When you were a teenager, did you have that one friend who suddenly got deep into photography? That friend who was playing with normal kid toys like everyone else, but then one day they’ve suddenly got a collection of lenses and lighting and terminology that makes you wonder where they came from?
I did. And it was from this friend that I learned the term “golden hour.”
It’s that hour right after sunrise, and the hour right before sunset, when the sun’s angle creates the perfect lighting for beautiful photography. It’s also the hour when my friend was never available, since he was out documenting the neighbourhood in its most flattering light.
I feel bad for (gently) teasing my friend for their fleeting and intense detour into photography. But like most adolescent teasing, it was likely based on insecurity. In this case, the guilty insecurity that maybe I hadn’t been looking at the world around me as carefully as I should have been.
What makes this a beautiful song:
1. It eases in, like a sunrise.
2. The guitar is the star, but the piano frames it perfectly.
3. It ends on an unresolved cadence, like a sunset promising to return the next evening.
Recommended listening activity:
Experimenting with a camera that isn’t also a phone.