This wasn’t just a sunset, this was art in motion.
“There are only two emotions: love and fear. All positive emotions come from love, all negative emotions from fear. From love flows happiness, contentment, peace, and joy. From fear comes anger, hate, anxiety and guilt. It’s true that there are only two primary emotions, love and fear. But it’s more accurate to say that there is only love or fear, for we cannot feel these two emotions together, at exactly the same time. They’re opposites. If we’re in fear, we are not in a place of love. When we’re in a place of love, we cannot be in a place of fear.”
-Elisabeth Kübler-Ross
This quote may seem out of place, but stick with me for a moment.
I arrived at the Natural Bridges trail in Samuel H Boardman about an hour and a half before sunset. The sky was completely covered in storm clouds, and the waves were punishing the coastline. I hadn’t even considered that a sunset might be possible. I had made the trip to document the storm waves.
After 30 minutes of doing my best to capture the power of the sea, a couple of god rays poked through the clouds. Thats when I first thought there might be a sunset. More importantly, thats when I started to notice mother nature was trying to teach me something.
Before the sun came out, I had a healthy dose of fear in me, and rightfully so. It had started to rain, the steep slope I was on was muddy, the wind was gusting occasionally, and the waves were crashing so hard that they sent foam flying up about 100 feet to where I was. Nothing about the conditions made me feel at ease. And I would describe the swells as scary.
As the slightest bit of sun started to emerge, things began to change. Just a little bit of light can change the scene dramatically. I started to notice some beauty in front of me.
What happened next really spoke to me. I looked on as the intensity of the waves dramatically increased. It was as if they were trying their damndest to instill fear and maintain control of my image. The sun was having none of it because it began to match the intensity of the waves with some of the most amazing light I’ve ever seen. The golden glow swept over the entire scene, and in an instant, all of the fear was gone.
The waves that should have been menacing were suddenly transformed into beautiful works of art. The light danced on them as the approached the coast, and then illuminated them as they crashed 50 feet into the air.
I had to stop shooting for several minutes to bask in the light and make sure I didn’t miss out on the experience. I can’t even begin to describe the calm that I felt in the storm.
When opposites like light (love) and dark (fear) meet, the light always wins. I feel like, given the current state of the planet, and my personal life, this was an important reminder. Even when we think we’re stuck in a nasty storm, the light is nearby, just waiting to burst through.