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Robert Frost said, “a poem beings with a lump in the throat,” and stories are no different. Those lumps are moments. Stories need moments.  Tangible moments that communicate: fear, love, sadness, and above all else hope. These points in time are intriguing to me. Because of this, my friends say that I’m constantly chasing sunsets. You know the place where passion collides with life and everything thing else is muffled because you’re focused on the beauty of the moment.

It’s a saying I’ve adopted over the years to describe the times when life is at its zenith.  Where there is clarity.  A distinct snap shot which focuses our attention.  Grabs our hearts, and makes us think.  There is something that happens in the waining hours of the day which causes all of us to look toward the horizon – breathe – and reflect.Sunsets are life’s moments reminding us to focus for a second.

I found myself in one of those moments the other day, where I spent helping Trey Ratcliff of Stuck In Customs shoot a new tutorial around Austin and SWSW. We finished the shoot by the 360 Bridge at sunset; the day up to this point had been dreary… overcast… and dusty.   Then it happened.  Behind the thick blanket of clouds the sun forced it’s way to the surface as to make itself know before light was lost.  In those moments which were few we ran around like kids in a candy store trying to get the right angle before last light.  Photography makes the world right for me.  I found a way to say things with color and light that I couldn’t say otherwise, you know the things I have no words for.

Looking at the picture I took and my life there are alot of parallels to the twilight hours. The time between two segments of time–light and dark. A prearranged marker. A ceremony of significance. A rite of passage. For sailors they look to the horizon for guidance. For photographers it’s the only time of the day that has this soft warm hue. It’s a moment in time when for a few moments the sun illuminates buildings and landscapes with this red and orange tincture. The subtle warm tones make practically anything look good. The “golden hour” of our lives, is made up of the moments in life that reveal people at their best and worst. Entwined in those ordinary moments is the extraordinary.