We photographers can become accustomed to the fleeting, allusive ways of good photographic light. “Now you see me, now you don’t” is the game the fickle Miss Light seems to want to play most of the time.
I sometimes feel that I’m blessed with a weird, reverse kind of luck, living as I do in the rainy, dark Pacific Northwest, where about eight months of the year the sky is overcast and the light doesn’t change a lot from morning till night. We’re only being a little sarcastic when photographer friends and I joke that an exposure of a 60th of a second at f 2.8 is a good bet here. Set the camera for that exposure and most days here you’re good to go.
The good news where I live is that no light is something that’s easier to plan for than fleeting light.
These past few weeks, though, the Summer Solstice has been good to those of us who live in the Northwest. Sweet, image-friendly evening light that goes on and on--feeling like it will last for hours and hours--has been served-up by Mother Nature. I sat near our barn and watched as our black-fleeced Shetland sheep, Smokey, was touched by that beautiful light. Another evening I photographed a horse in a nearby pasture, grazing in that same, amazing glow.
Come late fall and winter, we’ll be back to boring, same-old, same-old clouds and darkness. For now, I’m all about enjoying the pleasure of seeing the light.
