semillerimages.com - Image of the Week 4/11/05 San Simeon Sunset 4x5
Steve
I remember the first time I drove to San Simeon, on my way to interview
for my current job at the castle, someone had told me it was just a
half an hour from San Luis... I drove my little 1981 Honda Civic as
quickly as possible to a job that paid *gasp* eight dollars an hour. A
half hour went by and I was just barely getting into Cambria, I thought
the houses on the hills were part of the castle initially, much to my
chagrin, they were not and I was on my way to being late to my
interview. Well, the rest is history, half of my life spent working for
the state... ugg. Settled to the day to day life of work and sleep. I
do like it, most of the time...
On the way back from the interview, I stopped off at the San Simeon
campground beach. The same beach I mentioned last week where there is a
canyon formed by the tidal flow every day. It took me fourteen years
before I walked back out on the same stretch of beach. Amazing. I had
climbed, on that afternoon of my interview, to the top of this rock
that is sitting right off the beach. I think I sat there for awhile, I
don't remember much else other than laughing at the old man of the sea
for escaping up the side of rock away from the waves. On the way back
down, I lost one of my shoes. I never laughed at the ocean again.
This last week I stopped on the way home from work to reconnoiter for
some possible images. I did not take my cameras initally, as I was not
intending to shoot anything. I walked up the beach, looked at the rock
where I lost my shoe, searched the pebbles for some moonstones, and
generally enjoyed the warm afternoon and the waves on the ocean. The
tide was rather low, and I became fascinated with the patterns that the
light made on the shallow tidal lake bottom from the little wind waves
on the water. I walked back to my car, gathered my gear and proceeded
to spend about four hours (including my inital time looking about)
shooting this and that. I printed a few of the images of the abstract
patterns of the water and light thinking I would use them for the image
this week... all the while, waiting for two pieces of 4x5 film to come
back from processing. I was hesitant to use the abstract images as last
weeks image did not receive much favorable response. Perhaps I am the
only one seeing what I thought was interesting, I dunno. It's funny
though, as I have seen some very successful and famous photographers
show work that is absolutely mundane, and they are celebrated for it...
art is confusing. I dislike being confused.
Anyway, as the time slipped by, the sky was shaping up favorably for a
stunning sunset. In preparation, I set up my 4x5 camera, composed and
went to focus when I realized I did not have my loupe. With little
time, I could not go back to my car to search for it, so I focused as
best as I could and crossed my fingers. The metering of the light is
difficult with a sunset, it is more a less a guess, albiet an
experienced guess (which I need a lot more experience even if you may
not believe it). I set the shutter speed, the aperature, pulled the
dark slide and pushed the shutter release. One second at f32. I
re-inserted the dark slide, flipped the film holder, re-metered, set
the shutter speed, and then a woman walked right into my frame...
fortunately, two other women were walking near her and they saw me
gesturing wildly. The ocean drowned my voice. The one who had walked
right into my frame (not like I was not being obvious what I was
doing), moved out of the way after giving me a dirty look... second
frame - two seconds at f32.
Yeah, it's a sunset. My sunsets are no better than anyone else's
really. They are not difficult to do well. Then again, is a photograph
that is difficult to take a better photograph? Is my technical ability
with the 4x5 camera make a better sunset photograph? Perhaps... Is a
four inch by five inch piece of film with a sunset perfectly captured
glorious? Yes. Yes it is.
This image would look utterly fantastic VERY LARGE. If you're
interested... drop me an email. For those of you on this list, I will
charge only the price of the scan and print, no markup... it will be
worth it to me for the scan alone which I can of course reprint again
and again :) A 24x30 print would be $200.00 - 1/3 what I would normally
charge... (and yes, that is only the cost of the scan and print!)
Here is the image:
http://www.semillerimages.com/iow-link/iow-4-11-05-4x5sansimeonsunset.html
Take care,
*steve