Light Is A Weird Thing

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Yes, light is a weird thing. It’s always there, be it particles or waves, or both at the same time.

I’ve only experienced total darkness once. That was in Lehman Caves at Great Basin National Park, Nevada. The guide turned out the lights after the tour reached the belly of the cave. Yeah, it was dark, all right. But other than places far removed from all sources like this, light is always there.

In early June I took off to the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument in southern Utah. It was during new moon. The only light at night was from the stars. Away from city lights, even the stars cast enough light to see trees and the outline of the red rock cliffs surrounding the campground. Light is always there. At times you just have to look for it.

As a photographer, I am forever chasing after GREAT light. What is GREAT light? It’s light that makes scenes before us come alive and pop. It isn’t hard to find, actually. All you have to do is spend hours and hours (or is it days and months?) trying to be in the right place at the right time. In other words, you have to be willing to place yourself in the presence of GREAT light when most (sane) people--the ones you want to be with--are doing something else.

The best light is early in the morning and just before and just after sunset. At the first glimmer of dawn, most people want to be sleeping. At the other end of the day they want to be eating with family and friends, or sitting out on the back patio. That’s all fine and good, but if you want great photos, you have to chase after great light.

Another time to find great light is just as a storm moves in or as it moves out of the area. Hanging around exposed to the elements is an adventure all its own. Few activities are more ‘fun’ than standing next to camera and tripod--hands in pockets--freezing, waiting for that snow squall to move by just so, kissing the scene before you with magical light. You wait and wait. As often as not, nothing happens, except your fingers hurt from the cold . . . and you see another spot a couple of miles away beautifully showered with magic.

Rats!

Oh, well. There’s always tomorrow.

Maybe.

(Notes on image: I went south to get INTO the heat. What did I get? Several days of cold. When I made this shot at about 7:00 in the evening, the wind was howling and it was about 45 degrees--on June 4th! Yes, my fingers hurt like mad. The plateau in the far distance is the Kaiparowits Plateau. In the late 1970's there was tons of pressure to allow that whole area to be subjected to open pit coal mining with a coal-fired electric plant plopped somewhere north of Lake Powel. That would have been a tragedy of monumental proportions. Many Utahns to this day curse the name of Bill Clinton for creating the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument by executive order. Fine. But now everything you see in this shot--and everything as far as the eye can see--is protected by the Monument. All you have to do is drive through its vast, pristine emptiness to realize President Clinton did the right thing.)