This photo embodies what photography is able to do so exquisitely: eternalize the ephemeral. Plus, it allows the photographer (and by extension, the viewer) to savor life's transient pleasures and to elevate the beauty of the quotidian to its rightful plane.
In this case, the quickly-disappearing-in-the-summer-heat footprints of a bird who is always on the go.
The American Dipper constantly bobs and dips its head at and under the water in search of insects, larvae, fish eggs and very small fish. And it has bird superpowers: a dipper can fly through waterfalls and fly-swim underwater, urgently propelling its grey body against the current in search of food.
The bird was only on these rocks for a few moments in the summer evening along Wiley Creek--and its footprints a momentary testament to its peripatetic ways.
