man & nature # 259-61 ~ golden-amber light, Adirondack style

Indian Summer day ~ along Lake Champlain, NY • click to embiggen
Indian Summer day # 2 ~ along Lake Champlain, NY • click to embiggen
Indian Summer day # 3 ~ along Lake Champlain, NY • click to embiggenWeather-wise, we're bouncing around all over the place - yesterday was a high of 73˚F. Friday, on the other hand, was a high of 34˚ with light snow.

As mentioned most recently in civilized ku # 256-259, I do not "chase the light" nor am I a "light stalker". However, it does seem that at times "the light" does chase me. When it does so, I will make pictures with "the light". Some might think that I would not do so because, disliking the work of "light stalkers / chasers" as I do, I would refuse to picture with "the light" based on the tenets of the Photographic Purity Act or some such nonsense.

As far as I am concerned, re: "the light", light is light. Or, as Brooks Jensen states:

There is no good or bad light. There is just light.

Now, to be fair, some of you who are paying attention might be inclined to remind me that in a recent entry - still life # 10 ~ making the light - I touted my ability of being the guy, back in my commercial photography heyday, who was the " go-to guy when a subject needed to be bathed in a 'perfect' light." A statement, which on the face of it, might seem to be a contradiction to my belief regarding Jensen's statement about light.

Well, I'm here to tell ya that that is simply ain't true. Ya see, if one's intent is to make a "picture with a message" (or a series of pictures, or even an entire body of work), there are times when "the light" might be very important to the "message".

Like, say, if one were intent on making a picture that illustrates the idea that you can fry an egg on the sidewalk in sunny Florida, the light that one encounters on a cool overcast grey day would not really get it done. Quite obviously, the light encountered on a sunny day at high noon would be much more suitable - one could even say, "perfect" - to getting one's point across.

That said, for me in my quest to picture the everyday / commonplace world that I see all around me, there is no perfect light, there is just light.