Best Laid Plans

I set out before dawn to catch sunrise from Mount Mitchell, the highest peak east of the Mississippi, and I did not make it in time. A slow driver sat ahead of me the entire way up, and by the time the road opened, the best light had come and gone.

Here is the thing about mornings that fall apart. Sometimes they hand you something better. On the way back down toward Asheville, along one particular stretch of road, a mama black bear and her three cubs were out, unbothered, going about their morning as the early traffic began to build. I stopped. I watched. I photographed. Four wild bears fully in their element, a stone's throw from town and the cars and the ordinary business of a summer morning. I have not stopped thinking about it since.

Field Notes

Why does the summer sky go that deep, piercing blue on the clear days? It comes down to how sunlight meets our air. Molecules in the atmosphere scatter the shorter blue wavelengths far more than the longer reds, throwing blue across the whole sky. On a clear, dry day, with little haze to wash it out, and higher up where the air runs thin and clean, that blue sharpens into something close to electric. At over six thousand feet on Mitchell, you feel it.

Here is the part that matters for what comes next: that scattered light is polarized, most strongly in the band of sky about ninety degrees from the sun. Which is exactly the property one small piece of glass in my bag is built to use.

In the Bag: the URTH circular polarizer​

I lost my CPL recently and had to replace it, which stung, because it is one of the pieces I reach for most once summer arrives. A polarizer cuts the glare bouncing off water, wet rock, and leaves, deepens those blue skies, and pulls haze out of a scene, all things summer serves up in abundance.

It earns its place even when the sky refuses to cooperate. On a recent trip to Summersville Lake, mostly under overcast, the polarizer still made a clear difference on the highly reflective water and around the waterfalls, cutting the sheen so color and detail could come through. It stays on my 24-70 most of the season. If you want the full rundown of what rides along with it, I walk through my whole kit in my gear guide.

What's Inspiring Me

I played soccer growing up and straight through high school, and every time the World Cup comes around, it pulls all of that back to the surface. I do not follow a single club, but I can't get enough of the World Cup, especially the U.S. men's and women's national teams, but all of it. Seeing the game played at that scale reminds me of everything I loved about it. The teamwork, the camaraderie, the sportsmanship, the flashes of luck, the heartbreak of a mistake at the worst possible moment. This year it is unfolding across North America, closer to home, and I have relished every match I have caught. To watch the whole world lean in together for a few weeks over one game feels rare and worth savoring. Play does that. It brings people together like almost nothing else.

What's Next

By the time I write you next, I will be in Norway. In one week, I fly into Bergen and make my way to Arctic Coliving lodge outside Voss, where I will live, work, and hike straight from the front door for a month as one of the first residents of a coliving community there. People from all over, one roof, mountains out the door. After that, a hut-to-hut trek through the Aurlandsdalen Valley before I turn toward home. Five weeks in all. I will be writing to you from the road, so watch this space.

See you out there,
Tanya