There is a river whose streams gladden God’s city,
    the holiest dwelling of the Most High.
 God is in that city. It will never crumble.
    God will help it when morning dawns.
 Nations roar; kingdoms crumble.
    God utters his voice; the earth melts.
 The Lord of heavenly forces is with us!
    The God of Jacob is our place of safety. – Psalm 46:4-7

Okay, y’all. If you think I take too many pictures of the river, then let me know. But I also stand by my previous commitment to only post images that grab me and that I have never really seen before.

All today’s photographs are taken looking downstream (that’s west-southwest at this particular location). Previous images I posted were mostly taken at dawn so these, around 3:00 in the afternoon, have entirely different lighting.

Also, this set includes a photo from the bridge looking down Main Street through the roundabout (traffic circle) and into downtown Tarboro.

It really does make a difference where the light is, or where we are standing in relation to the light, when we are looking at the world around us. I think I have said before that I am very much a fan of what we call “natural” light. I do not like to introduce light via flash, and even indoors I would much rather only use light from the windows if possible.

Artificial light can overwhelm, wash out, and obliterate everything from authenticity to texture to depth to color to tone to definition.

Our Culture Needs More Natural Light:

I believe that’s a lot of the issue with our world right now. It’s like some people are taking floodlights and pointing them directly into people’s eyes so the details are all lost and they can’t actually see a thing other than all the hype that goes with the show!

Alternatively, how about we disengage ourselves from all the blinding ideology and the razzmatazz and the spin and the hype and the overwhelm of sensationalism that washes over so much and, instead, go back to seeking out simple, verifiable, fact… kind of the natural light version of gathering information.

You know, scholarship ahead of rhetoric, valuing character over bluster, listening carefully then making our own decisions, connecting the dots ourselves.

Turning off the ludicrously bright and artificial lights, then spending the next few months making up our own minds.

Do we dare? – DEREK