Part of why I love journalism is getting to learn things and see things that other people don't.
Since moving to Texas I've learned several things: Barbecue is not just a sauce, people here think I sound funny and you have to watch out where you step because fire ants SUCK!
I also learned that water can glow.
After seeing it I remembered Tom Hanks talking about glowing algae in Apollo 13, but I still kept thinking "this can't be real."
It would be a huge news story if it were from any of the chemical plants down here, but it is just bioluminescent algae.
One of the reporters had an article about it, but it ran before I got my pictures. I got to the beach pretty late, so I guess it had dulled down some, but it was amazing looking.
The fog kind of made it harder to shoot, but I tried.
A guy that was on the jetty fishing said that earlier in the night it was really bright. Makes me bummed it missed it a little.
I went back the next two nights to see if it would come back, but it was gone. With hindsight I realize I could have spent more time there, I was tired and hungry...sure, but if I had known it was the last time I might see something like that I could have sat there all night.
In the haze lit sick orange by plant towers in the distance, I was just sitting there, hearing the sounds of invisible black waves coming in from the wide, wide gulf. I would then see this pale blue eruption of light burst into existence as the wave crested and churned the algae into a dance that made them visible.
Seeing it was probably one of the more breathtaking sights I've ever witnessed.
I know I'm a photo guy, but cameras truly and absolutely do not do some things justice. If it wouldn't have been foggy, maybe I could have captured a closer comparison to what I saw, but that's not the point. I often see people looking at the world through their cameras, phones or whatever. That's not the way you do it!
You have to see the world, then you document it.
I want to just yank it out of their hands and tell them;
"Just look! Soak it all in, because your camera phone is not doing justice to the amazing thing you are seeing. Look at the world with your eyes, capture it with your memory.
Some things are too rare and fleeting for cameras to truly represent, only the unfiltered eye can appreciate the depth and width of the world we have that can be so pure and surprising.
Your pictures should remind you of what you actually saw, not just be a product of what you pointed a camera at and pushed a button.
Make a true and beautiful mental image of these scenes; your kids, a game, the beach, your true life.
Because if you use a tiny lens to truly see and remember your life when drop that phone in the toilet you are really going to be pissed."
Since moving to Texas I've learned several things: Barbecue is not just a sauce, people here think I sound funny and you have to watch out where you step because fire ants SUCK!
I also learned that water can glow.
After seeing it I remembered Tom Hanks talking about glowing algae in Apollo 13, but I still kept thinking "this can't be real."
It would be a huge news story if it were from any of the chemical plants down here, but it is just bioluminescent algae.
One of the reporters had an article about it, but it ran before I got my pictures. I got to the beach pretty late, so I guess it had dulled down some, but it was amazing looking.
The fog kind of made it harder to shoot, but I tried.
A guy that was on the jetty fishing said that earlier in the night it was really bright. Makes me bummed it missed it a little.
I went back the next two nights to see if it would come back, but it was gone. With hindsight I realize I could have spent more time there, I was tired and hungry...sure, but if I had known it was the last time I might see something like that I could have sat there all night.
In the haze lit sick orange by plant towers in the distance, I was just sitting there, hearing the sounds of invisible black waves coming in from the wide, wide gulf. I would then see this pale blue eruption of light burst into existence as the wave crested and churned the algae into a dance that made them visible.
Seeing it was probably one of the more breathtaking sights I've ever witnessed.
I know I'm a photo guy, but cameras truly and absolutely do not do some things justice. If it wouldn't have been foggy, maybe I could have captured a closer comparison to what I saw, but that's not the point. I often see people looking at the world through their cameras, phones or whatever. That's not the way you do it!
You have to see the world, then you document it.
I want to just yank it out of their hands and tell them;
"Just look! Soak it all in, because your camera phone is not doing justice to the amazing thing you are seeing. Look at the world with your eyes, capture it with your memory.
Some things are too rare and fleeting for cameras to truly represent, only the unfiltered eye can appreciate the depth and width of the world we have that can be so pure and surprising.
Your pictures should remind you of what you actually saw, not just be a product of what you pointed a camera at and pushed a button.
Make a true and beautiful mental image of these scenes; your kids, a game, the beach, your true life.
Because if you use a tiny lens to truly see and remember your life when drop that phone in the toilet you are really going to be pissed."
5 comments:
Great to have you back blogging! Dan
I'm trying. Thanks for reading. :D
We're definitely out here reading.... Just keep on writing. Between your photography and your words, you know which I fell in love with first....
Very well done, as always your pictures make it like being there,, I am very proud,, Dad
Jada, thanks for the encouragement you are known for.
Dad, thanks for the homesickness. :D
Post a Comment