One of the things I like about making landscape photographs is that it captures a single moment in time; in the case of this photo, it was specifically 1⁄125 of a second in time. How the landscape looks at any moment is unique, one of an infinite number of possibilities for that time and place as the light, shadows, wind, and other environmental factors shift continuously.
On the day I made this photo, the changes were occurring rapidly. The sun was obscured by clouds as my wife and I walked this trail; the clouds only parted enough for the sun to peek through and illuminate the trail ahead for about a minute. After clicking the shutter button, my thoughts were something like this. “It might rain — maybe I should put my camera in my pack. Nah, I can always put it away quickly if I need to. That’s thunder, it’s definitely going to rain. Are those raindrops I feel? It’s probably just going to be a light drizzle.”
Within a few minutes, it started raining heavily, and I scrambled to put my camera into a waterproof bag.
