Alligator eyes twinkling in the pre-dawn…snakes slithering across my path…bears, deer and sometimes bobcats accompanying me on my early morning shoots. I’m grateful for their presence. I send them wishes to find something or someone better than me to feast on–and then I ignore them. There is a positive balance to these predatory creatures–a very comforting quietude. I hear the croaking of frogs, dragonflies skimming across the lake, birds awakening one another with tentative chirps. It is at that moment when sunshine begins to burst through the forest, when its gradations of light, so appealing to me, begin to appear. Daylight photography time has arrived.