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Monday, September 12, 2016

To the Light



I have never been to France, but I have pictures of Provence in my mind, a gentle, amber light, lavender fields stretching to the horizon, stone farm houses overlooking tidy vineyards, all of it beneath a cloud-flocked sky.  I imagine Provence as a place landscape artists do their best work and perhaps it’s all cliché, but that’s what came to my mind as I left work Friday. We’ve had a cloudy stretch lately, long enough that even though the day dawned sunny and humid, I could distinguish a difference in the light.  It still feels like summer, but the sun has softened, become less intense now that we approach mid-September.  As I drove through my small town toward an afternoon of editing at a table in the library, the subtle tint made me think of farmers in straw hats threshing by hand, a stone jug of water fresh from a well, a wooden wheelbarrow filled with just-picked blossoms. I am no geographer, but I wonder if perhaps due to its location, the light in the South of France is similar all year to what we get here, in September?  

Saturday morning though, when we were both wide awake at 5:30 and my husband and I took a ride to the ocean with our cameras, subtlety wasn't a part of the program.  Sunrise came at 6:18 and while the forecast called for clouds, sometimes stunning images evolve when the sun has something to paint on its way up.   In about fifteen minutes I took over fifty photos.  Soft light, bright light, it didn't matter, just a heck of a lot of beautiful.  



8 comments:

Alex J. Cavanaugh said...

And they are beautiful.
Isn't it nice to be able to take so many? Couldn't do that twenty years ago with a film camera.

Madeline Mora-Summonte said...

Just lovely! Thanks for sharing. :)

Hilary Melton-Butcher said...

Hi Liza - wonderful sunrise photos ... they are gorgeous. Lavender in England isn't bad either! Cheers Hilary

Connie said...

Absolutely gorgeous! I love sunrises.

Pixel Peeper said...

I do miss the autumns up north - you are right, there is something about the light that is just so fleeting and special.

Your sunrise photos are awesome; the middle one is like layers of liquid gold.

Karen Jones Gowen said...

I can never get enough of sunrise or sunset photos. These are lovely.

Joanne said...

I think my blood pressure lowered just looking at those pics. So serene. Thanks for sharing. You have an excellent eye.......wow

Susan Flett Swiderski said...

Wow. Your photos are gorgeous. Sunrise over the water... it doesn't get much better than that.

Your prose is pretty darned beautiful, too.