In the midst of busy days and enjoying (or even trying to fit in) lunch, we often miss the passing of the noon hour. Catch it right, though, and you have a moment worth noticing. The light is flat, flat, flat, but somewhere in the starkness or lurking in the shadows there is something that catches the eye of some artists.

High Noon, Mexico by Jan Pieter Van Voorst Van Beest on Zatista.com

You can literally feel the heat in this photo, in fact, I’m feeling a little jealous of this gentleman’s hat. Where was that cantina again? I could use a taco al pastor and a cold Pacifico, STAT. Oh wait, I’m still in my office in Maine? Darn.

Singularity Afternoon on Malheur Lake, Oregon by Michael Axel on Zatista.com

The thing about the light at noon is that there are no shadows. That’s a pretty obvious thing to point out, but have you ever really thought about it? It can make barren landscapes look downright lunar. Some cultures throughout time believed that a person’s shadow is their soul. So then what’s going on at lunchtime?

Afternoon by Yehan Wang on Zatista.com

Sometimes it’s what’s going on in the shade that gets really interesting. That high noon sun has a certain way of reflecting off the ground and illuminating things in a very unique way. You might not always notice it as you run for cover in the mid day sun, but that’s why we have artists — it’s their job to notice those things.

Stay tuned for the last installment of 24 Hours on Zatista, Part 3: Dusk