Silhouette of a lone tree on the horizon at dusk beneath a vast greenish-golden sky, with a bright airplane contrail cutting diagonally across the upper right corner.

Hidden in the Light

When I took this photograph, I didn’t even see the plane. The sky was simply too bright.

Later, while editing the image, I decided to darken it. I wanted to give the scene a moodier atmosphere and bring out the silhouette of the tree.

And suddenly, there it was—a plane crossing the sky, leaving a long trail behind it. Something that had been there all along, completely hidden by the bright sky.

Definitely not what I expected to find while editing this photograph.

Tall mountain with a cascading waterfall surrounded by dense green forest.

After the Rain

There had been a huge amount of rain, and afterwards the forest felt almost magical.

Water was running down the mountainside, finding its way over the rocks and through the trees. And then this waterfall appeared a long white line winding its way through the dark green forest.

I had never seen the landscape quite like this before. The rain had completely transformed it.

Morning sunlight shining through a landscape, illuminating wild plants in the foreground with warm golden light, while trees and a building appear softly blurred in the background.

Morning Light

The sun had just risen, casting its warm light across the landscape.

I loved the way it found its way through the scene, catching the edges of the plants in front of me and making them glow while everything behind them slowly disappeared into the morning light.

For me, it was one of those mornings where the light itself became the subject of the photograph..

Thousands of starlings leaving a reed bed together in the early morning, filling the sky with dark silhouettes against golden sunrise light and mist.

Morning Departure

Thousands of starlings had spent the night hidden in the reeds.

Then, in the early morning light, they began to leave. Not one by one, but together—thousands of tiny silhouettes suddenly filling the sky above the reed beds.

For a few moments, the quiet morning landscape was completely taken over by them.

Golden sunrise photographed through dark, out-of-focus reeds, with the sun low above the horizon and layers of orange and grey clouds across the sky.

Through the Reeds

The sun was rising behind the landscape, turning the sky into shades of gold and orange.

Instead of looking for an unobstructed view, I photographed the scene through the reeds. I like how their dark, blurred shapes break up the bright sky and make it feel as if you’re standing right there, looking through them with me.