Celestial Pond

Truckee River, Glenshire, California

Fishermen: Barry and Eddie Thies

Camera: Nikon F5

What makes it special: We have all experienced it.

The story:  "Knowing the feeling of total immersion in a rare moment, its time magnified by dramatically shifting wavelengths of magical light, connects us intuitively in a timeless gateway to the divine.

One moment you are out there, enjoying the view, breathing deeply, relishing what alive feels like and then something happens. The sun peaks out from behind a cloud, lightning strikes, torrential rain falls, and rays bounce off the side of a steep granite face...Voila!

Mother Nature equipped herself to light her world amazingly. The marvel of refracting, reflecting light filtered through an endless array of natural filters utterly captivates me. So often I am out there immersed, happy and absorbed in my mission, only to sense that there is something unexpected, unpredictable happening with the light around me. The first response is usually a full stop in awe. Then I become absorbed in quantifying why it feels so special. Inevitably, I shift from just feeling the light to trying to define what just changed, what shift caused it to feel the way it is now. Sometimes it's obvious; other times it's not.

Whether it's the result of the last golden rays bouncing off a steep burnt grassy wall, amplified by reflective waters, or a double refraction of light to water to cloud, back to land that creates the brilliance, it doesn't seem to matter. The qualities and combinations of refractions of light waves and their effect on our world seem endless.

I have always loved the way light bounces off water. Something so simple has many iterations. The form of the water, its movement, and how the light hits it create an array of emotional responses. The same water, from the same perspective at a different moment in time is often not even relevant.

After repeatedly splashing and scaring the fish while trying to stay too close to the two fishermen, I got out of the river, climbed up the bank and moved a long way downstream. As the light lowered, the golden rays bounced off the sun-bleached hillside. With a long lens I focused on the reflected light, isolating the two fishermen in their celestial pond. I clicked away to the rhythm of their arcing lines, lit ethereally by Mother Nature."