Do you see the light?

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Generally speaking, light changes your perspective of ordinary things. In the early morning, there is a stillness created by the spotlight of a rising sun shining brightly on some things around you, leaving others in a hazy silhouette. It’s like you are awakening with the world…ushering in the day, more aware and more in tune with life. At the end of the day, as the sun is setting and casting an orange glow and subtle shadows, you can see and feel the transition…day to night. As a photographer, I am mesmerized by this phenomena. 

1.   I am motivated to capture not just a picture, but the essence of the light.
The soul of an object, landscape or person is infinitely different depending on the light. It could be harsh. It could be soft.  It could be cold and impersonal.  Or warm and intimate. That’s why when I’m traveling, I make a point to go for long walks before daybreak…to see and photograph things as they come to life; as they reveal themselves to my eyes and to the lens of my camera. I like to go out towards the end of the day too, as the sun gently sinks below the horizon, ushering in a more ethereal view of the world, exposing the glory of our natural world. 

2.  I’m looking for the personality in everything I encounter.
A beam of light on a wooden bridge illuminates its character. I see it not as a simple structure. But rather as functional art, interrupting a monotonous landscape, pointing the way to a destination perhaps not yet visible, but beckoning you to cross over and discover what’s beyond. I discovered a windmill overlooking a valley on an island in Amorgos, Greece, bathed in the afterglow of a setting sun….It is a reflection of a simpler time, arousing my curiosity about what life was like in the earliest centuries.

Light…as a photographer and as an intrepid traveler, I embrace it as a tool to heighten my awareness of everything I encounter. To not take things natural or manufactured at face value…but to memorialize the essence of them through my photos; and to motivate me to inquire more deeply about their purpose and their personality.


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