Simple Magic

With all the clever and amazing tricks that can be done with digital photography these days, it is sometimes easy to not believe what is right before our eyes. We think "oh, that is nothing special" or "it's a trick."

That happens with me a lot...people think I'm trying to fool them with what I do... but I am just trying to explore the edges of various ways of "seeing"... and pushing those edges when I can.

I had been playing with a concept for over a year, trying to see if it was possible to create images of floating stones. Not the pumice stones that are floating in Lake Taupo in New Zealand (an astonishing sight to be sure!), but ordinary river stones, "floating" in the river which created them.

Last year I had two successes with my efforts... just two, but they have spurred me on to see if I can make more for this series. Here is my first success. I will admit that I have made some adjustments in Photoshop to bring out details in the water and to adjust the exposure. I also did remove a dead tree branch that was in the far background... it was a distraction... but other than those changes, this image is not a trick. If you had been there, standing beside me (in thigh deep cold mountain water, BTW) you too would have seen this just as you are seeing it now...only it was even more enchanting in person because the water was moving and the sun was glinting off the green-gold water.

It is not easy to float a stone... but I am thrilled to know it can be done... and will try to do some more this summer... if it will ever stop raining!