Light

A Proposal for Nature Tourism for the Okanagan

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This wetland beauty is what a real tourism is made of.

I witnessed busloads of Asian tourists scattered across pastures in Iceland, to take pictures of exquisite light.

The timing, the location, the season, all have to be right.

These are ancient, honourable traditions.  They are alive here.

So often, though, I have seen Asian tourists in Vernon trying to find some nature to photograph off the front of their main stop, the honey farm, and the meadery, which closes its tasting counter for their arrival, by the busload.

So often have I seen them crossing traffic to shop at the Dollar Store.

Well, if they came for beauty, we have cattails. What are the tour bus companies thinking?

We also have feral squiggly willows.

They are worth $3000 of Nikon equipment, too.

And a plane ticket.

But why just Asians. Why don’t Canadians come for Beauty, too?

It’s not particularly hard to find, even in the ruins in which we are forced to live.

It’s easy. You go by foot. Then you stop.

Then your mind stops.

It’s all ephemeral, but here’s the thing: ephemerality is continuous. We have the ability to flow, but also to pool.

Let’s pool.

Let’s follow the turtles for awhile and give our guests the respect they deserve and open our social forms to the living world for them.

Look at how the water turns to turtle shell with the lightest breeze!

And by doing so, open them for us.

 

Categories: Light, Nature Photography, Water

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11 replies »

    • Easy! It’s on the Grey Canal Trail. Go up Apaloosa from Bella Vista, turn left to follow the road uphill, then right uphill past the giant sumac, and to the end. Park to the left, then walk along the trail to the left. 200 metres should have you there. Or, go uphill to the Rise, take the first right onto Vineyard Way, park opposite the new realty office and the vineyard, take the trail downhill before the new construction, turn right at the service shed (100 metres approx), pass the cottonwoods above the row of older houses, and it’s about 200 metres.

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