We’d been staying at a spacious AirBnb in Sedona, Arizona one December when a rare snowstorm arrived, enveloping the area. But photographers know that combination of sunlight and dark, threatening skies are custom-built for dynamic, engaging photographs. So when the clouds and fog began to part late in the afternoon as the sun was low in the sky, it cast this delicious light onto the red rocks, freshly dusted with snow, viewable from our living room’s giant picture window. We were gobsmacked. And then grabbed a camera and ran outside to shoot before the light disappeared.
Sometimes when you get interesting light, it can last only a few seconds. We were lucky here, and the sun didn’t hide behind another cloud again for another 15 minutes, giving us plenty of time to play and experiment. Maybe in an ideal world, we’d shoot from an even higher elevation (the ridge line on the perimeter of the nearby airport might’ve been even better) to compose these shots, but we’d have lost what precious light we had at the moment, chasing what might have never been.
Perhaps that’s the takeaway here. Since everything’s changing all the time, we’re better off at the very least appreciating what we have right here, in front of us. Maybe the next moment will feel better, maybe it won’t. But the simple act of gratitude right now stamps an indelible print on our memory, and sets us up down the road for appreciating more moments as they come.
