“There are details in the darkness, if we just care to see” – Ed Lehming

Here I am, back at blogging. It’s been a long time and there have been many changes along my journey through life and I felt that now was an opportune time to get back into sharing my images and thoughts about them.

To start, I wanted to share an image I made last week, while standing above a beach near Cambria, California. We had stayed overnight in the town itself and were heading to visit Hearst Castle. On the way, we stopped at Ragged Point⁩, ⁨California⁩, near the ‎⁨Piedras Blancas Light Station⁩, ⁨ to see the huge colony of Elephant seals who use this beach as a birthing ground. I’ll share more about that experience in a future post.

As I was approaching the lookout, I happened upon this large crow perched on a post above the beach. It was the perfect shot and it just sat there, giving me lots of time to compose the shot. When I got home and began to process the image I was astounded by the amount of detail that emerged from the black plumage and the way the light played on its wings. It made me even more aware of my photographic process, whereby I will often photograph things that I find interesting bu, at the time, am not fully aware of why they strike me that way. THis is a great example of that. What at first appears as a plain black bird is filled with beautiful textures and light catches. I spend longer than I expected processing the image, simply enjoying the process and the structures that emerged as I spent more time with the image.

It may not appeal to everybody, but it has become one of my favourites, a photo I will return to time and again, to simply observe.

The title of the image, simply came to me without much though, as well as the quote I associated with it. There is a deeper significance to me as well.

Back in January, I awoke one morning with vision problems in my right eye. I did not think much of it at the time but as the week continued, it did not improve and I went to my eye doctor to see what was going on. It turns out that I had Non-Arteritic Ischemic Optical Neuropathy (NAION for short). Basically an eye-stroke that caused permanent partial blindness in my right eye. The cause remains unknown and I don’t have any of the typical conditions that cause it. Needless to say, as a photographer this was of great concern till I realized that I use my left eye when photographing and my brain fills in the blanks pretty well when I’m just looking at things, working, or editing photos.

What it also did was rekindle the desire to take in as much of the visual world as possible and make me truly grateful for the vision that I do have.

So, the title quote has a bit more significance to me. There are details, indeed, beauty, in the darkness, we just need to keep looking for it.

Nikon D800
Tamron SP 70-200mm f/2.8 Di VC USD @ 200mm
1/250 sec, f/8, ISO 400