Memories of Summer

Memories of Summer, Brookings, Oregon
(c) Darlene Lyon  Kruse - All Rights Reserved


Let me say, straight up, from the beginning, that this is not the best photograph I've ever made, not even the best I made on that particular day.  But it reminds me of a sunny, fun day I spent on the Oregon coast.  Today, here in Ashland, it is wet and gray.  We are experiencing the first storm of the season, & it's a doozy.  Clouds hang low on the mountains.  It's too wet to get out to photograph.  The possibility of snow on Siskiyou Pass.  A taste of what's to come.  And when I started looking at photographs for my blog this weekend, this photo just said what I felt -- I'm not ready for winter -- I want more 75 degree, sunny days before diving into umbrellas, jackets, gloves and boots. 

This photograph was made last summer (June 30) when I was on a scouting trip with David Lorenz Winston, looking for locations for a summer coastal workshop we were doing together.  On the beach near the Port of Brookings, the Banana Belt of the Oregon coast.  A bit of history:  On a photo trip here in the mid-1990s with a photographer-friend, we watched a dead whale (gray whale if I remember correctly) being buried right at this same stretch of beach (somewhere I have slides of a worker digging a trench and then burying the whale).  Anyway, the family was nowhere to be seen but there was something in all the beach toys, towels , flip flops etc that appealed to me. And the warmth and color definitely appeal on this gray, drizzly, autumn day in Southern Oregon.

Metadata:  Photographed with Nikon D300.  24-70mm f/2.8 lens at 70mm (35-mm equivalent = 105mm).  ISO 200.  1/350 at f/6.7

The Mary D. Hume

The Mary D. Hume

(c) Darlene Lyon Kruse, All Rights Reserved

Most of the work I've done on the Oregon coast over the past 20+ years has been done between Port Orford and Newport so, when David Winston and I scouted locations for our upcoming workshop at Port Orford and Cape Blanco, it was an opportunity for me to explore Gold Beach. The Mary D. Hume is much photographed but this was my first time. Here's a little info about the boat, first:

Built in Gold Beach in 1881, she is named for the wife of the builder and first served as a steamer serving Mr. Hume's cannery business. Later she became a whaling ship and, when the whaling industry ended, she served as a tugboat, a tender for halibut fishing boats and a towboat before being retired to the harbor near where she was born. The Mary D. was in service until 1978, the longest serving, commercial boat on the Pacific coast. Now she sits at the mouth of the Rogue River, slowly decaying, becoming part of the river.

I was drawn to the texture of the timbers -- there's something SO seductive about peeling paint & old weathered wood --, the bright green of the moss growing at and below the waterline, and the tilt of the ship against the pier, as if leaning on it for support. I hoped for a soft spring sunset to warm her up, maybe some clouds in the sky. But the sky was cloudless, and the sunset didn't manifest its full potential. Sometimes you just have to do the best with what you're presented with. So...I have helped it along in Adobe Lightroom. I did that by adjusting the color temperature to bring in more warmth & using Lightroom's graduated neutral density filter to intensify the existing color in the sky.

My vision was to create an emotionally satisfying image of the Mary D., one that is warm, sweet, nostalgic, even romantic. That didn't happen when I was there -- so I'm really grateful for the technology that allows me to come close to expressing my vision for her. I can't wait to go back and photograph her again...



Metadata: 6/30/10. 8:28PM. Nikon D300. 24-70mm f/2.8 Nikkor lens at 70mm (35mm equivalent - 105mm). ISO 400. 1/180 sec. at f/8. Gitzo tripod with Linhof ballhead.

Waiting

Cape Blanco Lighthouse, Oregon

(c) Darlene Lyon Kruse - All Rights Reserved

David Lorenz Winston & I were on the Oregon coast a couple of weeks ago, finalizing locations for our August 28 workshop (click here for more information). We both love the elegance and stark beauty of the Cape Blanco Lighthouse.

I had photographed it from several angles that day and was looking at compositions where I could get down low when I saw these two women slowly working their way up the gentle slope, an older woman who needed some support from her younger companion. There was a gentleness, a mutual caring between them.

As they approached the lighthouse, I waited, camera on tripod, waited for them to step into a relationship with the lighthouse that resonated for me. Just below the crest of the slope, they stopped. Resting? Chatting? Waiting?

The photograph felt complete.

Photographed with Nikon D300 camera. 24-70 f/28 lens at 55mm. ISO 400. 1/90" at f/8. Circular polarizing filter. Gitzo tripod with Linhof head.

Unexpected Beauty

Reeds, 12th Street Boat Launch, Port Orford, Oregon

(c) Darlene Lyon Kruse - All Rights Reserved

Last week David Winston and I scouted locations for a workshop we're doing together in August - Port Orford and Cape Blanco on the southern Oregon coast. Driving around Port Orford, we saw signs pointing to the "12th Street Boat Launch". Sounds pretty unappetizing. I think of boat launches as being all about that sweep of concrete that makes it possible to launch boats into a lake or bay. Something tugged though -- call it curiosity -- and at the last moment at an intersection I decided to follow the sign, to see what was there.

As a photographer one of the gifts to me is permission to find out what's there, to satisfy my curiousity, to take the winding, meandering, indirect way from one place to another. Sometimes there's nothing at the end of the trip. But then again sometimes there is. The 12th Street Boat Launch in Port Orford ends at Garrison Lake. David and I found a sweet little dock, some interesting angles, and these reeds. I was totally captivated by the reeds, their reflection & the deep blue of the water. I did several compositions, some verticals, some horizontals. This is one of my favorites.

Photographed with Nikon D300. Lens: 24-70 f/2.8 Nikkor at 55mm. ISO 400. 1/90" at f/8. Circular polarizing filter. Gitzo tripod with Linhof head.

On Showing Up

Spring Sunset, Bandon, Oregon
(c)Darlene Lyon Kruse - All Rights Reserved

"Spring Sunset, Bandon OR" reminds me that this old adage is at least partially true: "How do you make a good photograph? F/8 and be there" -- of the two, Be There is the vital one. 90% of the success of this photograph is because I was there...with my camera...on a tripod when Mother Nature put on her show. I wasn't in a restaurant eating dinner or at the motel watching TV. I was standing on the beach, in awe of what was happening in front of me. 10% is because of elements I had some control over: composition and exposure.

This is one of nearly 100 shots from that evening. What I love about this particular one are its painterly quality...the soft colors in the sky...the perfect clouds, just the right shape, just the right amount...the pink underpainting on the clouds...the rim light on the waves...and that one wave in the lower center that rises up with such energy and presence.


Often sunset photography at the Oregon coast means waiting in the wind and chill, hoping for a colorful sunset. Even on a seemingly clear day that holds the promise of a sunset full of color and light, the sun too often dips behind a cloud-bank or fog-bank and doesn't fulfill its promise. This evening, though, the sun put on a show of light and color, and I was rewarded for Showing Up, for Being Present.

Photographed with Nikon D300, 27-70mm f/2.8 lens at 35mm. ISO 100. Circular polarizing filer. 1/4" at f/16. Gitzo tripod with Linhof head.