River Sunset
Oregon

13×33″ prints are $1,500
20×50″ prints are $3,000

Like many people, I’ve always enjoyed staring at moving water, especially riffles and ripples in streams and small rivers. As a child, I would sit for hours by the river, watching the swirls and eddies go by; fascinated by the continual changes in forms and patterns.

Nevertheless, I only rarely photograph water (although I ought to do more). This image was taken at the end of a day of photographing in Oregon, with the colors of the sunset and blue sky reflecting in the water. There wasn’t much light and focusing on the ground glass was very difficult. The fading light necessitated a long exposure of four minutes. There’s only one exposure of this image, since the light was too low for a second shot. By then the sunset colors had faded away.

The actual exhibition print has amazing tonal qualities and complexities that are impossible to show with a web image. The fiery red-oranges and clear blues and cyans interact with thousands of mixtures of subtle colors, textures and forms. This is an image that does quite different things visually at different viewing distances. I always view my prints as I make them with a mat around them and at varying viewing distances, trying to make the best possible print.

I find this image almost intoxicating when studied close up for a length of time and yet soothing and peaceful when viewed from ten feet away. It leaves me feeling invigorated.