powerlinerflyers.

Hundreds of thousands of videos were posted onto Vimeo in 2009. I am proud to be one of 25 that were selected as the best of the year.

Click Here for the Link.

Looking back, it's truly remarkable that a split-second decision has produced such an overwhelming response from people all over the world. Millions of people have been moved and affected by this very simple natural display, which I am fortunate enough to lay claim to. I've been contacted by people in Russia, Vietnam, England, etc. who've wanted to use the film and to share with it with others. That makes me feel very good. It makes me think that I've done something that matters, and that this is exactly what I need to keep doing.

I lay claim to being the one person—of thousands who were driving by these moments—to turn around, go back, and document it. Yes, a bit of photographic training certainly helped, but it's more that I reacted, then acted. I saw something that others didn't. I stopped. I rolled on it. That's my part. Small, but essential.

I think these things are around us every day, and that it's a matter of Fovea: It's a matter of taking the periphery of life (the beautiful, but unappreciated things) and making them the center of our gaze. That's what I think.

We take much for granted. I was shooting on the coast over the weekend—Long Beach—and the beach was lined with piles of trash, that had washed up to the shore and was being bulldozed in preparation to head to the landfill. But people were there, just playing with their children in mercury-infested, highly contaminated water. This is the same principle I'm getting at: We're oblivious to too much—both positive and negative. We put our immediate circumstance over the greater good. Constantly.

Look for your version of birds on a wire, find your own way to interpret it, and share it.

wes.