In the Beginning
Pudding Beach - Ft. Bragg, Ca
I wanted to try long exposure. I wanted to create a painting with my camera like the masters of old. Like my Dad. So we headed to Pudding Beach at Sunset. Waves drenching me; dew getting in my camera, sand blowing and spotting the image. Me, forgetting once again, as I had multiple times before while shooting, that my child was with me. What I didn't expect to happen, what I wasn't prepared for, was this explosion of light. I didn't see it with my bare eyes. The horizon lit up and in the very next frame of the camera, it was not there. Looking in the back of the camera at the unedited image, it gave me goosebumps, head to toe chills. I felt I had just captured an idea of creation in that split second. I looked before and I looked at multiple images afterward but it was not there. The exposures were the same, the angles were the same, but only once, in the blink of an eye, did the light flare and a cross appear. These serendipitous, excruciatingly beautiful moments in time, happened over and over again, as I learned to stay present and be in the moment. It was here that I learned to exist in the camera, through the lens and engage with the image. For me this is one of my absolute favorite images and captures the entirety of the trip for me.
"The heavens declare the glory of God and the sky proclaims the work of His hands." Psalm 19:1
