By Scott Shephard

I have been in the Black Hills for a week and I have taken very few photos. And it's not as if I felt like I needed a break. The truth is that I have lacked ambition. Also, when I'm at the cabin I sometimes feel like I'm seeing the same places with the same eyes. Nothing seems new.

The nice thing about "doing" photography, however, is that I have found that when I pick up my camera and wander around with the intent to take photos, the subjects often find me.

And so, yesterday, in waning daylight, I went hunting. It only took a minute for the bright green of these fledgling oak leaves to draw my eyes.

This morning as I write, the word "evanescent" comes to mind. It means "soon passing out of sight, memory, or existence; quickly fading or disappearing." Much of what we see is evanescent. But the power of photography is that we can capture evanescent moments in our frame. These bright green baby oak leaves and the fading, but perfectly soft light that illuminates them, will soon pass.

But the photograph remains.

Canon 5DIII 1/60s f/4.0 ISO400 100mm