smoothing out the ocean
barefoot beach, fl
august 30, 2005

"no matter how fast light travels it finds the darkness has always got there first, and is waiting for it."
     --terry pratchett

i have long admired the work of michael kenna. his long-exposure images, all taken in the early dawn or middle of the night, have a mysterious quality that pulls at some deep emotion in me.

tonight, i made a pledge to myself to get my tripod from the car after my sunset beach walk and try a few long exposures of my own. the gulf is still choppy from katrina. one diehard surfer played in the waves until the sun was gone.

this image was made approximately 30-45 minutes after sunset. the beach was deserted and the sunset light was nearly gone to my own eyes. i had no idea how the marginally long exposure (30 seconds) would affect the foot-high waves crashing on the beach, and was happily enchanted to see the soft smoothing of the ocean in this image.

evening stars overhead. greasy water and luscious color in front of me. i will try this again.

nikon 12-24 @ 12mm, 30 seconds, f/16

the ocean calms
barefoot beach, fl
august 29, 2005

"it is a mistake to look too far ahead. only one link in the chain of destiny can be handled at a time.."
     --winston churchill

the last of hurricane katrina's tailwinds are leaving this section of the southeast gulf of mexico. the waves are diminishing but still sweep over sandbars in crosscut chops.

nature is challenging for those who dislike change. this beach, always on the move, is completely rearranged into a wide expanse of undulating drifts formed by million of shells. palm trees, ripped from the north side of the pass, have been thrown ashore here and there. in the falling light, the last of those souls with surfing in their blood paddled among the whitecaps.

we were blessed here.

nikon 80-400 vr @ 80 mm, 1/13, f/13

three sanderlings
barefoot beach, fl
august 29, 2005

"those who dwell among the beauties and mysteries of the earth are never alone or weary of life."
     --rachel carson

nikon 80-400 vr @ 80 mm, 1/5, f/18

last light
barefoot beach, fl
august 22, 2005

walking the beach at sunset...walking, walking, walking.

learning the sky...learning, learning clouds, weather, the water, the fish, the birds, the light, the camera. filling my lungs with deep sighs of sea air and knowing.

moving, always moving. music, motion, light, thought, sweet air. throwing day-worries out onto slick water. let the currents take them as they will. moving, moving, moving into the glow of last light.

the perfect exercise.

"the master in the art of living makes little distinction between his work and his play, his labor and his leisure, his mind and his body, his information and his recreation, his love and his religion. he hardly knows which is which. he simply pursues his vision of excellence at whatever he does, leaving others to decide whether he is working or playing. to him he's always doing both."
    --james a. michener

nikon 12-24 @ 12mm, 1/15, f/13

morning light shining through "elephant ears" leaves
bonita springs, fl
august 19, 2005

"from within or from behind, a light shines through us upon things, and makes us aware that we are nothing, but the light is all.
    --ralph waldo emerson

nikon 80-400 vr @ 270 mm, 1/400, f/8, spot metering, infrared/sepia techniques in photoshop

texture and curves
wiggins pass, fl
august 18, 2005

"light is my inspiration, my paint and brush. it is as vital as the model herself. profoundly significant, it caresses the essential superlative curves and lines. light i acknowledge as the energy upon which all life on this planet depends. there is no such thing as taking too much time, because your soul is in that picture."
    --ruth bernhard (1905 -        )

while recognized most especially for her photographs of human shape and form (ansel adams called her the greatest photographer of the nude), ruth bernhard studied and worked with some of landscape photography's icons - edward weston, imogen cunningham, wynn bullock and minor white. ruth met edward weston on a beach in santa monica, california. it was a meeting that would transform and elevate her entire perception of photography.

"i was unprepared for the experience of seeing his pictures for the first time. it was overwhelming. it was lightning in the darkness ... here before me was indisputable evidence of what I had thought possible - an intensely vital artist whose medium was photography."

born in berlin, germany in 1905, ruth's father was legendary type designer and graphic artist, lucian bernhard. she moved to new york at age 21, and in 1934, traveled to california where she met weston. from this chance meeting, the mere realization that photography could be art, in its truest sense, was enlightening for her. she moved to california not long after, living in carmel, then hollywood. during this time, she worked as a portrait photographer to celebrities, often photographing their children or pets.

during world war ii, bernhard moved back to new york, but in 1943 took off for sanibel Island, florida with only $40 and a one-way ticket. what drew her was the annual shell festival, and the great wealth of shells in the area. probably it had been weston and his friends in california that had inspired this interest in her, as they had made some fine images of shells, attracted by the analogies and rhyming with aspects of the human, particularly female, body as well as their shape and form. she began to photograph shells commercially, and worked with jeanne s. schwengel who later wrote 'marine shells of the western coast of florida.'

"my quest, through the magic of light and shadow, is to isolate, to simplify and to give emphasis to form with the greatest clarity. to indicate the ideal proportion, to reveal sculptural mass and the dominating spirit is my goal."

ruth is a huge life force that has galvanized those she meets to take the time to look, feel, breathe and to trust their gut feelings. ....."I always said 'yes' to everything." ruth inspired people to just say "yes" to everything in life.

"for me, the creation of a photograph is experienced as a heightened emotional response, most akin to poetry and music, each image the culmination of a compelling impulse I cannot deny. whether working with a human figure or a still life, i am deeply aware of my spiritual connection with it. in my life, as in my work, i am motivated by a great yearning for balance and harmony beyond the realm of human experience, reaching for the essence of oneness with the universe."

ruth continued to lecture and conduct master classes throughout the united states through her 95th birthday.

"i allowed life to give me presents."  - ruth berhard

nikon 80-400 vr @ 80 mm, 1/800, f/16, spot metering off natural lighting just before sunset

sun shadow spotlight
bonita beach, fl
august 16, 2005 @ 20:14 (8:14 pm)

"the sky is the daily bread of the eyes."
    --ralph waldo emerson

i have observed that daylight begins to shrink noticeably in august, as if picking up steam for that downhill bolt to december 21 - winter solstice. i thought about this again as i sat on the lip of the dock at sunrise, thinking, "red sky in morning...sailors take warning" - and again tonight as i stood on the eastern lip of the gulf of mexico, thinking, "that sky. oh, that beautiful marriage of light and sky."

and i wondered, how is it that the exact time of sunrise and sunset is calculated each day?

i first discovered that definitions of each vary. in north america, official sunrise occurs when the upper limb of the sun's disk first appears above the sea-level horizon. likewise, official sunset is when the lower limb last appears above the horizon.  by contrast, in great britain, it is the center of the sun's disk that marks sunrise and sunset times.

definitions aside, visible sunrise or sunset is a bit of an illusion, since the sun's light is refracted - or bent - by its elongated passage through the atmosphere when close to the horizon. the sun reaches the horizon about two minutes earlier than the time calculated from simple geometric calculations.

in this photograph, a tower cloud on the western horizon sends a long shaft of shadow up into the sky several minutes after sunset, pointing at strollers on the beach. i wonder if they noticed.

nikon 24-120 vr @ 24 mm, 1/30, f/8

the tight hugs (half nelsons?) of friends at sunset
chris and jason
barefoot beach, fl
august 9, 2005

"my portraits are more about me than they are about the people i photograph."
    --richard avedon

nikon 12-24 @ 15mm, 1/40, f/13, onboard speedlight d-ttl, -0.3 flash ev

"something to say & singin' it right out loud"
least tern
barefoot beach, fl
august 9, 2005

"if this was the last night of the world,
what would i do...
what would i do that was different?"
    --bruce cockburn, "last night of the world" from anything, anytime, anywhere

there is a spot about 3/4 of a mile into my beach walk where recent dredging efforts at wiggins pass have created a large sandbar. the beach along this stretch has become a favorite place for a collection of summer shorebirds at low tide. black skimmers, royal, least and common terns, willets, sanderlings - they all gather there, mingling in pockets of activity.

this small least tern was truly his (her?) own spirit. standing alone in the crowd, he stood apart from everyone and simply sang. mouth wide open, feet firmly planted, sending out what seemed like a melody known only to its own heart. we watched each other for a time. i smiled a lot. he sang louder.

singing your own songs, even in a crowd. we should all be so brave.

nikon 80-400 @ 400mm, 1/800, f/8

last light off the bow
august 8, 2005

"anything that excites me for any reason, i will photograph; not searching for unusual subject matter, but making the commonplace unusual.."
    --edward weston

my days have been hot and long recently; the dog days of florida summer are barking ferociously. when the light is leaving, so too, it seems, does my desire or energy to pick up the camera. painting the exterior of the house in the unrelenting july/august heat and humidity is not necessarily the best of plans. time is funny that way; it is rarely abundant at the most convenient moment.

but tonight, as i put a few final brush strokes on fascia boards that face the dock and canal under grey overcast skies, the western horizon began to explode in red, magenta and orange. i stood on the ladder and watched for a bit, wiping thick white paint from my hands and face. it was so beautiful. the day was going down in flames.

as quickly as it sparked, it faded away into night. it is the way of summer in florida. tomorrow will dawn clear and blue. heat will build. it will storm. and the colors at the end of day will be glorious again. nature's cycles, so much like life itself.

nikon 12-24, 1/6th, f/13, onboard speedlight -1.0

little blue heron
august, 2005

"we don't see things as they are, we see things as we are."
    --anais nin

waterlily
august 1, 2005

"photographs that transcend but do not deny their literal situation appeal to me."
    --sam abell

sometimes, at the end of the day, i find myself locked in my computer's darkroom. hours pass and i am unaware. sooner or later, something or someone emerges. it's always a crap shoot as to which will be first.

image: waterlily from my garden (shots of these in my archive seem to multiply like guppies overnight. perhaps it has something to do with the water garden being just five steps from my desk) with infrared, burning and deep sepia techniques applied.

nikon 80-400VR, 1/100, f/11, spot metering