By Guest Blogger Bruce Heinemann
Our backyard rocks – and who better to illuminate the many ways than a photographer dedicated to capturing them on film.
North Cascades
Washington State is a magnificent land of dynamic contrasts. It is a land born of fire, sculpted by ice and molded by the forces of time. It’s a landscape of diverse microclimates and geological features, and expressions that arrest the senses. It is a living painting unfolding before our very eyes. As a native son, I have had the extraordinary privilege of photographing our three national parks for over 45 years. In that time, I have come to intimately know the spirit and character of our three treasured national parks.
Photographing in the North Cascades is both a dramatic and subtle play between earth and sky…the rugged peaks and dominant volcanoes seemingly the bared bones of the earth…light, distance, texture…veils of cascading water, the bounty of flora, lush palettes of hues in the lakes and ponds, the ever-changing drama of sky…where does the sky end and the earth begin?
Photography, among all of its noble characteristics, is perhaps first and foremost about relationships…between ideas, themes, colors, shapes, textures, metaphors. I find the visual and metaphorical relationship between earth and sky as the most powerful and inspiring of all subjects in nature. In North Cascades National Park, these themes and their expression touch me in the deepest way.
Mount Rainier
What is more iconic than an image of Mount Rainier? It represents our state, institutions and companies who bear its logoed likeness. But more than this, I like to think of Mount Rainier as a glistening metaphor, a vision of unimaginable desire, commitment and achievement. For not only does it represent the heights of achievement and dreams but, in a very real sense, climbing to its peak is a metaphor of an ambitious, challenging life well-lived. I also like to think of it as the emperor that lords supreme over the entirety of its vast domain: glaciers, waterfalls, rivers, fragrant old growth forests, ponds and lakes, meadows and the wide array of flora and fauna that it nurtures within.
I also, however, find within its magnificent kingdom a distinct and revealing intimate landscape. A portrait of seeming micro landscapes, easy to be found at one’s feet or a short walk from any pull over. Each has its own story to tell and is eager to share that story with those who would stop to not just observe, but to really “see” and “feel” it, for the story is as poetic as it is revealing. It is a veritable “feast for the senses.” It is truly the crown jewel of Washington State and our collective soul.
Olympic
Crescent Lake is indeed a marvel and precious gem of the last ice age, its darkening depths created by a scouring, sculpting and retreating glacier. As a result of its unique creation, the utter magic of this special place is the almost limitless palate of colors in its waters. It’s an artist’s palette that morphs from crystal clear at the shoreline, then transitions through hues of turquoise, teal, and an almost light, impenetrable black-blue at its deepest points. Surrounded by towering mountains that protect it from the wind, its waters are often a ripple-less sheen that best reveals its color palettes, and an aqua mirror in which the shoreline flora can proudly admire itself.
Not far down Highway 101, on a cloudy spring day, I marveled at the extraordinary complexity of moss-draped branches on rotting, disintegrating ancient trees in the Hoh Rainforest. Soon they will lay over on the ground, remitting their elements to nature as their niche neighbors—millions of microorganisms—feed on what remains of a once proud and majestic monolith, perhaps 100 years old or more. In this nutrient-rich, fertile environment, these transient seedlings will take root and spring forth into the light on the forest floor in this ancient but nurturing community, taking their rightful place in the ongoing evolution of this forest. As I set up my camera on its tripod, I ask myself, How should I express the extraordinary richness of this story in the two dimensional realm of digital photography? Following my instincts honed from years of experience, it became clear that a simple, straightforward image capture is the answer, so that this sacred landscape may simply tell its own story of life, death and rebirth. Packing up my gear, I realized that this gift of place represents the great circle of life unfolding before my eyes. I am humbled yet uplifted. Turning to leave this special landscape, I am reminded that although life has many joys and griefs, life is beautiful, life is worth living, and above all life is eternal.
Out on the coast, standing on the beach at Rialto with a gentle breeze caressing my face, the visual and experiential drama is of light and distance. The timeless, restless sea; the unending ebb and flow of its tides; and the majestic rock monoliths they have sculpted over millions of years. As the entry point for weather coming in from the Pacific Ocean, the light and weather conditions are constantly changing. And to the visual artist, I like to paraphrase that famous quote, “photographing here is like a box of chocolates … no one ever knows what you’re gonna get.” Photographing a wonderful sunset at the end of a joyous day — wandering amongst the starfish studded tide pools and galleries of sculpted driftwood — tucked up against the forest, I am reminded of a profound and inspiring sentiment of the legendary Amelia Earhart: “Courage is the price that life exacts for granting peace.” It also reminds me that as the people who live here, we seldom venture far from the vision of the landscape that inspires us.
Bruce W. Heinemann is a fine art nature photographer, writer, and speaker living in Anacortes. He has just released his eighth book, Washington: The Art of The Landscape, recently featured in Pacific NW Magazine. It is his fine art expression of his native state. You can view it and more of his gallery of images at: http://theartofnaturegallery.com.