Photography And Half-Thoughts By Mitchell Hegman

...because some of it is pretty and some of it is not.

Friday, November 18, 2016

Defining Moment


What if the defining moment of my life came in Japan on that overcast day near Mount Fuji in 1985? 
Remember that day?  Kevin and I jostling about in an absurdly windowed bus as the bus swayed across rumpled terrain near Mount Fuji.  My camera sat on my lap.  If the clouds parted, I would catch the great mountain swathed in low clouds.  What more spectacular than Fuji?
We boarded a ferryboat on a lake settled into the green foothills near the summit.  We slipped quietly across dark water.  Even as heavy clouds pushed down firmly and touched against the calm surface, a local guide assured us the boat would provide an unrivalled view.  The clouds would part.
I held my camera in hand.
Our guide told us we would soon come to a place where the foothills fall back to a notch that reveals “the most beautiful view of Fuji in all the country.”  In all probabilities, I would have this opportunity only once in my life.  The boat sliced over the calm, reflective surface.  The hills fell away.  And I looked up into the sky to see nothing but the slug-colored underbellies of the thick clouds smothering entirely the high mount.
I have a photo of Kevin grimacing.
--Mitchell Hegman

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