Riverwalk Reflections

Compulsion. It's not too strong a word in this case. Some days I simply feel compelled to shoot something. Anything. You never can tell what you might end up with when the simple, basic urge to create something strikes. 

So... it was a Friday evening after a long Monday to Friday grind and we decided to go somewhere that we usually might not for the sunset, and we ended up on Jacksonville's Southbank Riverwalk. The sun coming in from the west on the way down to the horizon, or MacClenny or Tallahassee or someplace. Too much sun, really. These days I prefer a little less light and a little more opportunity to open up the aperture or lengthen the exposure -- find the movement in the moment using a static medium.

Then we looked up. Then to the right. Then to the left, across to the north bank where there was live jazz drifting across from the landing. That big bright, sinking sun was reflecting off of the buildings, reflecting the buildings within the buildings, bouncing off of the river into a twentieth storey window on the southbank and sending it at the speed of light back across the river into the glass face of a tower over there. Even fully open at a thousandth of a second there was art to be found... A condominium tower reflected in the green glass of the Prudential Building...

Riverwalk Reflection I

The railroad bridge and the Acosta Bridge on-ramp reflected in the window of the Maritime Museum...

Riverwalk Reflection II

The Saint Johns River -- unquestionably the heart and soul of my creativity -- reflecting back the city that has grown up on its lowers banks...

Riverwalk Reflection III

I am drawn to this river, and the history and the living legacy it represents. Lured by its color and textures. Its exuberant energy dancing on a windy day. Its calm placid stillness on a spring dawn. Maybe something primal in  the attraction -- they say we are all drawn in one way or another to the water from which we, perhaps, arose. It certainly feels like home to me. Like something alive. Something worth protecting. A relationship that I cannot change or direct. Call it compulsion.