I’ve always been sensitive to the quality of light. Maybe it has something to do with the fact that, from the time I was in grade school, when I thought about going to college I always assumed I’d enroll in some kind of fine arts program. While my interest in creative endeavors has never wained, my higher education training turned down the life science path. Eventually, I figured out a way to combine my love of the natural sciences and the visual arts.

During the darker days of winter my eye tends to be drawn to other landscape features but sometime near the spring equinox my eyes start to tune in to light again… I’m especially drawn to the lovely play of light-and-shadow created by the slender new branches…

…shining through small, translucent leaves…

… stippled sunshine skipping across the surface of water and stone in the stream that cuts through this small college town.

I love the spring bulbs and other flowers, the vocal capriccio of songbirds, the welcome warmth of our nearest star… but it’s the changing angle of sunlight that tells me spring has truly sprung.

Thanks to the following photographers for making their work available through the Creative Commons license: Andrew Birch; Lena Lozhkina; ; romana klee; Susanne Nilsson; Greg Patterson; and Katerina Athanasaki. © 2018 Sidewalk Zendo. Reprints welcomed with written permission from the author.]