I went out yesterday morning, hoping for eagels and Snowy Owls. I had a few moments it one of the adult eagles at Roger’s Pond, but found no sign of owls, though I met a woman by Back Creek Marsh who had seen one there the day before. I drove up the coast as far as Gouch’s beach, drawn on by the strange light over the ocean, despite the dull day. This is Lord’s Point from Strawberry Island with the light behind it.

Though the effect was subtle, there was no particular skill involved in capturing it. I found that Superior Auto on the Sony NEX 3NL did just fine. Processing in Snapseed on the Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 2014, using the HDR Scene filter and Ambiance and Shadow from Tune Image, brought out what I had seen in the image.

And for the Sunday Thought: Eldritch is a strange word…literally. It means “strange,” “otherworldly,” “eerie,” “alien”, “from somewhere else.” It is rarely used. It has a Robert Burns, Hawthorne, Edger Allen Poe feeling to it. Old-fashioned. Odd. A shivery, uncomfortable, strange-encounter kind of feeling. I hesitated to use it here, but in the end I could not resist. It fit the light over the sea too well, despite its slightly dark associations.

I find it strange in itself, that we associate darkness with the otherworldly…with the sense that something is from the great beyond. Why does the supernatural come with shivers? Why should the world eldritch come touched with fear?

Because of course, this light is just the light of the sun, which was a good deal higher in the sky and well obscured by heavy overcast, leaking though the thinner cloud near the surface of the sea. The color, like dawn or sunset, is all to do with the angle of the light and the amount of cloud…I assume here the light we are seeing was reflected from the surface of the sea beyond the overcast, or perhaps refracted by the warmer air above the water, and came back to us, skimming the surface, coloring the cloud near the horizon.

And so it is, I suspect, with all things supernatural and strange in our lives. Most often it is only the light of the sprit, unexpectedly reflected or refracted perhaps, and breaking through the overcast of our normal perceptions. Happy Sunday! And keep a look out for eldritch light.