May week 1

It is always a hard choice which location to choose when it isn’t breezy and it is also low tide.  I headed for the poppies but took a detour to the mussels on the rocks along Tomales Bay (Point Reyes).  At a negative tide you can find lots of mussels clinging to the coastal rocks.  At Shell Beach they are often a beautiful blue with small barnacles on them.

With tripod, a 100 mm macro lens and a diffusion disc I set up shop.  Kneeling in the sand makes a comfortable shooting position.  Since my meter was on the black and deep blue colors of the mussels I used my exposure compensation and dialed in -1.5.

You can get lost in time while checking out every little grouping of mussels and sea weeds.  Therefore on my return I had to go ankle deep in the bay around the last corner of the beach. Usually I like to arrive at a location one hour before the tide is at its lowest. Fortunately the bay side is a calmer incoming tide.  So take a buddy!

Whenever I see old farm houses I wish I wrote poetry because it seems like endless inspiration is oozing out from the old boards and moss covered corners.  My poetry is to find an angle to create a photograph.

You would think I was talking about a sepia image or some monochrome eerie capture.  Nope, I still want vibrant colors to contrast the present state of the farm house history and the natural world around it.

So using a wide angle lens from behind a gorgeous clump of blooming cow parsnip I set out to capture the “Old Farm  House.”  This one is at the end of Pierce Point Road in Pt. Reyes, National Seashore.  It reminds me of part of a poem I recently read, referenced below.

The Old Farm House by Wolf O’neill Mitchum

The old farm house stood
by the side of a nameless road,
it’s occupants gone to a better home
a better place, a new abode,

it’s windows were borken
and it’s roof was caved in,
and i stood there and listened
to the whispering wind………

…….leaving this old farm house
to it’s loneliness and decay,
to be rediscovered by a stranger
passing by on his lonely way,

all this and more
moved through my restless mind,
as i gazed at that old far house
standing alone in eloquent silence, sublime…

 

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