MORNING LIGHT

WHEN YOU HAVE YOUR CAMERA WITH YOU, GOOD LUCK TENDS TO HAPPEN

Isn’t it funny how ideas get started? When my kids went back to school one year, I gave myself the assignment to develop a new portfolio theme. My daughter’s new school was twenty minutes away from my house, and I was making the drive nearly every weekday during the school year, through beautiful Sierra Nevada foothills. I am always looking for great light and new photographs—I might as well use my time wisely. I planned on calling the portfolio “Morning Light.”

For the first month or so, I found no good light. Indian Summer conditions gave us clear blue skies, and no interesting clouds. Finally, when our first winter rain arrived, I found great conditions for my series. One Sunday night, we had a rip-roaring thunderstorm in our area. When I drove my daughter to school on Monday morning, there was a thick fog in the area. On my way home after dropping her off, I spotted these beautiful oaks across from the school. I spent the next forty-five minutes reveling in the fog, photographing every variation I could think of, changing camera positions and lenses. I tried a few vertical panos, and shuffled along the fence line of this field as I worked on varying the spacing between the trees. The fog simplified the background, isolating the graphic shapes of these valley oaks.

A few days later, while driving homeward from my morning school run, I came around a corner to see these pine trees on the ridge high above me. The sun was projecting these amazing beams and shadows of the trees onto the fog. I grabbed my camera, making the first frames without my tripod. Soon I realized I needed my tripod, so I raced back to my car to get it. The sun hadn’t appeared above the ridgeline yet, so I frantically set up with a tripod and cable release. As the sun appeared behind the tree, I made 147 frames, including some seven-stop brackets, as the contrast became harsher. Looking back at the time stamps on my files, I had photographed for only twelve minutes before the effect disappeared. That I arrived at the right location at the right time was pure luck.

Composing Sunbeams and Forest was an interesting challenge, especially given the quickly changing conditions. I wanted the sunbeams to be the central focus, of course, but placing them in the center of the frame was too static. The beams were stronger on the right side, so I aimed to the right to give them enough room to stand out against the dark background. This framing also gave the image a more diagonal rhythm of tree silhouettes along the ridgeline. As always, my most used lens was on my camera, a Canon 70–200mm f/2.8. The focal length was set at 165mm, which allowed me to reach past any distractions and isolate the key elements on the mountainside above me.

The experience reminded me of all the photographs I had made many years earlier when I used to drive into Yosemite Valley to work at The Ansel Adams Gallery, and then back down the Merced River Canyon again at the end of each day. How fortunate I am to have had that experience, and to still live in an area of such beauty. Counting my blessings . . .

Sunbeams and Forest | Sierra Nevada Foothills, California | 2010

Rocks and Surf at Sunrise | Carmel, California | 2010