I admit it--I’m a sucker for beauty, a weakness that may be attributed to the camera so frequently slung over my shoulder.
Some beauty is undeniable. Sedona will never be mistaken for ordinary or ugly, but not everything beautiful is so obvious. Beauty may rest in a touch or a glance, in the tilt of a head or the breath of a word. Beauty may cower beneath layers of hurt or years of pain, or rest easily in untarnished innocence, but beauty is always near.
When I look past the surface, ignore clients' self-deprecating comments, and begin to know my people, their beauty gradually begins to show itself. In the end, they may even recognize their own beauty, the beauty I knew was there from the beginning.
Yes, for me, beauty is everywhere, but the most elusive, reliable, breathtaking beauty of all is both fleeting and frequent.
And a hussy.
In my world the sunset is the epitome of beauty. And, like many great beauties, the sunset enjoys flirting and playing hard to get, offering a bare shoulder or a seductive sideways glance, and then disappearing. Trilling “Come and get me,” and then hiding behind the horizon.
The sunset is cacophonous and peaceful, explosive and fluid, here and gone. The sunset is a tease, making me work for it, beg for it--especially if I might be trying to immortalize its flash of brilliance with my camera.
Because that moment of sunset is a flash, too brief to capture on a whim. The sunset is best caught as a result of borderline-stalker behavior, and even with careful preparation, the sunset eludes me much of the time.
Hussy.
Oddly, I don’t mind that the sunset taunts me to madness; now and then, I time it right and am able to witness--and perhaps record--that moment when an ordinary sky transforms from colorless to vibrant in a matter of seconds. What else but a sunset can put on such a show? (Hussy)
Yes, the sunset is toying with me, and I’m okay with it. I call it a hussy, but the sunset is what it is. Beautiful. Out of my control. Undeniable. Desirable.
An exhibitionist.
Looking west at the right time is up to me.
