Chasing Light
“Portraits of Nature” didn’t turn out to be portraits of nature.
It went a different direction.
And honestly—it might’ve been my best week yet.
Something shifted.
I started to see differently.
Not just better… but deeper.
Here are some of the images from last week’s experiment.
For the first time in a long time, I feel like I made real progress.
Up to this point, most of my growth has been subject-based.
Finding stronger compositions.
Seeing anchor points.
Learning how to guide the viewer’s eye.
And it’s worked.
In some ways, I feel further along now than I was ten years ago.
But this week, I want to add a new dimension.
Light.
And just as importantly… the absence of it.
Photography is all about light.
But not in the way I’ve been using it.
Up until now, light has mostly been something that reveals the subject.
This week, I want it to be the subject.
I want to treat light—and shadow—as characters.
Not just supporting elements… but something that carries the image.
I was out walking today, looking for light.
Not subjects.
Not compositions.
Just light.
I saw a guy walking through the preserve and waited until he stepped into a patch of it.
That was the moment.
Later, I found him down by the river—the same spot I had been a few days earlier.
Water rushing through a narrow channel, creating this small, powerful waterfall.
I had spent 30 minutes there before, trying to photograph it.
Couldn’t quite make it work.
But the sound…
It pulls you in.
As I walked by, I said hello.
He looked at the water and said two words:
“Nature’s music.”
That stuck with me.
If that sound is nature’s music…
Then light and shadow might be its poetry.
Light is the voice.
Shadow is the pause.
Together—they shape the story.
What’s interesting is most people already feel this.
They just don’t think about it.
Soft light creates one mood.
Harsh light creates another.
Add shadow—and suddenly there’s tension, depth, emotion.
It’s subtle. Almost subconscious.
But it’s there.
This week, I want to bring that to the surface.
To stop letting light sit in the background…
And start letting it lead.
Let it highlight what matters.
Let shadow strip everything else away.
The challenge is—I don’t fully know how yet.
Especially in landscapes.
Most of what I’ve seen about using light this way leans heavily into street photography.
And I might explore some of that.
But I love landscapes.
I want to find a way to bring this approach into the natural world.
To use light not just to illuminate a scene…
But to build one.
So that’s the experiment.
This week, I’m chasing light.
And its nemesis—shadow.
Letting them drive the image.
Letting them tell the story.
I don’t know exactly what that will look like yet.
But I’m going to find out.
Or at least…
Start to.
P.S. I’ve been carrying the Sony everywhere—and I’m having a blast with it.