lightning storm at midnight, runaway bay, jamaica

Cold scapes, by Barry Lopez, 12/07 National Geographic: "The world is beautiful, in many unfathomable ways. In our hurrying, though, we frequently miss what is beautiful around us, in the same way that we forget from time to time what we want our lives to mean. Just to stay afloat in the modern world, many of us reluctantly choose detachment from the constant stimulus. We even turn away from beauty, as if it were another thing we had had to much of."

Morning Patrol at a new resort in Runaway Bay, Jamaica

It's been one of those weeks that's left me exhausted, but thankful again for the places photography has taken me. On Wednesday, I turned a cramped hotel room into a makeshift studio to shoot the cover for a book coming out in May (more on this next Spring). Thursday had me mixing with the paparazzi while covering an event for National Geographic with Ashley Judd. On Friday morning, I flew down to Jamaica and spent the weekend shooting a job on the beautiful northern coast. I arrived back in DC late on Sunday and Monday morning I was up early getting my gear together to cover a WWII veteran's inurnment for a client.

Despite going to college in DC and living here for the last two years, I've never visited Arlington National Cemetery before. On Monday morning, the sky was a hazy blue and it felt like one of the last great Fall days before DC's rainy, cold winter. The leaves were just beginning to fall and scatter, bringing a little bit of disorder to the military-straight headstones that formed perfect rows over rolling hills of closely mowed grass.

The funeral ceremony was brief, but never felt rushed, and after the rifle salute, a lone bugler played Taps. The last note stayed in the air for just a second longer after he finished, echoing across the quiet ground.

I asked Seth Goldman to throw the bottle in the air five times before one came out right. Not only was he willing to do it, he caught every single one.