Light

It’s a truism, if not a cliche, in photography to “follow the light.” I’ve heard it a lot, especially from one of my photographer friends. I’ve chased “good light” as much as any photographer and it’s not a bad plan. (That said, I’ve learned that there’s really no such thing as “bad light,” just light - situations - we don’t yet know how to work with.)

I walk early in the morning, but given the time of sun’s arrival, I don’t catch the sun as it’s rising. This morning as I was walking on the mulch path on the side of Peters Hill from the Mendum Street gate. I came upon this tree, this light. From a distance, it confused me and as I walked closer it resolved into a small patch of sunlight that made it through the thick of the woods.

Cause for celebration, or that’s the perspective I chose. In America today, there is so much scary-awful we have to absorb every day. On top of that we have to figure out how to live a life with integrity within the awful context of being ruled by thieves and cheats and worse. So, there’s worse strategies we might use than “follow the light.”