our daughter, eva, recently had to put together a visual arts portfolio for a few of her college applications. so i was rummaging through some old journals from our time in southern france, when the whole family was working our way through the classic drawing book Drawing on the Right Side of The Brain by betty edwards. it was fun to revisit all those exercises (even though i hated them at the time). turns out, we were better than i recalled. anyway, as i got to the back of one of the journals, i flipped the page and out fluttered a handful of found feathers from our beloved languedoc. i was immediately transported. right over my head, riding hot mediterranean thermals, circled a buse variable, waiting patiently for a rabbit or hare to wander too far from the protection of the dense, prickly garrigue. it was a 30 second homecoming, and has me thinking about our return to that magical place this fall.

wing feathers of la buse variable (buteo buteo)

languedoc, france

p.s. this photo almost looks like an illustration because it is backlit. in order to get the white stripes to show up against a bright white background, i shot it against a window for back lighting.  if you are interested in getting occasional glimpses about my improvised set ups, you can follow me on instagram here.