Muted landscape

Just passing through
Somewhere in Tennessee, December 2008

About this photo: Thematic explores muted this week. You can, too, by clicking here.

The scene: We're on our way to Florida in the days before flight. The wondervan is packed to the gills with our kids and their gear. And us. I'm hanging in the passenger seat, playing with my camera in the few-minute window before I get nauseous and have to put the thing away. My wife's a great driver, but I still hate being a passenger, so little diversions like this are good for my sleep-deprived soul.

The sky is oddly threatening, alternating between thick cloud and slices of brilliant sun. The highway - known as I-75 - runs through the rolling country, hills swelling on either side of the vehicle. At first I curse them - nicely, of course, lest the children hear - because I really want a decent picture of the sky and blurry land isn't really helping. Then I figure by silhouetting the streaking landscape, I may just get the shutter speed high enough to freeze everything and make it look like I wasn't just crossing my fingers and shooting out the car window.

As I work through the settings and review the results of each flight of photos, the sun pokes through the clouds with rays that remind me of G-d peeking at us from above. I'm not one to sprout Scripture or anything, but there's something remarkably humbling about watching this kind of show from on high. I line up for one last round of pictures and wonder if moments like this are less random than fate.

Your turn: The first three words that come to mind when you see this picture are...?

One more thing: I've got a thing for edge-on pictures that reduce the landscape to a flat strip of barely-there features. I caught this one in Colorado, and it remains one of my all-time favorites.