Ephemeral
Oregon · USA
The sun hides behind a thin layer of clouds but still musters enough strength to lend a gentle caress to the top of Fairy Falls, giving it a subtle rainbow veil that vanished into whence it came in the few short seconds it took to set up my next shot. I was hoping to do a second shorter exposure at a wider aperture to freeze the mild leaf movement in this one-second exposure at f/22, but by then the ethereal quality of light that suffused the scene had disappeared entirely. What you see here then is a single exposure with pretty minimal work done in post-pro, mainly just some sharpening to compensate for the extremely small aperture and resulting diffraction. I was fortunate that I didn't follow my usual custom of setting up a neutral density filter to allow for longer exposures at sharper (wider) apertures because then I'd have missed capturing the moment altogether. In our lives, innumerable moments of poignancy come and go. Take note of those things that give you pause, and find a safe place for them in the recesses of your memory and heart.
Life is forever ephemeral.
