© Jim Ryder

© Jim Ryder

© Jack Dykinga

<< previous: day four

It is what photographers call "magic hour." It is the brief period roughly forty-five minutes to an hour before sunset (also forty-five minutes to an hour before sunrise). I am interviewing Rich, the radiologist from Seattle. He is waiting for the light to hit perfectly on a shot he has composed. Dykinga joins us. We are perched on a large rock overhanging the river. Beth and I have decided to sleep here tonight.

Dykinga gives Rich photo tips. Deanne, one of the river guides, plays violin on the boat, as her fellow crewmembers snooze. Music echoes through the canyon.

As the light begins to change, Rich buries himself under his focus cloth. Dykinga talks on many subjects, but he never loses sight of the light. Intermittently he will say, "Look at that cliff. When those clouds shift, the light will be beautiful there." I am beginning to understand what it means to enjoy the "journey" of photography. It’s an excuse to really see life. I also have glimpsed at the difficulty in capturing these elusive moments:

"At this sunset hour the canyon walls are indescribably beautiful, and I fear the magic of photography can never record what I see now. The tall spires near the rim of the canyon and the walls of the canyon look as though God has reached out and swiped a brush of golden paint across them, gilding those rocks in the bright glow of a setting sun. Below the heights the canyon is filled with a blue haze that is not unlike smoke. The river winds lazy and brown through all of this beauty. Above this grandeur float soft cumulus clouds, tinted with pastel shades of evening. No, I fear the lenses of my cameras will never record what my eyes see and my hand so feebly tries to capture in words."

I stop worrying about photographing this scene. This image, this moment, will be implanted in my mind forever. I really saw today. I am beginning to understand.

continued: day five - elves chasm >>

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