"When thou dost shine, darkness looks white and fair,
Forms turn to music, clouds to smiles and air;
Rain gently spends his honey-drops, and pours
Balm on the cleft earth, milk on grass and flowers.
Bright pledge of peace and sunshine!" ~ Henry Vaughan

[Honorable Mention in "People In Wilderness" category of Nature’s Best Photography “Wilderness 50” Smithsonian competition – 2014]
Rainbow over Thousand Island Lake, near the base of Mt. Banner, in the Ansel Adams Wilderness. Within an hour of arrival at the lake, violent storms forced me into hiding all day; later, I retired for the evening without any opportunity to dry out. The storms returned the next morning again, raging for the rest of the day. Once or twice I ventured out into the fray to speak to the skies and request a truce, only to be forced into siege again and again, and it seemed another day of my life would be squandered without reward. It was in the moment of my deepest despair, just five minutes before final light of the second day, when my shelter turned ablaze. I wondered what cruel joke was being played on me now, but in the distance down by the lake I could hear the faint report of one of my associates cry out "RAINBOWwwwww". I quickly turned to the East and upon seeing the magnificent beauty I could only exclaim in my loudest boom the same; "RAINBOWwwwww". As I hurried my camera gear, dressed only in long underwear, I could hear the same report echoing over and over again at different points around the lake by others who had been enduring the same hardships. In the last moments of light as I composed my art, this report of Sunshine's Pledge continued to echo. And as soon as I was complete in my craft, the sun finally fell surrendering to darkness. For 26 hours of suffering, this image was my reward -- and I was at peace.