On the Edges….

I’ve been going to the Outer Banks of North Carolina since 1990 and while it’s meant to be a vacation, I always make it a time to create as well. Each time I have a different experience and I come away with ideas for the next year. This year I had two types of imagery in mind, graphic daytime oceanscapes, and nighttime oceanscapes.

I’ve written about the night oceanscapes previously here. The daytime oceanscape that I have now begun to offer as a 14×20 print matted and framed to 22×28 is one I’ve titled Edges. It is an image I made just before sunrise looking out over the ocean. I composed to achieve an image that has strong edges: sand, sea and sky are all distinct. Each of the layers has a very different feeling, texture and reflectivity. I knew this was an image I would  want to print big and so I used a camera that offered me 21 megapixels and a sharp Canon 17-40mm L lens closed down to maximize depth. The image shines printed on Epson Exhibition Fiber paper.

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Tracks and Shadows

Two themes that I am developing both relate to implied subjects, that is, shadows and tracks. Tracks speak to the presence in a previous time, of some subject. Be it footprints of some quadruped or tracks left by some slithering creature, animal tracks tell of behaviors not visible in the present. Other tracks could be those left by a leaf blown across snow, or a plant’s leaf blades switching across the sand.

Shadows also speak to the presence of a subject, but contemperaneous to the making of the image. In some images, I will make the shadow the entire representation. In others, the shadow and the subject making it will both be included. Ultimately, whether tracks or shadows, the image’s strength is often judged on the graphic representation I achieve.

In this first image of tracks in the sand, there are several creatures involved and a plant as well. There appears to be some four-legged animal, some slithering creature (a lizard perhaps?), some human footprints, and the streaking marks left by the leaf blades of the plants shown. It all tells quite an interesting story. How far apart temporally were these tracks made?

In this second image, I am concentrating on the form and shadow created by the blown sand and the plant leaves. The shadows are long and encompass much of the frame. I like the abstract nature of this image and the simplicity I’ve achieved. Both images were made during a recent trip to Jockey’s Ridge on the Outer Banks of North Carolina.

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