This is looking west over Narragansett Bay from Middletown or Portsmouth, Rhode Island in April 1988 just months before we moved to Texas. I was in the car with a couple of friends and we pulled over so I could get a shot of the light bursting through that hole in the clouds. We called it “God light” because it reminded us of the scene in Monty Python and the Holy Grail in which God commands Arthur to seek the grail.
I had just gotten my first real camera, a Pentax K1000, the previous Christmas and so I was learning the habit of carrying it nearly everywhere I went, searching for the photographic holy grail of being in the perfect place when the light hits just right. It would be years before I began to understand that the real wonder was not so much in the picture, but in the way that being open to finding those pictures helps me better see and know the world around me.
As with all the photos on the blog, click to enlarge and view it at a higher resolution.
James Brush is a teacher and writer who lives in Austin, TX. He tries to get outside as much as possible.
it takes about twenty years to figure it out — being open to the world around us.
(nice capture…)
Thanks, angie. I’m not sure it took quite that long, but it’s something I didn’t get at 17.
Those kind of sunbursts always remind me of Cecil B DeMille movies when God gives someone a dose of revelation! I love them almost more for their corniness…
I wonder if that’s what the Pythons were poking fun at.