The Art of Season Cycle | Part 3: Summer
For Season Cycle, an ongoing project to write an EP for each season, each track has a distinct artwork using photographs from my collection. In this blog series, I’m going to showcase the art and talk about how I captured the images. Feel free to listen along while you read!
The Cover Art
I really struggled to choose the cover for this one. Where Winter, Spring, and Autumn have very distinct imagery (snow/ice, new blooms, and the distinct hues of autumn leaves), Summer feels like it has less of a defining visual character—How do you convey “hot and humid” in an image? I dug through a lot of photos (beaches, sunsets, shots taken on various vacations, etc.), and this one finally jumped out at me as the right choice. The clear blue sky, huge towering clouds, and the visible rays of sunlight just scream “Summer!”
Summer Solstice
There’s a path that cuts through from my street to a park (my wife and I jokingly refer to it as “Dog Alley”, because every house along the path has dogs and they all start barking whenever someone goes by). The path is short, but it’s surrounded by tall locust trees. If you stop and look up, it’s an incredible view—the sky peeks through the textured canopy, the sun’s light causing the leaves to show every shade of green. It felt like the right image to pair with this song.
Morning, Far From Home
This track was written for the Cities & Memory podcast in November 2024 under the title “Vicolo della Torre,” as part of its Autumn Project, under the premise that people send in field recordings from all over the world and then artists use them to create music. The field recording in this song was from Treviso, Italy. I’ve never been there, but the recording transported me there, and I imagined sitting on a balcony with a coffee, soaking in the sounds as the first rays of morning light spread across the sky. The photo here is one I took in Graz, Austria, on a similar morning, far from home.
Looking Glass Rock
This photo was taken near Asheville, South Carolina (USA), from the trail to Looking Glass Rock in Pisgah National Forest. It was also used as the cover art for the Asheville Rising compilation, a benefit for BeLoved Asheville, an organization doing incredible work in and around Asheville. You should definitely check that one out.
Sweltering
One of the distinct elements of summer is the bugs. Mosquitos, gnats, little clouds of small insects that hover in the humid air, they’re a hallmark of the season. I captured a photo of one of these swarms, and I thought it was a great match for the song. Is this image making you feel itchy??
Humidity
Around here, summer is often humid. The air feels thick and difficult to breathe, even in the morning. I captured this shot of the dewy grass catching the light of the morning sun, the bokeh effect showcasing all the tiny drops of moisture on each blade. It’s all a little blurry and surreal (which is how I feel after spending too much time outside in the humid air)!
Sunset After The Storm
This was the most incredible sunset I have ever seen in my entire life. It was on our honeymoon out in the Catskill Mountains near New Paltz, New York. There had been a big storm in the late afternoon, and we went hiking up a ridge after the rain had moved out, just in time to catch the sun dip below the horizon. I can’t even articulate how beautiful this sight was. I took so many photos of it, and none of them were edited in any way—it was literally this vibrant blend of orange and purple.
Another one of those images was also used as the cover for my side project @Extra Credits a few years ago. Just look at these colors!
Gloam
On the topic of sunsets, I really love the period just after the sun has gone down. There’s a certain kind of magic to the way the high altitude clouds continue to catch the sun and the horizon glows for a while. The sliver of the moon and Venus (I think?) really enhanced the magic of this particular evening.
Summer’s Ending
Sorry, more sunsets. I take so many photos of sunsets. It just felt right that the end of summer should have another one of these. As the days grow shorter, the sunsets feel like even more of a reminder that we should soak up these beautiful moments while we can (before winter’s cold darkness sets in).
And that gets us through the final track of Season Cycle: Summer. If you purchase and download a copy of the EP, there is a digital booklet with some additional photography not mentioned here—just in case you like what you see here and want to see more!
Speaking of summer’s ending, we’re only a few weeks away from the beginning of autumn, which means the final installment of the Season Cycle series is coming soon! I really hope that you’ve enjoyed listening, and I can’t wait to share this one.
As always, I appreciate your support. Hope you had a great summer.