Chris Powers, in Cool Waves, introduces us to the work of some of the best surfing images and their makers. I can’t compete with them, unwilling as I am to jump into the water, but I still enjoy tracking and capturing the Santa Cruz wave riders.
The overlook by the lighthouse, now the Santa Cruz Surfing Museum, is an excellent vantage point to capture some pretty spectacular splashes. A medium telephoto lens, 100 – 400 mm, may be hand-held on the sunny days. Even though this is a sport I would not take up in ten life times, I am still fascinated by the surfers that catch the edge of a robust and tumbling wave as it unfolds in crashing fashion toward the rocky shoreline.
Persistence, patience and practice are key attributes to cultivate for this kind of photography. All-in-all, these disciplines can be applied to everything we are passionate about or engaged in. A sport and the capture thereof, the earth and the vegetation it sprouts, cultures and the people that create them, and the lines and surfaces of decaying history are a few examples of the ying and yang I hope to engage and photograph in 2014.
Some people make resolutions, write personal purpose statements or set goals. I like to think in terms of imagery and color. So instead of, or in addition to, choosing a word or goal each week I suggest you focus on an image and a particular dominant color. And you can always return to my blog or portfolios for direction through an image or two.
January Week Two was about close-up captures of surface textures and angles on a couple of train cars that hang out at Duncans Mill along the Russian River Road a few miles east of Jenner. For me, like for most people, old railroad cars reverberate with romantic vibes. Getting in close and looking under and up helped frame these compositions.
Unlike my surfing images these images were captured and processed on my iPhone. I am still using an iPhone 4s and my favorite apps: Snapseed, Photo Toaster, PhotoForge2, and the Pro HDR Camera.
Diagonal lines are very powerful composition builders. If the lines you are looking at are not on a diagonal, just tilt your camera. Often people forget to do this. Horizons scream, “Keep me straight,†but everything else is fair game.
Although my images are fun and whimsical this month they also carry for me a hopefulness that calls us to renew and reform ourselves for the sake of the earth and the justice that we must re-dream and reclaim for all peoples.
January Week Three. While the Midwest and East Coast are being hit with subzero temperatures and pounding blizzards, we in the bay area continue to enjoy unseasonably high temperatures and lots of sunshine. But we know this is not good news. Our area alone usually averages 25 inches of rain a year. In 2013 there were only two downpours dropping a total of barely 5 inches. So far this winter, our rainy season, has not produced a drop, and reservoirs are getting lower, and vegetation is shriveling.
After rainy winter days in past years I have scouted out several mushroom hotspots for photo forays. These few images represent the full number of mushrooms I was able to fret out from under the thick, dry needle beds on Mt. Vision in Point Reyes National Seashore. Normally you can spot Alice-in-Wonderland-sized Fly Amanitas by the dozens.
Mushroom hunting for culinary purposes or photography gets one close to the land. This season the land seemed barren and wounded. Mushroom photography, even if there is only one or two available, requires one to belly-up to the earth, literally, and smell and feel what you see/capture! In pictures let us explore and pray for our Mother Earth in 2014.
Mushrooms are food for the body and soul – they grow literally everywhere. They are like our blessings.
Even though I did not blog the last weeks of December, I did place my weekly two images in the 2013 Weekly 2 portfolio. Enjoy.