touching the magic
january 21, 2006
barefoot beach, florida

"a kind of golden hour one remembers for a life time... everything was touched with magic."
     --margaret bourke white

some say that all really great accomplishments in a lifetime have a common recipe: a pound of patience, a dollop of perservence and a heap of faith. i would add to that a large helping of support from those who love you. nothing is ever born of singular effort.

thus it was with my january 20 one-woman photography exhibit. it simply would not have happened without the willing and loving hands of several dear friends. some of them traveled thousands of miles from the pacific coast to the gulf coast; others simply held out their hands from mere miles away and offered time, support and items i simply did not have myself.

and after many thwarted attempts, much stress, more sleepless, endless days nights than i care to recall, illnesses and a trail littered with broken printers, frames and glass, it finally happened. we were all still setting up at the final hour, but it really did happen. it was lovely and it was exactly as i envisioned. and best of all, it was a success in every way.

and what a show it was! crowds attended. a profit was made. and i was surrounded by all the praise and encouragement one ego should ever be infused with.

i drove home overwhelmed by the outpouring of support and kindness. i drove home exhausted by effort and so many lessons learned. i drove home knowing, as margaret bourke white wrote in the opening quote, that for a few golden hours, everthing was touched with magic.

nikon d100, nikkor 80-400 vr @ 135mm, 1/800, f/9

mt. augustine
alaska

this image was taken in the late 1970's when i lived high on diamond ridge in homer, alaska, back in the days of film and manual-focus cameras. the view out my window across cook inlet changed by the minute and gave wonderful photo opportunities of augustine, mt. redoubt, mt. spurr, mt. iliamna and the alaska peninsula.

augustine is an active volcano, erupting twice during my tenure in alaska. today, january 11, 2006, marked yet another eruption at approximately 5:30 am after a period of increased activity.

augustine is regarded as the most active volcano in the eastern aleutian arc. its biggest historical eruption occurred in 1883 when the volcano’s dome collapsed. dome growth since that time has restored the volcano’s height to what it was prior to 1883. the volcano last erupted in 1986, producing an avalanche of ash, rock fragments, and gas.

augustine’s activity reaches much further back in time than historical records cover. its oldest dated volcanic rocks are more than 40,000 years old.

in my own timeline, i have memories of camping on the kenai peninsula during the 1976 eruption. the few inches of ash on the ground lay like dry dirty snow. one of life's adventures, to be sure.

augustine is actually an uninhabited island. its conical shape is a landmark on the horizon for residents of the tip of the kenai peninsula. for exceptional current photographs as well as a web cam, you can visit the alaska volcanic observatory web site.