this photo

Sometimes I dream about this photo.

There's something about it that just grabs me and sucks me in. I'm instantly transported back to the moment I took it:

A cold, cold morning. I had just crawled out of the tent where I had been camping with my brother and a friend. I was stumbling to the non-heated bathhouse, not looking forward to my cold water face wash. The gravel on the asphalt road scuffing under my wobbly feet. The air full of the scent of trees and earth and Fall.

I was rubbing the sleepiness out of my eyes, when I looked up and saw this. The light streaming through the trees. The mountain in the background. The golden haze of the morning burning off.

I stopped dead in my tracks and stared. Suddenly, the previous long cold night in the tent was completely worth it. The cold water that was soon to come was no big deal. This sight in front of me was magical. Beautiful. Wonder-filled.

I turned around and ran back to the campsite to grab my camera. Didn't spare one moment because I was afraid the light would change by the time I returned. But when I got back to this spot, it was still there. Waiting for me. I pulled off the lens cap and snapped away, laughing out loud gleefully. I glanced at the viewfinder to make sure the exposure was right and gasped. The magic of the moment had trickled into my camera.

Photography is a magic hunt, that whispers to me. Sometimes I get to capture that magic. But I'm always on the lookout for more.