Mystic Beach
“Mystic Beach” - Limited Editions available in traditional, stretched canvas.
In the spring of 1989 I received my first-ever shot for allergies. My eyes were nearly swollen shut from the grass seed burning in my short-lived home Albany Oregon. The doc suggested I head west to get some damp coastal air until the shot kicked in.
I loaded my camera gear, drove to Lincoln City OR and checked into a hotel. I could not have been more grateful for the dense afternoon fog, just for sake of my eyes opening, never-mind the visuals I was treated to.
Sun to their backs, a group of silhouetted clam diggers provided me some dramatic, industrial-like images. I felt a nudge to crop vertically to isolate this south-most person. His pack, covered by his poncho, made him look like an elderly man pondering his life while surrounded by his winged friends.
Just as I framed this image I could see a faint trace of a seagull in flight, barely detectable against the background of dark waves. I chanted to that bird, “Lift-lift-lift!..” and that it did - just high enough to add a dynamic flow from the upper-left quadrant of sun, to the lower right exiting of the man.
The results earned this image a Kodak Gallery Award and Fuji Masterpiece in the same professional competition in 1997.
Add to that, Kodak published the image in a four-color Gallery Award Collection book, and invited me to have “Mystic Beach” hang at the Epcot Center in Orlando FL.
This image completely defines my flow. My quiet, grounded, concentration as I remain open to “something greater” than what I think possible.
I can still feel that fuzzy pang-of-knowing every time I look at this image, especially that bird that caused five professional judges to debate my alleged Photoshop skills. An app I had yet to afford.
I later learned that it was called twice for “Challenge”, before reducing the 100 to 96. I may have gotten a 96, but God got 100.
In 2020 the pandemic forced my studio to close for about six weeks. One of my longest-waiting, backlog of projects was to digitize several negatives so that I could properly finish them with modern technology. Though I had many favorites, high-resolution drum scans are not cheap, and this had to be among the initial batch. Today, I can present this image up to 36” before losing integrity.
As much as I love a vibrant, tack sharp image, this one I chose to only present on canvas. To maintain the soft mist that was in the air, I embrace the grain as one of its greatest assets. For me it evoked a feeling that I have not since forgotten. From the instant that I opened the shutter I could feel something spectacular. To know that it had that affect on the technically-discerning eyes of professional judges was just a bonus.
