A Day of Solitude
(The Denial of Stress)
I think all photographers, like any other artist, feel the need for occasional solitude. Time alone, away from the stress of the world. We need to deny ourselves the day-to-day stress of getting through life. A day to just stop and allow our creative juices to flow freely onto film. For me, a day of solitude proved opportunity for two things: time to contemplate my life, philosophize to myself, and of course, lose myself in the viewfinder.
To do this, it helps to have a special place where I feel completely comfortable and able to just relax and play with the camera. For me that place is Gifford Pinchot National Forest. More specifically, the Mt Adams Ranger District in Skamania County, Washington. I literally grew up on the edge of the Gifford Pinchot, and have spent my entire life within a 2-hour drive of its borders. This is where I feel truly and completely at home. I am able to completely relax.
On March 25, 2005, two days after my birthday, I took off on one of my days of solitude in the Gifford Pinchot. I had planned this day for weeks. By planning, I mean I knew the date I was going, and that I was going to spend the day in the Mt Adams District of the Gifford Pinchot. No details for a specific location, no time schedule. Too much detail would have created stress.
The winter of 2004-2005 had been especially dry and replete with beautiful sunny days. Several high temperature records for February and March were broken this year. Then the week of my trip, the weather turned wet and cool; basically things were back to normal. I kept an eye on the weather in the days leading up to my trip. Luckily that day was supposed to be the day between storms, and thus partly cloudy and relatively warm. My day was saved!
The night before, I made my decision to get up at 4:00a.m. and be out of the house by 5:00 so I could start my day shooting sunrise in the Columbia River Gorge. From there, I would head straight for Gifford Pinchot for the remainder of the day, and try to catch the evening alpenlight on Mt Adams before heading home.
The
Vista House on Crown Point, Oregon. Columbia River gorge National Scenic
Area. Image Technicals: ·
Canon Digital Rebel ·
Canon EF 70-200mm f/4L USM ·
8 sec. at f/8, & 200mm ·
ISO 100 ·
Manfroto 3001BPro tripod ·
Manfroto 488RC-4 Ballhead At first I thought that
I came away from this sunrise empty handed. The sky was cool to look at,
but I wasn’t seeing a photograph. I mostly relaxed and enjoyed the scene,
without getting too wrapped up in taking the pictures. When I opened this
up, I was pleasantly surprised by the softness of the background caused by
the atmospheric conditions.
I arrived at Chanticleer Point about 5:50 a.m. I got a little wet during my futile wait for the sun to do something spectacular. I left about 6:30 having given up on what I hoped would be a dramatic cloudy sunrise.
After leaving Chanticleer Point I made my way east on the Columbia Gorge Scenic Highway. I steadfastly avoided stopping for shots of the many waterfalls in the gorge, as I wanted to get to the peace and quiet of the forest.
At around 8:00a.m. I topped off my tank in Trout Lake, and bought a couple maps at the ranger station. After talking to the forest ranger about the road conditions, I realized that the snow hadn’t melted nearly as fast as I’d expected. I wasn’t going very deep into the forest today. I headed toward Bird Creek Meadows on the FR82. After about 5 miles or so I was blocked by snow. At this point I stopped and studied the map a little, and decided that I would just wander aimlessly for a while and see what I found.
Eventually I found a landing and stopped to enjoy the quiet. I’m always overwhelmed by the quiet of the forest, with only the occasional breeze, bird chirp, eagle screech, a wood pecker hammering away at a tree. I felt myself relax and become part of the environment.
After a few minutes of sitting in the truck, I went for a short stroll to see what was over the rise in front of me. Finding nothing of interest, I came back to the truck and unloaded my gear and set up the camera and tripod. I spent the next 2+ hours just snapping pictures in this one area. I nearly filled up my 2-gig CF card.
Mound of moss on a bolder in the ground. Image Technicals: ·
Canon Digital Rebel ·
Canon EF 70-200mm f/4L USM ·
Full set Kenko extension
tubes ·
3.2 sec. at f/32and 168mm ·
ISO 100 ·
Manfroto 3001BPro tripod ·
Manfroto 488RC-4 Ballhead While I was spending
over two hours in one spot, I eventually found this moss to shoot. I drug
out my brand new set of extension tubes and attached all three. I then
proceeded to take several compositions of several varieties of mosses.
Most of what I shot from here was pretty boring, but I was able to completely lose myself in the viewfinder, and come away with a couple images worth printing.
Knowing that I was relegated to a few roads near the southeast borders of the forest, I spent much of the rest of the day with the truck in 1st gear, and my foot off the accelerator, just letting “Ol' Bessy” crawl along the forest roads, as I kept my eyes open for photo ops.
I spent the entire day shooting with my Canon EF 70-200 f/4L USM, and occasionally I attached the extension tubes for some close-up and macro work.
Trout
Lake Creek, Mt Adams Ranger District, Gifford Pinchot National Forest,
Washington. Image Technicals: ·
Canon Digital Rebel ·
Canon EF 70-200mm f/4L USM ·
6 sec. at f/32, & 200mm ·
ISO 100 ·
Manfroto 3001BPro tripod ·
Manfroto 488RC-4 Ballhead On
my way out of the forest for the day, I pulled into Trout Lake Creek
Campground too see what the creek had to offer my lens. I spent some time
getting close-ups of the various little rapids in the creek. Then while I
was reviewing some of the shots, I looked up and saw this, and immediately
know I had the image that captured the essence of my day.
I highly recommend this to any photographer who has been struggling through a creative dry spell in their photography. If the forest isn’t your thing, try the desert, or if you’re at home in the city, find a favorite park. Just make sure you’re alone, and no one is holding you to a schedule. Feel free to get home really late. On this trip, I left home at 5:00 a.m. and pulled into the driveway 16 hours later. I was too worn out to even process my images that night. I had a lot of time to think that day and I had some small epiphanies about artistic aspects of my photography. Nothing that I can articulate in words, but it has had a positive effect on my photography, and I’m much more comfortable with the results of my work. Go lose yourself in the viewfinder; it’s very rewarding therapy.