I don’t go around calling myself a street photographer (or any kind of photographer, really), but for the most part I’ve generally focused my photographic efforts on streets or urban spaces, and the people, objects, architecture — whatever else captures my attention — within them. But my earliest exposure to photography was the nature focused work of Ansel Adams and Edward Weston.
I grew up on the Central Coast of California, south of San Francisco, where the names Adams and Weston are as synonymous with photography as Steinbeck is with literature. My dad, being a seasoned photographer himself, was always a fan of the local masters and that’s what I was raised to see as the gold standard of the medium. I’m certainly a fan of Adams and Weston, but I’ve never been interested in emulating either of these two pioneers, and nature is not a subject that I’ve explored a whole lot in my own pursuits.
But back in July, when the decision was made to take a quick road trip from Oakland down the coast for a midweek escape from the apartment (after almost 5 months of laying real low), I revisited the old copy of Weston’s My Camera At Point Lobos that my dad gifted me, and felt somewhat motivated to have a morning hike around Point Lobos, just south of Carmel, to make some photos. It’s a nice place for a light hike, photographer or not.
Maybe it’s the Central California coastal climate that keeps the Point Lobos State Natural Preserve in what feels like constant, concurrent cycles of decay and rejuvenation. It’s two seasons at once, all the time: fall and spring. The bright greens of lush growth are always accompanied by the paler greens, bright reds, oranges and yellows of degeneration as the forest eats itself, the older growth becoming mulch for what’s coming up next.
I shot that morning with the FujiFulm X-Pro 3 and 18mm f/2 lens for a wider view. It was the inaugural run of the X-Pro 3, which I had just picked up and expected to prove in the streets rather than the forest. But I’m not one to stand on ceremony, and either setting is potentially as fruitful as the other.
I also shot with the Minolta XG-M, loaded with Cinestill 800T 35mm, and a 50mm f/1.7 for a tighter view. The Cinestill is, admittedly, an odd film choice for this type of outing. A tungsten film, it seems to prefer bright artificial lights, especially reds and blues, in high contrast situations — think: urban nighttime photography. But I wondered if it might react interestingly to the gray skies, light spikes through the forest canopy, and the colors & texture of the Point Lobos landscape. The outcome wasn’t exactly what I expected, but I’m not mad at it either.
Here’s a gallery of both film and digital snaps from a morning hike around Point Lobos in late July 2020…
