Emerald Currents

I heard the river before I saw it. The sound of moving water reached through the trees, and I followed it until the Dungeness opened before me, running green beneath the forest light.
I was in Olympic National Park for a photography workshop, my first national park in America. Parks like this had shaped my life in Australia, and I had long heard how the Americans treasure theirs. The anticipation had been building for days, and the forest did not disappoint.
Walking beneath the trees toward that sound was a pleasure in itself. Forests have always restored me, and this one, cool and green and alive, asked me to slow down. Along the banks everything grew brighter, as if the river were feeding colour into all it touched.
The current moved constantly, so I let it: a slightly longer exposure softened the water into flow, recording the movement the way the eye remembers it. Here and there, light found its way through the canopy and rested on the water.
What stays with me now is the generosity of the scene. The river gives the forest its life and colour, and the forest leans in around the water that sustains it. Neither would be itself without the other.
The image moves as the river does, spreading from bank to bank across the frame. The greens gather where the water runs. Emerald, carried by the current.