What of the Light?

One of the things I miss most about Alabama is its abundant hiking trails. There is no shortage of dense thickets of forests and low-lying mountains in Birmingham and for the nature enthusiasts that means beautiful trails with creeks, waterfalls, and rocks galore for climbing. So far in Dallas, we've enjoyed mainly urban trails (like Katy Trail) and our hiking mainly consists of climbing and descending 3 flights of stairs from our apartment building to walk around a man-made lake (which is beautiful in its own right but I'm not really comfortable categorizing it under the Great Outdoors). So this weekend, since we were on Mission: Dallas Exploration, we decided to look up some nature-y stuff to do here. We quickly found a name: Cedar Ridge Preserve. It's about 30 miles south of the city and we really didn't know what to expect. Well, it was no Appalachian trail... but it had many unique features which made it quite enjoyable. We were surprised (and saddened) to discover that this is the last piece of untouched wilderness in all of Dallas county (per the information board at the entrance of the trail... the board also warned of rattlesnakes, coral snakes and diamond backs. Great.).

The day was milky and cool, and the weak sunlight gave everything a bluish silvery quality, especially thickets of dead trees.

There is a question that I often think about when looking at light and how it plays on its subject, a question that Marie Antoinette, the narrator from the novel Abundance, asks again and again throughout the story as she paints different scenes, Is light more silvery or gold?

     Outside the carriage window, beyond the veil of dust rising from our wheels, the countryside is full of fields of green-growing grain. I too would like to stretch and feel green. In the fields, I see a million Marie Antoinette's spread around me, like loyal subjects basking and stretching in the golden sun. When we roll into the shadowy forest again, the dark green leaves reflect spots and glances of brightness as thought coated here and there with silver.
     Is light more silvery or gold?

I read this novel like 5 years ago but that line made such an impression on me that I think about it regularly! I think it's because as a photographer I'm a little obsessed with light. I started out with black and white film photography and with the absence of color, all emphasis was on light, the shapes it creates, the eloquence of shadows and its interplay with illumination. Now (sadly) I only do digital photography, but the added dimension of color gives light another role to play, that of creating an extra layer of mood. Case in point, look at the photos from our hike at Cedar Ridge on an overcast winter day, versus the ones from Aldridge Gardens on a golden autumn day. I feel shivery just looking at the former!

Silver Light

Golden Light

Here are a few others from Cedar Ridge Preserve. Enjoy!

I didn't realize how beautiful dead flowers could look over a backdrop of yellow decay.  

I think this is also a good opportunity to share some more photos from the Aldridge Gardens shoot from about 2 yrs ago... yeah it's that bad. They do provide a good contrast for these picture though, don't they? (Don't they? Or am I just grasping..?)