One of the last seascapes I made before moving away from San Diego. Kind of an uninspired shot, at least to me, perhaps because I know pretty much every person in the city with a camera and tripod has probably shot this scene at some time.. I tried to resist but finally stopped on the way home one night when the timing seemed right.
Actually I am still back in town more than I had planned to deal with clients and the wife still wants to shop there, but I guess that is not altogether a bad thing... good to be busy. Anyway, this is sort of my farewell postcard shot.
Still struggling to get out and do some new work, or even dig up and write about older stuff on here recently.. my mind is always on something still to be done around the new house.. summer is short here in the mountains and I need to finish some things while the finishing is good.
Probably it's the change of pace and quiet surroundings after so many years of city life in Boston and SD, but I am also inspired to be wading back into the weird and esoteric world of large format film photography.. something I have not done for more years than I want to talk about. (Not giving up digital completely, no way). But, it was the thing that first inspired me while in school and many of the photographers that did originally or still do impress me work in that medium, so I'm going to give it another go as soon as I can assemble a workable rig out of some old equipment I already have and some newer stuff too. I have some thoughts about how I want to work with it and at the very least it should make for some real interesting topics of discussion here soon. Filter factors, bellows factors, depth of field, reciprocity... my head hurts already! Stay tuned:)
I must admit I've been back and forth on this one more than a few times. I liked it quite a lot initially, then began to feel that it was not really that interesting, now I am back to liking it again! I've said it before, but it normally takes me some months or even more to get "detached" from images to the point where I can really judge them impartially, like seeing someone else's work for the first time. Some other photographers I've talked to say the same thing.
This shot definitely makes me think of some alien spider creature about to chop off my tripod legs for daring to take it's picture. In reality, it's the remnants of an ancient Bristlecone Pine, probably laying very still right here in this spot at 10,000 ft. elevation in California's White Mountains, for many hundreds if not thousands of years. Click the image for a larger view on this one.. the texture of the wood is amazing.
I wish the redwood decks on my house were this durable.. I am going to be spending most of the summer repairing and refinishing them:)
Some tufa formations along the shoreline of Mono Lake in the Eastern Sierras, just as the sun set behind the peaks off to the west. The eastern entrance to Yosemite is just over there past the lake. These towers are actually mineral deposits that formed as springs bubbled up from underground when this spot was under water, not all that long ago. A thirsty Los Angeles drained Owens Lake down river from here in it's quest for water earlier last century (if you've seen the classic "Chinatown", that movie is loosely based around the story) and Mono Lake dropped to a fraction of it's former size also. Efforts are under way now to let it refill to something like it's original size. A much-photographed location, but you have to have some time in the area or be very lucky to nail an exceptional shot in one visit. This one's o.k. but I hope to get back for another stab at it.
I finally decided to take a day off from working around the house and head out for a rare (lately) day shooting some new work. Joshua Tree N.P. is now only 80 miles or so from home (and the most photogenic location in my area), so we drove out there for a quick day trip.
This formation known as the Giant Marbles, is one of the most interesting among so many to be found here.. I had never managed to locate it on previous trips, but it was quite easy to find with some quick directions from a ranger at the visitor center. Molten magma that rose up under the earth eons ago, solidified, cracked and was then exposed when the softer soil eroded away, explains the geometric stacking effect. The soft light on the rocks is just a minute or so before the sun set behind a ridge, casting the whole scene into shadow and killing the color... glad I got the composition I wanted just at the right moment. For a sense of scale, the round "marble" balancing on the top is probably 5-6 ft. diameter.
