The Glory Hour

My husband had headed out into the woods on a backpacking trip without me, leaving me to spend the evening with my young and handsome companion, dear Dexter. I got the idea in my head that instead of heading straight home after work, I wanted to go someplace I hadn't been in a while and see some things I hadn't seen.

There is a pretty little wetland in Spring Mills called Muddy Paws Wetland that I hadn't been to in several  years, and so that's where I decided to go. It has a beautiful wooden boardwalk, and no matter the time of day, the sun casts cool shadows on it.

I saw a few birds, but nothing unusual. There were some small red dragonflies playing along the boardwalk and I snapped a shot of one which you may view in the extras. If you look at the left wings, they appear to be double. That's because you're seeing the wings AND the wing-shadows.

On my way to the wetland, I caught a glimpse of glorious golden foliage in the little town of Spring Mills. I'm not sure I've ever really driven through there, so I decided this would be the time. You could say the trees made me do it!

And so it was that I pulled into the parking lot of the local fire hall. And from there, I had a great view of a small Methodist church and some lovely trees along the stream. So I got all happy-paws, clicking this way and that with the camera. The photo above represents my best effort. I think you can see why I stopped to see the show!

I think that all of us who are photographers have heard of the magic that can be had during the golden hours. The first golden hour of the day is the hour just after sunrise. The second golden hour is the hour just before sunset.

If you use the light of either of these hours (in addition to any camera magic you would usually apply), you can achieve levels of brightness and brilliance and saturation in your photos that are not available at any other time of day. The golden trees light up like lamps, in the glory hour. Yes, and let's give it a great big Hallelujah from this Methodist girl!  :-)

Here's a soundtrack for this lovely little church and its golden tree-lamps lit by the heavenly rays of the glory hour: the Wailin' Jennys, with Glory Bound.