Slowly, but surely, I am getting through my back catalogue as I continue the virtual spring cleaning of my recent image archives. This week I’ve finally gotten around to putting up images from some of the trips I managed to take last year: two trips to Yosemite, and a quick road trip up the coast through Northern California and Oregon.
Yosemite Fall from Cook’s Meadow, Pentax K-1, 420mm, 1/160 @ f/8
Some image sets I get through quickly, but others – particularly from multi-day trips or extended shoots – need time to marinate. There is a balance between reviewing and editing images when they are fresh in your mind, and waiting until after the emotion of the capture has faded a bit. Images that you loved in the moment may prove to be flawed on further reflection, while images you overlooked may rise to the surface when seen again through fresh eyes.
Last year I was fortunate to make two trips to photograph Yosemite. The first in February, when I attended the Out of Chicago workshop there just before the pandemic hit. The second was in October when the fall colors were bursting and it seemed (prematurely, as it turned out) that the world was about to open back up. I’ve posted a few of the images I made on these trips before, but finally got around to culling and editing all of them so they could go up in their own gallery, along with a few images I’d made from earlier trips to the Valley.
The icons of Yosemite have been photographed to death, but still there is always something new to catch your eye. A rainbow against the frozen rocks at Yosemite Falls. Patterns of ice or reflected fall colors along the shores of the Merced River. A black bear enjoying the sudden quiet with which the pandemic blanketed the Valley. You can see those images and more over here.
In December I took off again for a quick road trip up the coast of California and Oregon. You can ride along with me over here. It was a hectic and eerie trip. Hectic because I was on a tight time schedule – a night in Eureka, a night in Bandon and a night in Cannon Beach, with a lot of driving in between.
Near Laytonville, CA, Fuji GFX 50R, 45mm, 1/30 @ f/11
Coos Bay, OR, Fuji GFX 50R, 23mm, 1/60 @ f/7.1
Eureka, CA, Fuji GFX 50R, 45mm, 1/140 @ f/8
It was eerie because the pandemic was starting to surge again, and I felt like I was traveling through a ghost town at arm’s length. Between the rush to get north and the weight of the pandemic there was no waiting around for light on this trip, I drove by more places I wanted to shoot than stopped at places I actually shot. But, still, I had a creative blast.
I imagined I would spend the trip photographing towering redwoods and misty beaches. And I did. But more often I found myself pulled towards weathered buildings, picturesque lighthouses and abandoned gas stations. That’s the thing about road trips. You never can predict what you will see, or what will draw your attention. You’re just along for the ride, anticipating the next bend, seeing what you see. Eventually, somewhere along the road, probably when you don’t expect it, serendipity will meet preparation and you will be rewarded for your effort.
For me, on this trip, the reward was 15 minutes at Shore Acres State Park outside of Coos Bay. The winter waves were crashing against the shore, sending plumes of whitewater 40 and 50 feet into the air. As luck would have it, I happened to show up just as the clouds briefly (and rarely) parted to light up the towering waves, sending rainbows of color into the air. I grabbed my camera, pulled out my tripod and ran towards the shore. The waves, lit by low winter light, crashed and crashed and crashed again into the rocky shore, a breathtaking sight to behold. All I had to do was point and shoot. I didn’t wait around for the light, the light had found me.
And then it was gone. But not before leaving me with a perfect bookend to a difficult year that had begun with a rainbow on Yosemite Falls and was now winding down with a rainbow over the Pacific.
Shore Acres State Park, Oregon, Pentax K-1, 82.5mm, 1/1000 @ f/8
I’ve still got a ways to go to get through my recent archives, but getting these two new galleries up on the website is a good start.
Whenever I shoot, my images first get downloaded into one of the “Sorting Bins” I keep on a fast M.2 drive on my desktop. From there I sort, keyword and rank the images. Then I go back and look again, editing (post-processing) those that seem like keepers. Another round of reviews, then deeper edits on fewer images. And again. As many times as it takes. In this iterative process I eventually hone in on the images that I want to share, whether by adding to my website, entering into competitions, or posting on social media. But I’m still not done. The best (or most meaningful) of those will be further worked and, finally, a few that I truly love will be printed.
It’s a long process to go through, but until I finish, the images sitting in those sorting bins waiting to be looked at will continue to weigh on me. Why go out and shoot then ignore the results?