the Shining Sea

The Light shines from above, spilling onto the land, and the sea. Few of us ever see Light from whence it comes, only where it spills, reflects, illuminates. Aloft the world is transformed by that Light.

Of late I have been floating on gossamer wings, staring down from the sky with the Light, on the thin horizon at the end of the land, edge of the shining sea.

Thank you Tom Hutchings for giving me this gift - I am eternally grateful.

Last Light of the Year

Light fades in falling hue,

Tonight tomorrow rests,

Lingering on new wings to fly,

The palette clean, an empty sky.

It was only fitting that the last Light I would see in the passing year be the alpine glow melting away across the bayou of southwest Louisiana. After spending so much of the past six months photographing there, a clear, cloudless evening was the purity I needed to begin thinking about a New Year, new hopes for this terrorized landscape and remember, how serenely beautiful is this wetscape and sky.