The Lesson of Landscape

Burnham-on-Sea, February 2010

Photography has taught me that the same moment never happens twice. This may be self evident to most people, but it was in attempting to photograph the landscape that I understood it at an intuitive level.

You may think that the scene that you're photographing is pretty prosaic and that, if you don't get the shot this time, you can return and take it again.

Wrong.

The photograph above works because of the way the clouds mirror the curve of the beach. That won't happen again, and if it does, I won't be there to see it.

The name of this blog is a corruption of the saying that "you can't step into the same river twice". You can't capture the same light twice.

I find this thought comforting when I'm following my usual routine and one day feels much like another.