Since I have just jumped into the proverbial ‘deep end’ by going full-time with my photography, I am therefore more vulnerable than ever to whatever big, menacing, hungry things might be swimming in the big sea of life along with me. So it is hardly surprising that this sandstone formation resembling a giant shark fin would strike me as an apt metaphor for the situation that I had gotten myself into just weeks earlier. There I was in this surreal wilderness area with dozens of miles of dirt road between me and anything that might be called civilization. It occurred to me that I was, both in my career and in my present location, well beyond the confines of the safe zone, not unlike the ones typically marked by a line of buoys just off the shores of popular beaches. Swim past the buoys at your peril, they say. But I always asked the same question as Sir Galahad in the Castle Anthrax: “Oh, let me have just a little bit of peril?”
Indeed, I was always one of those kids who wanted to swim beyond the beach buoys, just to see what was out there. Having transgressed that boundary, I would look back towards the shore and wonder what made one side more interesting to me than the other. I suppose it’s the thrill of discovery that has always made me want to press further; and even in my adult life, I continue to succumb to its siren song, luring me out to places and into situations that seem ripe with potential.
And so I have ended up with a portfolio largely populated by photos like this one, showing a location that few people will recognize and even fewer will ever visit. Received wisdom states that such an obscure location is not marketable, neither for print sales nor for image licensing. But…it is out there, and it is beautiful. Just like the idea of doing landscape photography for a living, it’s an option. It’s a really beautiful option.
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Acknowledgements:
Special thanks to David and Paul for first showing me this location. You guys are true explorers: rock on!
Thanks also to Susan for inviting me on a nearly month-long odyssey and giving me carte blanche to choose locations: that’ll teach you! 😀
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If you are attracted to locations on the west coast of the United States, please note that I am now offering private, one-on-one workshops. More info here.
If you are interested in traveling to the Dolomites, please note that I will be conducting a workshop with co-leader Enrico Fosatti during the second week of July. More info here.
For prints and licensing of this image, please visit my website: CLICK HERE.
I miss New Zealand. Its about time to go back one more time. Maybe this coming july? I shall call it the epic winterscapes of the south! Lol! Quoting from my friend on the other side of the planet, Mr. Felix, “It’s like going back to one of my favorite spots minimum once every trip is like meeting an old friend with a beer. It was tastier than ever.” Cheers!
Love this quote:
To the mind that is still, the whole universe surrenders. – Lao Tzu
Love this quote:
To the mind that is still, the whole universe surrenders. – Lao Tzu
Sudip Das's Blog