Panama City; 9:45 p.m.

I stayed out late, working my way along the Causeway, trying to get a good angle on the city, keeping my gear out of reach of raccoons, and wiping splashes of seawater of my lens (put there by these enormous fish rising and thrashing in the shallows--seriously! they were about 6 feet long!), and just generally feeling disappointed with my images from the evening. This was the final image I made that evening. I rather like it. This is the structure on a floating dock that large yachts use to load/off load goods and people. It was creaking and groaning as the gangplank moved across the deck with the rise and fall of the bay; it was consistent and loud as it moved up and down all evening. Anyway, the light on the far dock was shining in just the right spot, and the small aperture of my lens created the rays streaming out from it (each blade in the iris of the lens creates two of the rays; to some extent, more blades means a higher quality lens; five is standard for lenses that come with cameras, and seven is usually some pretty nice glass; I was pleased to see that this one has nine!). A little abstract, but kinda fun. Even with the sun down and the sea breeze, I was still dripping sweat...

Nikon D90, 70-200mm lens @ 102mm, f/22, 13.0s, ISO 200.