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

Oregon's oldest lighthouse

Cape Blanco Lighthouse (infrared)

(c) Darlene Lyon Kruse - All Rights Reserved

The Cape Blanco Lighthouse is Oregon's oldest continuously operating lighthouse AND its most westerly.  Poised on the point of a bluff six miles north of Port Orford, Oregon, with no protection from south, north or west, the winds can be fierce.  The fresnel lens was lit for the first time on December 20, 1970.  The lighthouse is still active today.  You can learn more about this exquisite lighthouse here http://www.lighthousefriends.com/light.asp?ID=125

Besides being Oregon's oldest and most westerly lighthouse, it is also elegant -- with beautiful lines and textures.  From any angle, it presents an intriguring, strong, beautiful face to all who visit her.

This photograph was made during the workshop David Lorenz Winston and I co-led in August.  When we arrived at the lighthouse, it was enshrouded in fog, barely visible from the road.  The fog lifted, allowing us to photograph it with fog swirling around it and then completely clear of fog.  In all kinds of weather, the lighthouse at Cape Blanco never disappoints. 

While this is very much a photograph of the lighthouse, the addition of the people interacting with the lighthouse -- one entering, one leaving -- was important to me.  For my eye, other photographs made at the same time but without people lack the power and emotion of this image. 

About this photograph.  This is an infrared (invisible light) photograph made with my newly-converted Nikon D90,  using my 14-24 mm f/2.8 Nikkor lens at 21-mm (35-mm equivalent = 33mm). Minimal post-processing: I converted the image to grayscale and increased the blacks, clarity & contrast to enhance the black-white contrast. 

On the dolly dock, Port Orford, Oregon
(c) Darlene Lyon Kruse - All Rights Reserved

This past weekend, David Lorenz Winston and I co-led a photography workshop at Port Orford and Cape Blanco on the Oregon coast. The weather was great, no big winds at the Cape, partly cloudy skies. The photo ops were many, and we all had a great time exploring the beaches and docks with our cameras. "On the dolly dock, Port Orford, Oregon" is an infrared photograph I made while there.

About the dolly dock: Port Orford is unique. It has one of only two dolly docks in the United States. The harbor is too shallow for safe mooring and so boats are hoisted onto the dock with a huge pulley, placed onto custom-made dolly-trailers, and towed to their "mooring" space on top of the pier. This is a photograph of a commercial fishing boat being lowered from the dock to the water.

About the photo: This photo was made at about 9:45 AM (PDT) on August 28, 2010, with a Nikon D90 that has been converted to infrared. Metadata: 18mm lens, ISO 250, 1/200 sec at f/10. Post-processing included converting to black and white in CS3; levels and curves adjustments to pull out the drama in the sky, increase the contrast a bit, and deepen the darks; and sepia toning. In Lightroom I added a graduated filter to darken the sky and further accent those great, sweeping clouds. I also added a vignette.

This is not the usual infrared photograph, with lots of foliage turned white. There is some grass in the background that has turned white, but none on my subject -- the fishing boat. An infrared photograph of a non-landscape scene can create an image full of drama and texture. If there's anything in the sky at all, infrared will bring it out, even if it seems insignificant to our eyes. The dreamy quality I associate with film infrared is present in this image -- and has combined with the drama in the sky to make this an image I like a lot.

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.