Saturday Morning

One morning last May after working all night, I decided to drive up the Alder Slope road near my home to try and get a sunrise photograph over the Wallowa Valley. Driving fast up the gravel road towards the foothills of the Wallowa Mountains, I was having a hard time finding a scene that I felt would capture the "glory" of a Wallowa Valley sunrise in the Spring. One of those typical nature photography moments where the light is changing fast, and you can feel the "shot" slipping away as you search for content and composition that captures the essence of the moment. I just wasn't finding it. Scanning my rearview mirror as I raced up the road chased by the fading color of the morning light, I was struck by the abstract beauty of the dew dripping down my window against the morning sun. Realizing that perhaps my expectation of a "glorious" mountain sunrise was limiting my vision, I stopped the car and focused my camera a little closer than I had originally planned. Another lesson learned in my ongoing journey with light and photography. I don't want to "pre-visualize" things to the point that it limits my vision and I miss the shot altogether.