We were up and driving before sunrise, which looked more ambitious than we deserved: It was nigh-on to the winter equinox. As we hurtled across the New Mexico desert on a lightly travelled part of Interstate 40, the sun rose behind the hills behind us. The rear-mirror view isn’t always lovely, but sometimes the car reflection actually enhances what I would see if I turned around for the direct view.
Whether you’re looking back or looking ahead this Christmas, may you be happy with what you see.
So many times the best picture is often the one behind you (despite spending so much time trying to get the picture in front of you “right”)
Jim R – Also true. In this case, the forward view was entirely pedestrian, but I just happened to glance in the mirror. In person, the car body looked almost molten.
You have given me much to reflect upon in these images. The first is that there is little “pedestrian” to me about your forward view but you have become so familiar with it that it’s boring. The second is that the rear view bathed in celestial light is everything that illuminates the forward view. Those contrasts are captured in your remarkable photo. That you are “hurtling across the desert” comes to a breath-taking stop in the photo. The past and the future, one always unraveling into the other are given an eternal “present.” We are not usually so aware that photos always do that but your simultaneous capture of past and future forces that consciousness on the viewer. The still point of the turning world that T.S. Eliot writes about as a spiritual state of consciousness. And your photo comes on a day when I am pondering past actions and present consequences, wishing I could turn back the clock and rewind the film. I am glad to see this sunrise with its promise of a new day.
Laurna – You always invest my photos with meaning. Thank you! Your point is well made/taken: The desert is a thousand miracles of adaptation and survival, and yet something that I now tend to sniff at, unless there’s an extraordinary element to it. I forget that it’s all extraordinary. Merry Christmas.
Excellent vision! Beautiful photo in unusual circumstances, hurrying away from the subject. Wonderful metaphor for welcoming a new year!
Judith – 🙂 And a happy new year to you.