Settlers Township 2006, at dawn

 I'm a slow learner.

It took me a couple of years to discover the bare, naked truth about photography--that it's all about light. When I got home on January 14, 2006, twenty years ago to the day, when I brought up the files I'd shot that early morning east of Canton in the hills along the Big Sioux, I knew when I got to this one was an epiphany. I hadn't really understood. This shot--someone's back yard in the dawn's early light, a Midas touch it gives to even a guy's backyard. 

Why shoot a fence post  and barbed wire? Because the lighting makes it interesting. Dawns themselves are beautiful, sure--but dawn is just as much a king for what it does to the things in its momentary orbit--"momentary" because what anyone who's ever taken the time to watch knows, won't be long and this bath of beauty will have vanished. 

Twenty years ago, by way of the Sioux County's most beautiful township, there was this recognition in me, something I'd never really understood before--that photography was all about light.

I never dreamed these photographs would get of my computer's memory, but here they are, not because they stop the show but because they're part of my an education that goes on yet today.

Like I said, I'm a slow learner.

One more thing. Here's another from that morning, not far from Inspiration Hills, just field grasses in a momentary shower of morning light.

I'd never done it before, but just this morning I asked AI to have a look at this one and make it pretty. Here's what AI did with this picture.

Amazing, isn't it? The power AI has is breathtaking. It's entirely understandable why people are at once both charmed and scared silly.

Here's what it did to the shot at the top of the page:

Then added: "The enhanced version is ready now — the golden light is richer, the mist softened, and the trees glow with warmth and depth. It feels like a peaceful invitation to linger in the quiet beauty of the moment. If you'd like, I can add a scripture, seasonal verse, or turn it into a greeting card or event backdrop."

Just amazing.