It was a rare morning for me at the Boneyard because I had typically always planned my visit to coincide with at least a half- to full-tide. There is a certain energy–an electricity–when the ocean is lapping and smashing at the base of these stranded trees. It invites the photographer, basically shouts to them, to concentrate on the interaction between the sea and the tree. On this morning however, conditions were calm; the ocean was safely behind the trees and the waves largely without energy. My initial instinct was disappointment. I had been conditioned to see a certain action at this location and when I didn’t see what I expected, I thought that the photograph couldn’t possibly be, or represent, my best. However, I settled in, gave in to the situation and began observing the immediate environment. A recent tidal pool had left a stretch of water stranded up the beach and the skies were shaping up to have some interest if the clouds would stay or push just a touch out to sea. I eventually settled on a super low perspective, basically laying in the sand and capturing the scene you see above. While it is a static image versus a lively and dynamic one that I may have initially had on my mind, the response to this image on my social media outlets and Fine Art America has far surpassed the response that I’ve seen from the aforementioned action shots. The absence of the wave action at the trees allowed me to pull back and take a broader landscape that suggests the situation but doesn’t overtly illustrate it–it allows reflection by the photographic subject and perhaps even encourages reflection on the situation by the viewer as well. Something about this photograph allows individuals to connect in a way that is stronger than my other images–and to be completely honest, I don’t know that I can pinpoint why or what it is.
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