Kentucky Morning
Too much time filtered away since I last witnessed a morning like this one. A photographer longs for moments like the one that rose above the Kentucky landscape on that day. I suppose I needed to witness that exhibition of light as much as I’ve needed anything in recent years. Hunting, fishing, and canoeing, historically important elements in my life were fundamentally nonexistent in 2007, save for a rare outing or two. Although I managed from time to time to break out of my doldrums and with camera in hand take a shot or two here and there, nothing much of consequence resulted. What I needed was that one special display…that one defining moment where time, place, and light converge to create that one extraordinary moment of radiance…an instant in time that would once again lift my spirits. On a mid October dawn, the rustic, natural beauty that is Kentucky finally displayed her self in front of my lens, and for a brief, magnificent moment, I was granted the opportunity to witness part of creations most wonderful choreography. 
Too much time filtered away since I last witnessed a morning like this one. A photographer longs for moments like the one that rose above the Kentucky landscape on that day. I suppose I needed to witness that 
County not far from my home looking for a potential photo opportunity, I turned down a narrow, crumbling road that eventually came to a dead end at the top of a rise. I stopped and meandered along the road a ways simply enjoying the scene and breathing in the country air. Falling away from the road to the south lay a beautiful farm with a cornfield growing near the bottom separated from the rest of the land by a split of trees and a series of rolling pastures where cattle bellowed and song birds flittered hear and there. Beyond the cornfield stood a wooded strip backed by a tall wooded ridge. Between the ridge and the line of woods ran Barren River. There was something here that spoke to me, bidding a return visit. I took a few shots for reference and made a mental note to return early on another morning when the fall colors were beginning to turn. 
A month passed, fall was stirring and the colors of the season were just beginning to adorn the hills. I rose well before daylight that Saturday and arrived at the top of the rise a few minutes before sun up. The sky was already aglow and the sounds of country living were adding their music to the morning. A light fog drifted across the valley and hovered lightly above the partially harvested cornfield. The morning progressed rapidly toward daylight, and I struggled to keep up, shooting photos in rapid succession needing to be in three places at once. I rushed further up the rise and noticed how the first beams of the morning sun were just touching the tops of some trees along the point of woods that separated the two fields. I setup my tripod and framed the image…then waited…for that defining moment I knew was to come. The muffled colors of the predawn light began to materialize out of the shadows when, in the still of the morning, the point of trees burst into flaming color when that first beam of light broke through the top of the distant hills casting a radiance that highlighted the early fall adornment. I almost missed the moment as it lasted but a few seconds, but I knew when I released the shutter, one of natures most cherished gifts; a new dawn…a new Kentucky Morning…was mine.
