Three images from my summer 2022 trip to New York. All of them represent something that I did not have or experience growing up in Southern California: a unique way of light falling filtered. What I found in the Hudson River Valley of New York this summer was different than the harsh, desert light of San Gabriel Valley, was different than the bold, brash beams of Los Angeles. For one, I grew up where trees were planted and watered or they didn’t exist. Southern California is a desert. So, not only is the sunlight harsh, but it is unmoderated by leaves of trees that interrupt its flow to the earth. However, in New York, I was lucky enough to stay at a farmhouse of my wife’s friend, Faye, a farmhouse that had been built in 1869 by Faye’s grandfather, and that property was shrouded in trees and was backed up against a forest. These trees filtered the light and I found the light in the forest and in the farmhouse, was soft and constantly changing. So much so that from one moment to another, the camera could sit motionless in the same position, with technically the same composition, and capture two different images.

The third image is a leaf along the Black Rock nature trail. The sheen and texture on the surface of the leaf is one part of what makes the image special, but the filtered light from the leaves of the forest above is the other part.

The Fuji X100V captured the special filtered light that came through the New York trees.