See the empty spot above this post? That’s where I should be featuring a moody landscape shot of the shoreline near the Cana Island Lighthouse in Door County, Wisconsin. The Fourth of July brought major thunderstorms to the area, so I assumed (never, ever assume) that I would not be capturing any images. You know. In the pouring rain. From the back of a Harley.

So I left my camera at home. Big mistake.

On July 5, the sky was filled with large, gray, defined clouds. A very low ceiling, as my pilot mom used to say. The mist rolled in off Lake Michigan to the irregular shoreline. The waves were audible, even in the woods near the lighthouse. It wasn’t raining. It wasn’t calm, either. Simply put, the scene was mystical.

Normally I prefer photographing people to landscapes. But this was the exception. This scene was more emotion than location. And it wasn’t something my Blackberry could capture. I was itching to grab my camera, set up the shot, and…

With every turn of the road, it seemed there was another scene more alluring than the next. I felt like a bike…without a bell.

Note to self: Pack the camera. No matter what.