And sparks fly into the night sky.
This is a 2 second shot aimed just above a fast burning beach fire at one of my favorite spots along the Kohala Coast. This secret place is good for beach fires, star gazing, and proposing to future wives, but that’s all irrelevant to the image.
That the foot which kicked the fire belonged to doctor of planetary science is also probably irrelevant. However, the unique perspectives of someone who at one time made a career of studying reflected light not even visible to the naked eye has certainly been relevant to my own perspectives. And I would say they have shaped they way I look at light, and photography, in general. There is a certain type of mindshift necessary to visualize and capture a thing that can’t readily be seen. Lines from rising embers of a campfire on the beach. Star trails across a night sky. A distant black hole. We know they’re there, but how do we show it?
This particular astrophysicist and I have shared many a campfire, and countless night skies. As I look through my decades old photo library I’m realizing that it is people like him and moments like those that have inspired me the most through my life and in my photography.