Just happened to be there

Click to enlarge

Ever experienced something remarkable, then marvelled at the fact that the encounter was entirely fortuitous. It happened to me this week, again, when I went on an early morning photo shoot with a friend. On the Leentjies Klip beach in the Wilderness, with the rising sun behind me, I had my camera set up but was by no means enamoured by the picture in the viewfinder.

It’s the kind of thing that frequently happens to photographers. You know there should be a decent shot for the taking, but it isn’t there. Usually, when this happens, you move away, pick a different angle, maybe come back another day or simply decide that there isn’t a picture to be had and never return. Not with your camera, at any rate.

With the sun not fully risen, the landscape was bathed in a dull, dusty mustard colour. Never say die, I pressed the shutter button several times. That’s the beauty of digital cameras. Take as many shots as you want and delete what you don’t like during the edit phase. It costs nothing. Then, something weird happened. For a moment, the scene was lit up by a bright, orange light – as if God, or someone, had flipped the switch on and then off in a matter of seconds. During this time, I took the picture you now see.

As I said , within seconds, the orange hue was gone, replaced once more by yellow, although no longer dull or dusty. I examined the image in my viewfinder. The change in colours rendered it bizarrely different from the scene now in front of me and I called my friend over to take a look.

I may never experience this phenomenon again. But it doesn’t matter. It happened and I was present – albeit for a one-off lucky click. On another occasion, I might not have pressed the button and regretted it forever.

Sometimes your powers of observation result in an unusual sighting or occurrence. Then again, sometimes you’re just lucky. Either way, suits me.

Oh, and the seagulls in the foreground. They weren't there. I added them - for luck.