Leaves
Leaves, originally uploaded by @lifebypixels.
Via Flickr:
From a hike on the coast of the big island, Hawaii. We were at Captain Cook's beach when I wandered off into the banyan trees. The leaves were everywhere, dropped for winter presumably, you couldn't feel the ground. It was more like walking on a home made trampoline that was crunchy in it's soundscape. The waves were crashing behind me in the distance, and I realized that this magnetic pull had drove me farther up into the growth than what was probably safe. I felt fleas eating my ankles and calves. This happens a lot when I am out exploring rather than out shooting with an intent or direction. I just feel something pulling in one direction or another, and I've learned to trust it...to a point. But then my inner safety guide stops me, and I start looking around for my options.
This time, I had gone too far, I turned around and realized that heading back the same way would most likely result in slipping on the dried leaves and falling down the hill. I decided to go laterally around the hill till I reached a point that was about 15' above the beach below. There were roots growing down that I could climb down. Maybe this would be a good spot? A safe place to get back on to the beach, then I'll walk back around from there. My lens-cap fell of my lens in that moment. It bounced down to the beach. I leaned over to look and try and see it. The eye-cup on my view-finder suddenly fell off next. "Ok, I got it. You want me to go this way". I found myself saying in my head.
As I turned around, surrounded by audible and visual noise of all this texture beneath me. I was carefully choosing which roots might support my mass, I saw something aesthetically pleasing. The light in this late afternoon causing all edges to be harshly contrasted, and aggressively defined. I saw a line of rocks breaking through the dead amber foliage. For no reason could I explain why this made me feel calm, but there was something about it that was peaceful, relaxing. I thought about Jay Maisel and his talks about texture, color, gesture. I saw it here. There was a gesture, the line of the rocks, the light fighting and forming the shadows. The colors and the texture, it just seemed to be in harmony with each other in that exact moment the light was hitting it. So without an eye-cup, nor a lens-cap on my camera. It suddenly dawned on me.
"I'm supposed to take this picture".
Now is this the best picture I've ever taken. "No". But even now when I look at it, there was a moment that all parts leading to the nice felt orchestrated and conducted. Even my lens was exposed and my camera ready to go. So I shot it, a healthy reminder that sometimes the world expresses itself to you versus you trying to express what you see in the world.
@lifebypixels