Hope

I knew it was going to rain a bit, but I did not expect to wake up to a collapsing snow covered tent on April 25, 2015, it was wet and cold, so my dog, shadow and I went into my friends airstream. She worked there. She opened up a futon for me, and I attempted to get comfortable, but it proved impossible as the bed was just too bumpy and inhospitable, I kept waking up to my dog shivering because her power cell ran out and she had forgotten to charge it. I think at some point, I finally said to myself out loud "fuck this, and gotten my car started driving around Yosemite Valley just as the sun was starting to come up. I came upon this small strand of aspen trees the moment the sun was cracking through the mountains on the other side Like a spotlight illuminating them for me in the mist. If you're out there enough, occasionally nature will hand you opportunities. But you have to be out there. 

 

The funny thing is when I got home from the shoot I chose a few other images as what I thought were the best representation of what I had done out there that weekend. And one day my father saw this one and he told me, paraphrasing, “that's the one.” It turned out the photo got a great reaction and I had an exhibit I did the following year. One of the many lessons of that weekend was that perhaps we are not all the best judges of the appeal of our creations. Regardless, when nature shines its light on a subject for you and you are the only one there, it's a golden opportunity, and I encourage you to stop always. I’m trying to do the same. Why the title "hope?" I guess the answer is that even in the darkest of times the light is always shining somewhere just behind the clouds or waiting for the world to turn just a little bit more.

 

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