Cliffs of Moher

A few months back I took a trip to Ireland. On the way from Galway to Killarney we stopped at the Cliffs of Moher. It was pretty windy and stormy while we were there, but for a moment the sun broke through the clouds just in time for me to get some of these shots. Ireland just drops off! You can view more of my images from Ireland, here, and more Ireland images are on the way.

Down to Business

With the rain comes great angry clouds. These were some of the last images taken and it was literally just across the street from the aforementioned blue apartment building. Another great different look in the same area. Who needs a studio? Oh, right, the rain and the cold, but for now, thank you nature!

Jellyfish

mystical and foul
the mad shape of things to come
jellyfish aim true

with spineless backs splayed
and ready wet tentacles
they rise from the sea

slow the sea recedes
ebbing a foamy remorse
to an artless sky

A Forest of Clouds

ripe urbane brave clouds, break apart and leave behind, small fits of madness

Goletaville-Day 9

I was shooting the clear sun-filled sky at the Goleta beach and pier when these clouds came sweeping in. Pretty amazing how the environment can change so quickly. I'd been wanting to get some seascapes just like this for some time. Glad I was there that morning.

It should be noted that these images are an homage to Hiroshi Sugimoto and his series on seascapes, which can be seen here and many other places on the web. I highly recommend checking out all his work. This exercise was not about originality, but about emulating someone and something I admire so that hopefully somehow the experience would improve my work. Sugimoto creates his images using an 8x10 view camera, which means his negatives are 8x10inches big. Compare that to the roughly 1 inch 35mm neg! That also means his images contain a lot more visual information and subtlety. He also captures his images using long exposures. I did my the "lazy" way. I used a digital SLR and utilized camera movement to get my images. However, if these images were any bigger the quality would start to fall apart and you could see just how dusty my sensor is! His can be printed large and beautiful and they are real art, I'm still just practicing.

Goletaville-Day 7

So backtracking a bit, Day 4 was about Color; Day 5 pt.1 was about trying some new things breaking out of the mold; pt 2 was a combination of several past experiments of line, abstraction, light vs. dark, composition, and reflections, with a splash of color; Day 6 was about applying those same elements, along with more emphasis on light quality, to a new location while attempting to get more of a sense of place; and now Day 7 was about bringing it back down to communicating a mood. So I turned back to the clouds, another common subject of mine...and the ground...and the darkness. Once again, the thumbnails tend to fall a bit darker, so please click on them to see them closer to how they are intended, if you are so inclined.