Working the Subject

I’ve posted before about working an image - how one often has to struggle with different ways of photographing a subject before you’re able to get an image that really stands out.  There’s a somewhat similar but quite different aspect to our photography that comes in to play for Ann and me, and that’s working a subject.  If you’ve been reading the blog for some time, you’ll realize that we often return to the same locations and therefore the same subject - you’ll recognize the same rock or tree from our Japanese garden trips, or the same formations from our Yosemite trips.  There’s a learning process, an understanding that comes from returning to the same place and subject again and again that can’t be obtained in a single visit.  In part, that comes from photographing the same subject under a variety of conditions.  During our trip to Bandon, that idea was front and center for me. 

Sometimes, it’s simply returning to the same overall place that stirs one photographically; returning to try and capture a sense of place and of being in that place.  I think that’s our attraction to the Lamar Valley.  Other times it’s a specific subject at that place.  In Bandon I’ve always been attracted to a formation called Cat and Kittens.  So after realizing that I’d been so attracted to those rocks this particular trip, I decided to revisit  other times we’d gone to that part of Bandon, and to see what those images reveal.

We’ve been to this part of the Bandon shore three times - 2016, 2017, and 2019.  Another of the images comes from one of our scouting trips, in 2018, taken from the parking area high above the beach during a trip where we wound up photographing at other locations along the shore.

Our trips to Bandon tend to be timed so that we can take advantage of low tide at sunrise.  Though as we learned from our trip this time, super super low tide recedes well past our usual rock outcropping where we photograph.  But it’s fantastic for the Cat and Kittens.  Actually, the tides seem to be right at any height for them.

As I wrote about in the last post, there was something ethereal about the early morning blue cast that captivated me in my image making this past trip.  Still I decided to also try and neutralize the cast to see what the image revealed.  That morning the natural colors were extremely subtle, but not as diverse or complex as we’ve seen before.

We generally photograph in the morning, but we’ve also made images in the evening.  Much like the morning, the light in the evening can be quite spectacular, if not quite a bit different in character. 

And just because we’ll periodically visit a subject, that doesn’t mean we won’t work that subject on any given visit. 

I guess that much was evident from the previous posts from our recent trip.  Even as distant a subject the Cat and Kittens is, it offers a range of framing and composition opportunities give some variety between the subject and context in one’s explorations.  

And, of course, there is the lighting conditions.  As I’ve repeatedly said, the light in Bandon is simply amazing, particularly the pre-dawn light.  And while we didn’t get that this trip, we certainly have during other visits.

However, like everywhere, not every morning has clear skies.  Even then, the light seems to have something to offer regardless of the conditions.

I’m still not sure what it is about this combination of rocks, but it seems that they always catch my eye and compel me to bring out the camera.

Not much more you can ask for from a subject.