Keep It Simple - Life Lesson #8

Admittedly, I was a little discouraged from my pictures of the Dominican Republic up to this point.  It was the final day, and mother nature was not cooperating.  Seaweed had taken over the beach like a thick blanket—a random and unpredictable action by the sea to run its course.  So thick in fact, that swimming was not even really an option.

It was just our luck as this seaweed zombie takeover occurred only once every year or two—and it just happened to start right before our arrival. 

Despite the seaweed apocalypse...

 ...there’s something about the ocean that would continue to draw me to it each morning with the sunrise.  I’m especially fascinated with seascapes.  Each visit to the water led to the same result—deep sighs of frustration.  I knew there was no excuse to act this way--the environment still presented a myriad of captivating images and it was my job to gather them.  I just had to stay away from the water, but it was hard to resist.

So on this last morning, I went back to basics.  I remained near my base—the beautiful Paradisus.  After my early wake-up, I resisted the urge of the sea and avoided the lurking seaweed monsters.  I just waited to see what would happen.  I kept things simple.

I was framing a picture in my mind as I just stood waiting for the sun to rise. A dim light would soon mark the sun’s location and the clouds began to clear.  I stared at the sky forcefully, as if I could influence the canvas sky. 

I didn’t scramble around—I urged the scene I had envisioned to appear.  It slowly unfolded in front of me.  Before I knew it, I had moved less than 5 feet for 20 minutes straight, simply shooting one scene that seemed to work nicely as the sun slowly rose over the horizon.

Perhaps it is not a mistake that it is probably my favorite image created from Dominican Republic. 

It was because of mainly one reason--I kept things simple.