Extended Captions

A word about these photographs

All these photos were are shot on medium format film, Acros 100, on either a Mamiya 645 or Bronica Zenza camera. There’s nothing comparable to the meaty tonality that a large piece of film can give you. I scan the film with a Nikon 9000, and I keep alive an old Mac with a Firewire port just to support this scanner. The resulting files are amenable to tonal control and manipulation through many targeted Photoshop adjustment layers, not unlike what I would do in a darkroom if I still had one. The resulting prints are gorgeous and are, of course, for sale.

January -Prairie Redwoods State Park, CA.

The state parks of northern California contain over half of all the remaining old growth coast Redwood trees on earth. They need soaking winter rains, moist summer fog, and mild year round temperatures, which occurs in a narrow band near the coast of far northern California and southern Oregon. Prairie Redwoods has one of the prettiest and most accessible groves on the drive up Hwy. 101.

February – Sandstone Boulder, Wollemi Retreat, New South Wales, Australia 

For several night before Robin’s teaching gig in Sydney, we booked a cabin in a private nature reserve about 4 hours NE of the city. A pristine creek runs through a narrow valley of sandstone escarpments in the transition zone between the valley and the mountains. So many birds. So many wallabys and wombats. I even saw a platypus one morning in the creek. And so many boulders. I love rocks like this, and all I did for four days was take pictures of them.

March & April – Big Four Ice Caves, WA

The Big Four Ice Caves in Washington’s Cascade Mountains is a big birding location, which is what brought me there. The forest and wetland near the start of the trail is a wonderful place to explore as a landscape and in closeup.

May – Sandstone and eucalyptus tree, Wollemi Retreat, Rylstone, NSW, Australia

A piece of the cliff above Cox Creek, and behind it one of the iconic eucalyptus tree species of Australia.

June – Ipheion on the garden path

The small, shapely bloom of Ipheion, along with flowering thyme and a fern frond. I was testing my new camera in the garden.

July – Rhododendron and fog, Del Norte Coast Redwood State Park, WA

I drive to a music camp in Mendocino every other year, and every time I stop at this particular redwood grove just south of Crescent City. It’s an unmarked turnout, and it’s one of my favorite spots  in the world to forest bathe.

August – On the road to Mudgee, NSW, Australia

East of our wooded mountain retreat were the open green pasturelands of inland New South Wales. I must have stopped at every available turnout on this drive.

September- The Three Sisters, Blue Mountains National Park, Australia

It’s the equivalent of Mt. Rushmore, or the Cliffs of Moher, for Australia. The iconic view of three stone pillars on the lip of the Jamison Valley is one of the most visited spots in the Blue Mountains. There’s an enormous plaza for the hundreds of people that emerge from the scores of tour coaches to snap their photo, but this shot is from just around the corner where nobody goes.

October – Del Norte Redwood State Park, CA

I was actually stopped in a road repair queue when I saw this. I pulled out and shot a ton of variations of this particular scene from the road shoulder.

November – Humboldt Lagoons State Park, CA

The California coast is so dense with state parks and public access that it’s easy to find a spot to yourself somewhere. This storm tide debris was perfectly arranged for my wide lens.

December – Ravenna Park erratic, Seattle

Rocks are kinda a thing for me, you think? I see this rock almost every day. I live nearby, and Ravenna Park is part of my nearly daily birding walk.

January – Pistol River North State Park, OR

Let’s end with a couple of big bruising rocks. I caught sight of these at 60mph and made an instant u-turn to stop and explore the beach, even though it was midday and supposedly terrible light for photographs. I made it happen anyway. It’s analogous of that maxim of, there is no bad weather, only insufficient clothing. There is no bad light.