As I concentrated on Landscape photography over the last five years, I developed a number of practices to achieve the kind of images I was looking for. Early on, it became clear that repetitive visits to the same areas and locations would pay off in better photography than casting a wider geographical net. Getting to know the land, the light and the seasons directly in my chosen locations -- the Mendocino Coast and the High Sierra -- would make the difference between “average” photographs and a “great” ones. Some days I have gotten lucky, as in the Half Dome image.
One visit, great conditions and light, one iconic photo. But it doesn’t go that way most of the time. Even though I limit the scope of my photographic wanderings, on the Mendocino Coast, there are days of hazy, overcast or rainy weather and, in the Sierra, bright cloudless days. Neither condition is good for photography but there is always time to “find the frame” on these kinds of days, evaluate the images and shoot later under different conditions. Since I am already working with a subset of the landscape, it is easy to return to the same place over and over. If I’ve already “found the frame”, I can tell at a glance if conditions are right. Visualization is important here too. How do I want this image to look under ideal conditions? Sometimes the “finding the frame” leads to the to the visualization. Sometimes, the visualization leads to “finding the frame” Sometimes it’s a combination.
As an example, I am presently working on two overviews of the town of Bridgeport in the Eastern Sierra. Locals want me to take these shots. One is going to be to be a Black and White, reasonably close up, with the buildings in the near foreground and the local geographic “superstar” Sawtooth Ridge in the background the other is to be a color image from a more distant point emphasizing the enormous scale of the Bridgeport Valley with both the town and the Sawtooth Ridge in an epic-sized frame.
After hours of driving and hiking around on a recent trip and a day of shooting, the results are shown in Bridgeport Valley 1, and Bridgeport Valley 2. These are not bad but they could be better. The B&W could be improved if I could get higher – avoiding the telephone wires and cluttered foreground and taking in more of the town. It would also help if Sawtooth Ridge were directly behind the buildings. It so happens that there is a long hill behind this shooting location which is about ¼ mile further away and about 100 feet higher where I might be able to achieve both. I’ll shoot from there at the next visit. The color image has a different problem. It too could be improved by being at a higher location allowing more of the lake in the shot and better separation of the town from the forest in the foreground. I also need to wait till later in the day to get the sun to light the latter. The geography, however, won’t allow me to align the town and the Ridge as with the B&W. The town in the lower left will have to balance the peaks on the upper right. Hence the need for more distance between the trees and the town. More problematic is the vegetation. This is the Valley’s winter coat – brown empty pastures and a half empty reservoir. So, with this photo, the solution is seeking a position to solve the “frame” problem by moving my shooting location but waiting until later in the spring to solve the second. I guess the message is that patience and method are virtues in landscape photography.
To illustrate, consider the image, Garcia River runs to the Sea. .I have always liked this image and it has been in my catalog for several years but the clear skies and flat light have invited me to wonder if it could be improved. The location is a sugarloaf on the Stornetta Ranch near the Lighthouse, which requires ½ mile walk through mud and cow pies. Twice it was so windy at the top of the hill, I could barely stand up much less shoot from a tripod. Due to the often-gray skies on the Point, quite often, the intent to reshoot had to be put on hold. But on a spectacular day after a storm passed through this April, I got clear air and a cloud-filled horizon with no wind. I set up in the exact same spot as three years before and about an hour before sunset. I call the new photograph, Message to Garcia, taken under completely different conditions: The clouds are spectacular and the late afternoon light creates contrasting shadows across the marshland and a glow on the banks and water of the river. There is no question that this is the better shot but it took three years and a dozen trips to get it. Visit. Shoot. Repeat. It works for me!
