It was a hot day, the kind of day that is way too sultry to happily stay in the city. Without a plan for where we would end up, and with our cameras in tow, a friend and I headed east along the interstate out into the mountains. When we found an exit that seemed good to us, we pulled off and entered the back gravel roads of the National Forest. Happily we found ourselves on a wide river cutting through the mountains that rose above. We parked and made our way down a steep, inhospitable slope with our cameras and proceeded to spend the day there. At first, we snapped some photos, but mostly we draped ourselves over the fallen trees, smoothed with weathering since their descent. We soaked our feet, legs, arms and anything else we could submerge in the clear, cold water, kept our clothes mostly dry and wished we'd brought our swimsuits.
I wasn’t expecting to enjoy a day of water, and left my lens filters at home. When shooting water, I’ve always used polarizing filters to reduce glare and reveal more of what lies beneath the surface. But, feeling drawn to be in and near the water, as I always am, I decided to see what I came up with without my usual filters. The sun was high so the lighting was good, but the water was moving at a steady pace and I wasn’t sure how it would translate into still images. However, I found that I was having immense fun enjoying the challenge of the ever-changing water and light, so I tried a few different approaches for a while before taking up residence on the aforementioned fallen tree.
In the time it took to snap those few photos, I managed to unearth a desire in me that I hadn’t before known existed. I knew that I wanted to photograph water, to commit to it, to create a body of work, and to see what came of it. I left that day feeling inspired and eager to get home and look at what I’d captured from the day’s brief shoot of the river.
As the photos uploaded to my computer and I saw them in full screen for the first time, I was astounded at some of the incredible images I was looking at. The colors, patterns, texture, movement and lighting were unlike anything I’d imagined. I knew more than ever that I absolutely wanted to focus on creating a body of work centered on all that water has to offer.
Twenty-three days ago I went to the river not knowing how it would change me and spark my passion and creativity. Since then, I’ve had opportunities to travel with friends and photograph water on the Pacific coast, at a pristine glacier lake in the Olympic Mountains, and in and around Puget Sound. I’ve discovered color and texture and playful light that I’ve never seen before, some of it unearthly and mind-boggling to me.
While all of the travel to gorgeous bodies of water was amazing, and the photography was absolutely rewarding, it was also a challenging process. Water and light are so fickle in their movement and in their relationship with one another that I shot countless photos in hopes of coming away with a handful of solid pieces. That meant there were so. many. photos to weed through and consider. There was a period of about a week when I was just completely overwhelmed and definitely couldn’t see that there was any hope of coming away with a solid body of work ready to show. But I kept walking away and coming back to my collection day after day after day. Every day I saw them new and differently. I was able to better discern what I liked and what I didn’t, which ones communicated to me or didn’t, and was able to delete a few more each day. It was an incredible boost to my skills as a photo editor to have to weed through so many shots to find the very best.
I’m also proud to say that all of the fantastical colors and textures featured in this collection have only received basic edits or none at all (and certainly no filters!). I loved so much of what the camera was capturing on its own that few of them needed much post-processing work. I feel that’s important to say because even as I was snapping the photos I was astounded by the bizarre and beautiful images staring back at me, so I know others will have a hard time believing them as well!
This is the first time I’ve ever had a body of work to showcase. I dabble here and there with a variety of creative endeavors that I enjoy, but I’ve never committed over a period of time, having a goal in mind, to create a portfolio of art. Doing so feels surreal and exciting and humbling all at the same time. I know these photos won’t appeal to everyone, but I hope they’ll appeal to some like-minded folk who know and love water like I do. I hope it helps others to look at water differently and to notice patterns and textures and the play of light across its surface and that doing so adds some extra sparkle to life. ♥︎
Photo of the artist at work by Katie at seekwelfare.com
This series was born out of my deep love for water. I've always been drawn to water. Sprinklers, water hoses and swimming pools, mountain streams, waterfalls, lakes, oceans, rivers, all of it. I most want to be in water, but if I can't be in it, then get me out on it or right next to it (although, if I'm next to it, it's safe to bet that at the very least my feet and legs are going in!). I decided to marry my love of water with my interest in photography and see what happened. For three weeks in late Summer of 2016, I traveled to a mountain river, a rocky Pacific coastline, a pristine glacier lake, and in and around Puget Sound.
I shot with a manual focus lens so that I could control how the light was reflected and translated through the camera. Believe it or not, these photos haven't been highly processed. In fact, the stranger any given photo seems to look, the less I messed with it. No photo-editing could come up with some of the strange beauty revealed to me during my photographic adventures! What I enjoyed the most in working with this series was discovering what's hiding in plain sight. Water is fleeting and moving and ever-changing. Constant movement paired with ever-changing lighting conditions makes for so much color, light, reflection, and movement to capture. The challenge of an always-changing subject makes for a most rewarding experience. My efforts were not only rewarded with a collection of photos that I love, but with a heightened ability to see water differently with the naked eye. I now notice details, textures, patterns, and colors that I missed before. It's most rewarding, like uncovering mysteries again and again.