Several years ago on a late fall day I had one short hour to walk on the Lake Michigan beach near Holland, MI. The wind was howling, the waves were unruly. and the sand was blowing so hard as to irritate my eyes. I arrived just as the late afternoon sun broke through the clouds and washed the shoreline with rich, warm light.
After a few minutes the light became truly magical. I worked quickly knowing it would soon be gone—ten minutes later it was! The combination of the warm, horizontal light, the blowing sand—which lent a quality to both my seeing and the images almost like digital noise—and, of course, the amazing wind-blown patterns all had me reeling in wonder and smiling with joy.
I still consider the first image, in particular, one of the finest I’ve ever made in the 50 years I’ve been using a camera.
