Visual Experience – Illuminated by photons that travelled 149,597,904 kilometers, reflected into the visible spectrum of colors by the physical world, these become the images our mind perceive. The smallest variation in shape or material changes the wavelength to give us full spectrum of “nature’s palette”. Patrick Baty in her book of that title documented the range of color based on the German geologist Abraham Gottlob Werner “Nomenclature of Colours”. From minerals to plants and birds, basically all of nature’s colors are a way of enhancing the universe for our visual experience. Some light reaches us after travelling through time, making its way across millions of years to add sparkle to our skies. Other light is bounced to mirror the originating object on the still waters.

Arriving a little later than the rest of the kayakers, I was told to go photograph a totem pole – one created by nature. I searched for this, but it was not until I returned that I understood to look deeper, beyond the vertical view, to see the light and the perfect reflection it created, a symmetrical image that encapsulated the story of our trip. A reflection requiring reflection. Turning the image sideways, the totem appeared!

Colors among colors. The sky changing the mood of the water. A little wind, a boat wave, raindrops splitting the light into a prismatic display, a hole allowing for a sun spotlight on the landscape, all to create a dance of light. Even the darkness of the sky omitting the colors varies what we see. Sidney Lawrence, Claude Monet and other artists paint the same place over and over with different interpretations of the same scenery seeming shifting the view to create a visual experience – but only because the light changes the spectrum of hues we observe. Losing ourselves in the richness of the same place providing us an everchanging visual experience.