The Romance of Twilight

Y’all, the spooky season is just about upon us.

Houses and public buildings look quite festive, and I’m here for it.

Also chillier weather at times, which I’m decidedly not here for. But that’s what I get for moving to New England.

And truth be told, I feel like for the most part it’s been eerily warm. It hit 70 something this afternoon. A record…

October has had its highlights and low points. I’m going to skip over the latter in this post. In the grand scheme of things, they don’t matter too much.

I got to travel quite a bit around New England early on in the month, and that’s a privilege that brings me joy.

I’ll be sharing something from those adventures. Hopefully next blog post in November.

I’m also going to “skip ahead” past a couple of outings.

This brings me to today’s composition, which I made back in the third week of September.

We haven’t been getting much rain here since that weekend.

In fact, the region is having trouble with brush fires on account of it being so dry.

That day, though, delicious rain bathed the area up until about 4 PM before stopping.

This created intriguing atmospherics all over the city, with patches of water pooling on the pavement that I wanted to take advantage of.

I scanned everywhere for what I was after: the soft glow of faux gas lights shimmering on the ground.

Finding an ideal spot was exceedingly difficult, even in the historic district very close to where I reside. Cars, powerlines, garbage cans, mail boxes, and numerous other distractions were typically present everywhere.

I also still didn’t have a 50mm lens that evening (spoiler alert: I do now!). I’m not sure that mattered in the end given the previous statement. But I nonetheless found myself wishing I had that in my kit.

In any event, I used my 85mm once I settled on a place after walking for maybe 1.5 miles or so. This allowed me to cut out much of what I thought would take away from the scene I was envisioning.

I adore what I was able to produce, and I excitedly shared the photo privately with some friends after I had completed post-processing on the best ones.

Many thanks to Heather, a good friend who has been a fierce supporter of my work over the last eight or nine years (!). She described the feeling the image evokes so eloquently when she told me, “you captured the romance of twilight.”

Hence the title of this blog post AND of the composition.

Heather is a talented artist herself, so her compliment means all the more to me.

Not gonna lie: I’ve become a little obsessed with the kind of dreamy reflections and warm highlights you see all the way through this one. Since that magical September evening, I’ve yearned for similar conditions each time I go out.

And I’ve had capturing that whimsical shimmer in the back of my mind in places where before I might not have stopped to look for it.

I got at least one on a beach in coastal New Hampshire one misty morning whilst driving and traipsing around the region.

Not sure if that one will be my next share. But it’s a strong possibility.

The peace of the ancestors be upon us all tomorrow as the veil thins and we harvest the bounty of our labor. Until next time.