I photographed this scene at dawn on Christmas day in 2006. It was a cloudy morning, so there was nearly no color in the dawn. Since it was a calm morning, the water on the C&O canal was mirror smooth. Leafless for the winter, the trees and ridges made a tapestry of shapes and textures reflected in the water. It felt to me tranquil, peaceful, and I sought to capture that feeling of tranquility in this image.
I’ve been following Bruce Percy’s blog for a long time now, because his images helped to inspire my own landscape photography. So naturally when he announced his book “The Art of Adventure: 40 Photographic Examples” I ordered a copy.
The edition I purchased is a hardcover with a dust jacket showcasing one of Bruce’s photographs. It’s pretty hefty, for its thickness; it’s printed on high-end glossy paper that showcases the images quite nicely.
The layout is very simple, following the example of Ansel Adams’ comparable book; on the left side of each spread is a photograph, and on the right is an essay about that photograph, sometimes with an inset image showing an alternative version of the main image.
The images consist of a mix of portraits and landscapes from Bruce’s travels. The essays are light on technical info, instead emphasizing the reason that he chose to frame the image the way he did, and in several instances also expressing his self-doubts about images, especially when they involved portraits.
The images and the essays together offer some insight not only into how a masterful photographer like Bruce Percy makes such compelling images, but also into what he was thinking about when he made them, and why he made some of the choices that he made.
Without the essays, this would be a great coffee table book, but the essays make it a great read for anyone passionate about photography.
I’ve made trips out to the Skagit Valley nearly every year since moving out west to seek opportunities to get some nice shots of vast flocks of snow geese. So far I haven’t succeeded with snow geese, at least not really, but I have gotten some beautiful photographs as a result of these attempts, including these.
The top image is a shot of Mount Baker towering over a farm on Fir Island. The lower one is a group of swans flying in a nice elegant formation. I tripped the shutter several times while panning with them to get this shot, and picked out the one where the geese had the most pleasing formation, and where the wingbeats were almost exactly in sync. This isn’t a black and white conversion, it was an overcast day so the sky was grey, and the swans are mostly black and white.
I pulled these images out of my archives partly because I like them, and partly because I’m planning on trying again this season; this time I have the advantage of having explored the area a bit more, and found places where snow geese like to spend their days.
The challenge of course is that, being birds, they get around quite a bit. They like to find themselves quiet places in the water to rest overnight, where they’re relatively safe from predators, and head out to feed during the day. There are several wildlife sanctuaries in the Skagit Valley that are set aside for snow geese in particular, and more that are more generally protected. The ones set aside for snow geese have farmers contracted to seed the fields with goose food, which has helped restore the population of the Wrangel Island geese that winter here in Washington.
I’m going to be working with Art on the Ridge to lead a workshop/safari in February to chase snow geese, so it will be an opportunity to come along for the ride and get a tour if you’re so inclined. If you’re interested, subscribe to my blog or my newsletter, or to the Art on the Ridge newsletter. Or some combination of those three.
I organized a 7-day backpacking trip in the Glacier Peak Wilderness this September. We followed the Spider Gap to Buck Creek Pass route, and took the mandatory side trip to Image Lake in the process. The hike to Image Lake is itself incredible, with the alternating stands of trees and areas of flower-filled open meadows, with Glacier Peak standing tall directly across the valley below.
It was worth the side trip. Image lake is an idyllic location; the lake itself is in a deep cirque and ringed with wildflower-laden meadows. When we were there, because the snowpack persisted so much later than usual, the wildflowers, lupines in particular, were in full bloom, and there are several places with wonderful views of Glacier Peak. One of those places happens to be the backcountry toilet at the group camp site, but another is the view from above Image Lake, where you can, if the weather cooperates, catch the reflection of Glacier Peak in the lake.
I was fortunate on this trip; the breeze died down just as I arrived at Image Lake shortly before sunrise, since it was to be our only night there on this trip, which means that a 2nd try would have to wait a year.
Still classic images sometimes take several years to create; during a workshop with Danny Burke in the Great Smoky Mountains, he found an opportunity to get a shot he’d been after for four years, because he hadn’t had the right light to get the shot he wanted in his previous visits.
But return I will; I am going to be co-leading this trip for the Sierra Club in August.
Click here for more info.
