Photo Of The Day By Sangeeta Dey

Today’s Photo Of The Day is “Haiku” by Sangeeta Dey.

“This photograph has a story that needs to be told to understand where this is coming from,” writes Dey. “On this particular day, we got up at 4 a.m. and spent the next three hours hiking to get to a special vantage point to catch the sunrise. As I had already mentioned in one of my earlier posts, I had lost my headlight so was relying on stray lights from my fellow hikers’ headlamps. The final stretch of this hike was off the trail and was almost a vertical climb. As I had no lights, I had to climb up spiderman style to make sure I had something to hold on to at all times while trying to secure my footing. Within a few minutes of arriving at this location, clouds took over making it clear that we were not going to get any shots. Also, the winds picked up and were as high as 60 miles/hour. It was hard for me to get a decent picture because winds kept destabilizing the tripod. My hands were also getting numb. As if we were not distressed enough, we were hit by a blizzard out of nowhere. At this point, we had to put away our gear and start descending to safety.

While we were struggling to get down, we realized we were surrounded by these trees with bright red fall colors that we hadn’t seen on our way up because it was dark. These trees were swaying wildly in the wind. The snow and ice blowing through them further accentuated their beauty. Although we were in the middle of a full-blown blizzard at this point, this particular scene had a Zen-like quality to it. Suddenly, a feeling of calm and serenity took over me and I no longer felt the rush to get down. In that storm, all of us pulled out our cameras and started clicking to capture this moment that was happening right before our eyes. This was that exact moment when the vibrancy of autumnal colors was being taken over by the somberness of winter. It was like Mother Nature was painting a new canvas right in front of our eyes. This photograph might look like a textured painting, but high winds and snow gave it that appearance. I should also mention that I rejoiced this moment so much that instead of rushing down, I walked my way down at a much slower place, enjoying every moment of that Zen-like atmosphere.”

Photo of the Day is chosen from various OP galleries, including Assignments, Galleries and the OP Contests. Assignments have weekly winners that are featured on the OP website homepage, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. To get your photos in the running, all you have to do is submit them.