This year, I chose to focus on landscape and still life photography, but from the aspect of studying light and color. I wanted to try shooting in color again after a long stretch of working primarily in black and white. The final curated set of 10 or so photographs taken over the course of 2021 will then be compiled into a photobook for the end of the year.

This task was harder than expected, mostly because light and shadow are so situational. I struggled because I had to break most of my normal habits when it comes to shooting. This was much less about the camera itself and more about getting myself to different locations, places I had never been before, at times that I didn't usually go. However, once I started getting into a groove with breaking the bounds of my previous routines, the process became easier and the results more crystallized.

I think this project was particularly effective in breaking much of the routine around my photography. That said, the resulting images can feel very rough and experimental which, while good for personal development, isn't ready for presentation. That said, the process did lead to several final pieces that have a dreamlike, ethereal quality to them that much of my previous work was lacking, and I find these to be highly successful. "Solace" is one of them. Usually light is used to highlight a specific subject, but here, the light is the subject. The trees and objects in the scene only accentuate the color gradient of the sunrise through the fog, pulling your eye horizontally across the image. The scene became a tool to give the light character of its own.