Gripping the rock ledge above me, I hoisted myself up onto a small shelf jutting out from the cliff face.  With my bag over my shoulder, I paused to rest and catch my breath.  As I eyed the remaining distance to the peak, I estimated that at the rate I was climbing, I should reach my destination in roughly another 45 minutes.  I had started my climb early that morning, but by 2:00 the sun was bearing down hard and the scorched rocks were nearly hot enough to blister skin on contact.  Fortunately I’d packed plenty of water, though the added weight in my bag had proved quite a burden.

After a brief respite, I began tackling the final part of my trek.  With renewed energy, I jumped, climbed, walked, traipsed, and crawled my way up towards the peak, until at last the apex of the summit was beneath my feet.  With a great sigh of satisfaction, I stood up and gazed around at my surroundings, taking in the breathtaking view from the top.

To my disappointment, I noted that the view from the top wasn’t all that spectacular.  Brown scorched rock surrounded me on all sides, and the view of the valley was obscured by the blackened ridges of neighboring peaks.  It was funny, too, how small the mountain seemed from up top, almost as though my eight-hour ascension had been to the top of an ant hill rather than a peak 6,200 feet above sea level.

Slightly disenchanted, and only longing to get back home to my easy-chair, I set off down the mountain back to the place where I had begun, a little disillusioned and very much exhausted.  This wasn’t the first time I had encountered disappointment after pouring hours of blood, sweat, and tears into an endeavor, though I had hoped that this adventure would prove to be different.   

I guess in the end it goes to show that not everything is guaranteed to be a success, no matter how much effort we put into something.  That’s no reason to refuse to try, by any means, but it is a good reminder to us all that nothing is guaranteed, and that sometimes we are destined for disappointment.  But more than that, it highlights the fact that life isn’t all about where we get or what we accomplish, but rather the journey towards those accomplishments and what we learn along the way.  For though we may not have much to show in the end for all of our efforts, nothing can replace the confidence, knowledge, and experience we gain by pursuing such endeavors.

Let’s just hope my journey back to my easy-chair will prove more fruitful than my climb to the peak…

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Quick and simple one this week.  I was feeling a little limited without access to a lot of my normal equipment/working space.  While being stuck in Hawaii truly is like being stuck in paradise, it can be a little frustrating when you crave the ability to utilize tools that are only available in your home studio (Can I also say that I’m getting tired of trying to edit my images on this dinky laptop where my screen isn’t big enough to accommodate Photoshop without minimizing half of the toolbars?).

Needless to say, I’m glad to be heading back to my home on the mainland (and to my dual-monitor office setup!).  It was really challenging on vacation to find adequate locations to photograph for my project (mostly because of my lack of familiarity with the possibilities), plus with most of my tools, brushes, textures, etc. back on my machine at home, I was scrambling to try to create my images for my project these last two weeks.

To summarize this composition, I found these rocks along the shore of one of Kauai’s south-eastern beaches and saw the possibility of using them in my weekly picture.  I then photographed myself in our hotel in front of the sliding glass door (there weren’t very many natural light options where we were) and then did my best to composite the two together.  Very simple, very quick and dirty, but hey, there’s always next week to do better (and with access to all my tools back at home, I’m anticipating a much more pleasing result next week).

Anyways, it’s good to be heading home, nice to be getting back to reality.  Enjoy your week and be on the lookout for more coming soon.