I was out exploring the Keanae Peninsula on Maui when I noticed this tree. It had the kind of beauty that stands out when the moon is out, the land quiet, and the night dark. Beside the tree, about 20 yards away, a shy mud puddle that was a few feet in diameter had formed from a recent downpour. I recognized the small brown puddle as potential to become an instrumental part of the work later that evening. I came back well after sunset, and the tree looked beautiful in the dark. With the camera at ground level, I used a windbreaker for a simple support. Using a powerful flashlight, I composed and focused, and made my first exposure while painting-with-light onto the scene. The camera had taken a small, brown mud puddle and created an ethereal image that caught a reflection of the stars in the water, and the relief of the tree to be free again! With a little more work to refine the light-painting and fine-tune the capture, I was confident to call it a good image. Still, this experience was more than just a good image. It was a valuable and healthy reminder that the photographic eye can see visual harmony and bring out the beauty in the mundane, and that time is an important aspect of beauty manifested through patience and grasped through reflection.