Boat, Inverness/Tomales Bay CA
On of the projects I've been working on lately is trying to get some of my past work scanned so that I can make new prints as well as get them posted up here on my page. This image, I made in the spring of 1999 while I was in college. It's still one of my favorites, and not for the obvious reasons.
The photograph itself has nice tonality, good detail, and fun lines. I like the composition I ended up with. I'd say the keel of the boat in the foreground really anchors (pun intended) the otherwise disheveled character of the boat and I like how dark the shadows get, as they slightly hint at the solidity that the vessel once had. There you go: The self critique. All good reasons to like this image.
Really, what I like about this shot is it's place in the past. By that, I'm not referring to the fact that it looks old, or it's from fourteen years ago, but the very real fact that this boat has long since rotted away and given itself to the sea. On that day, I had been traveling up the coast on Hwy 1 from San Francisco in the pouring rain looking for some inspiration that I hadn't found in the city. I figured I'd head up to Bodega Bay and at the least, catch a good lunch. On a whim, I turned off at Point Reyes to see if it was worth setting out for the lighthouse but as I got closer, the rain just kept getting worse and I stopped on a dirt pull off in the tiny town of Inverness on Tomales Bay. Just as I stopped, the rain suddenly subsided a bit, so I got out of the car and wandered up to the muddy low tide bank of the bay to get a view on the weather and light. It's here where I caught site of this little boat. Abandoned, broken on the rocks, and left for dead. I photographed it because I felt I should. Honestly, a lot of my subjects speak to me that way. It just seemed like I was obligated to give this little boat a grander send off then it's former owner did. I spent about twenty minutes with the scene and of all the images I shot, this is the only one I ever printed. The others always seemed a bit sterile and dead to me. This particular image makes me think of what the boats life must have been like. How it came to this end, and what stories it could tell.
This boat was already well on it's way to driftwood when I found it, and fourteen years have undoubtedly swept away what was left after I departed. It makes me happy to know that not all the images I take can be revisited. As it is with people and expressions, sometimes objects can be fleeting too. For the last fourteen years, the only record of the little boat was the one print I ever made of it that proudly hangs right next to me as I type this. Now, through the wonders of the digital age, it's floating its way through the world wide web and to your screens bringing with it all the intrigue it still gives me. That's pretty dang awesome. Hope you enjoy it too.
As always, thanks for reading.
The photograph itself has nice tonality, good detail, and fun lines. I like the composition I ended up with. I'd say the keel of the boat in the foreground really anchors (pun intended) the otherwise disheveled character of the boat and I like how dark the shadows get, as they slightly hint at the solidity that the vessel once had. There you go: The self critique. All good reasons to like this image.
Really, what I like about this shot is it's place in the past. By that, I'm not referring to the fact that it looks old, or it's from fourteen years ago, but the very real fact that this boat has long since rotted away and given itself to the sea. On that day, I had been traveling up the coast on Hwy 1 from San Francisco in the pouring rain looking for some inspiration that I hadn't found in the city. I figured I'd head up to Bodega Bay and at the least, catch a good lunch. On a whim, I turned off at Point Reyes to see if it was worth setting out for the lighthouse but as I got closer, the rain just kept getting worse and I stopped on a dirt pull off in the tiny town of Inverness on Tomales Bay. Just as I stopped, the rain suddenly subsided a bit, so I got out of the car and wandered up to the muddy low tide bank of the bay to get a view on the weather and light. It's here where I caught site of this little boat. Abandoned, broken on the rocks, and left for dead. I photographed it because I felt I should. Honestly, a lot of my subjects speak to me that way. It just seemed like I was obligated to give this little boat a grander send off then it's former owner did. I spent about twenty minutes with the scene and of all the images I shot, this is the only one I ever printed. The others always seemed a bit sterile and dead to me. This particular image makes me think of what the boats life must have been like. How it came to this end, and what stories it could tell.
This boat was already well on it's way to driftwood when I found it, and fourteen years have undoubtedly swept away what was left after I departed. It makes me happy to know that not all the images I take can be revisited. As it is with people and expressions, sometimes objects can be fleeting too. For the last fourteen years, the only record of the little boat was the one print I ever made of it that proudly hangs right next to me as I type this. Now, through the wonders of the digital age, it's floating its way through the world wide web and to your screens bringing with it all the intrigue it still gives me. That's pretty dang awesome. Hope you enjoy it too.
As always, thanks for reading.
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