Into the sun

On the day that this blog should receive a visit from its 100,000th guest, I thought that I would re-post the single most-viewed photograph I have taken to date. I posted it to the internet on July 1 of last year, both here and on Flickr. Since then, it has received nearly 14,000 combined views, 350 comments, been bookmarked 380 times and has appeared on 54 assorted blogs and Web pages, illustrating everything from save-the-planet-from-us admonitions to self-help enlightenment to graphic design color palettes.

And it's a scene that I (almost literally) stumbled upon by accident. I was photographing at a local gravel quarry turned wildlife sanctuary on a foggy morning. I followed a path into a wooded area hoping to find something interesting to photograph there. About halfway through, I decided there was not much to see and rather than continue into the next clearing, turned around and headed back from where I came. This scene greeted me as I neared the clearing. I took two exposures, one for the foreground and one for the trees and sun, then blended them together in Photoshop.

About the stumbling part - just past the opening is a steep embankment. While negotiating the slope after having taken my shots, I lost my footing and tumbled down about 12 feet of gravel and rocks, losing hold of my camera in the process. I wound up relatively unscathed (I narrowly missed sliding over some broken glass left by some previous party), but the camera took a severe beating, receiving some dents and losing both the lens cap and part of the lens' outside covering, revealing the metal brace inside that held the front lens element in place. It was like looking at the skeleton of the lens through a gaping wound. Amazingly, there were no scratches on the glass itself and the film door (you remember cameras that take film don't you?) stayed closed - I've had the door pop open on a far lesser jolt to the camera, losing a roll of photos in the process.

The lens remained functional, and even served later that year to photograph my second and third most-viewed photos before being semi-retired along with the film camera when I made the switch to digital.

Be sure to take a peek at the Sitemeter counter at the bottom of the right hand sidebar. If you're visitor number 100K, let me know with a comment, would you? I have a gift for you. If visitor 100K does not come forward, I'll go up the list until I identify someone.

Photo: No EXIF data available - it was shot on film and I don't remember any of the settings for this shot. Click on picture to enlarge. Photograph © 2007 James Jordan.