This is a photo I originally took back in 2008 while studying abroad in Australia. It's a photo I've always loved, and I recently decided that with my excitement for photo editing growing, it might be a good one to revisit.
Great Ocean Road
Melbourne, Australia
May/June 2008
Australia, for me, was somewhat of a spiritual and emotional roller coaster. Drawn to the country with the idea that something I needed to experience waited for me there, I arrived wide-eyed and expectant of a life-affirming journey. Or at least a wonderful half-year living by beach, swimming in the waves, free from everything that I felt to be stifling me back home.
The day I took this photo I bounced from excited, to sad, to homesick, to frustrated. Staring out at the ocean, the closest land ahead of me was Antartica, thousands of miles south. It was the first time I truly saw the curvature of the Earth. Nothing in front of me but blue, blue ocean -- round and endless and magnificent. The distance between me and my loved ones at that moment was both awesome and frightening.
Looking at this photo now, I can remember the drizzle in the air. The wonder at how round and curved our planet Earth is. My love of the open horizon, and my disdain for the unreachable human connection I sought back home.