‘When the blue of the night meets the gold of the day...’

The early morning sun lights the far shore of Burgoyne Bay and catches the tops of tall trees that clothe the steep hillside above the dock. Down here on the beach it is still deep shadow, - the last wisps of night linger, tinted in cool blue by the overarching sky. I step carefully on the slippery beach gravel and open myself to this transient moment.

The red railed wharf above my head is an obvious starting point, all dark against the mountainside. Red in shadow, and to my eyes barely discernable as red at all, but the rigid pattern of piles and rails are dramatic against the sky. What if I were to tilt the camera and abandon the horizontal line of ocean and make a first step into the cool blue shadows.

A small boat lies at the high tide line and I cannot not take its picture, so beautifully shaped for the sea, but now sitting with its keel ready to cleave the sky. This is someone`s project, to reclaim a beautiful wooden dinghy and probably she belongs to one of several organic-looking anchored boats out in the bay. Those live-aboards; the sailor folk that do not own property, do not rent, may not do regular work, move around a lot and are viewed with disdain and distrust by those tied close by the land, are now bathed in this morning`s warm sunlight that falls freely upon all.

I crack my head hard upon an overhanging maple branch as I crouch low to get close to photograph some crab shells left earlier this morning on a boulder by some otters. I fall forward upon my knees clutching my forehead and see through my pain a soft lustrous glow shining up from beneath a black rock. I shake my head and can see that an oyster shell is catching the blue skylight in its pearly cup and reflecting it off the wet dark surface of the overhanging rock. I make the photo, finding in this accidental and almost hidden moment the perfect expression of these shadowy remains of the night before.