Nautical Art from 2009 Cruise...

It has been a few months since I've posted to the FIREWATER IMAGES blog. Fire season has ended along with the passing of summer, an autumn, which distinctly has the feel of winter, has begun, and I've completed a month long cruise on my 30 sailboat. It is that cruise which has provided the images presented here.
I've been working in the FIREWATER blog and have posted the story of the cruise and many more photographs there. All told over 1,500 images were shot over the course of the month long cruise. About half of what I'd really like to have. The 12 part installments of the cruise used approximately a hundred of those photos. Here I offer the twelve photographic images, which through their composition, use of light, subject matter and energy, passed the test and can stand as independant photographs.
GULLS ON DOCK, NEWCASTLE ISLAND, NANAIMO B.C.
I was delighted to find this image in the camera. Of course I had taken a number of shots with this curious gull searching the docks. Patience paid off as the bird walked further onto the dock it's shadow appeared on the hull of CANNIBAR, the sailing vessel moored adjacent to us. The crisp lines of the vessels brightwork, white hull and triangle of blue water all add to the overall composition of this image.
If you've followed the FIREWATER blog and the cruise some of these images will be familiar but not this one entitled SUNSET OVER CANADIAN GULF ISLANDS. There was another photograph of this sunset with the Patos Lighthouse that I used in the story since it fit so well. Yet I knew this picture was special. It may be the best sunset shot I've had the pleasure of capturing. That warm, red glow almost kissing the water in the center of the image in the distance against a far island really makes this shot work.

This image SAILING THRU PEAVINE PASSAGE, SAN JUAN ISLANDS captured the feel of the late summer, early morning passage which we were making that day. There is a texture to the water, the mists, the landscapes and morning sunlight that inter-acts together rendering this image and setting it apart from the rest of the photographs of that day.


SCULPTED SANDSTONE OF PATOS ISLAND; again it is the textures that pull me into this photograph. Thousands of years in the making this twisted, contorted, scuplted rock is facinating subject material. Wind and waves over the course of time is the true artist here. I am fortunate enough just to have been there, seen it and taken the photograph.
The artwork of the Salish people has always facinated me. The recodring and telling of stories in such strong imagery...

TO BE CONTINUED SOON Saturday, 11.07.09 Foster

COASTAL & SHORELINES...

Experimenting with a new look to the pictures posted on FIREWATER IMAGES. The photos will most definitely view better slightly enlarged, which you can do by double left clicking on the photographs themselves.

We'll start this series of Coastal & Shoreline off with one of my favorites...

This image above, #1 of this series, is titled 'Roper Cove Mists'. Taken early one October morning from the foredeck of the sailing vessel Aquila while at anchor in Roper Creek Cove, Lake Roosevelt, WA. An over night had just passes and the eastern sky held promise of a clearing day.

Staying on Lake Roosevelt, that 130 mile long body of water behind the Grand Coulee Dam, this rendered image, #2, is 'San Poil Arm, Lake Roosevelt'. Rendered in a manner representing a water color painting this landscape is located where the Keller Ferry crosses southern Lake Roosevelt, allowing state highway 21 to span this expanse of water. The San Poil river enters the lake from the north (top) of this image.
Remaining on Lake Roosevelt a little longer, these next two rendered photographs (image #3 above & #4 below) have historic significance in that while it is common to see Hayes Island during seasonal draw-downs of the lake, it is very uncommon to see the top of Kettle Falls, a magnificent waterfalls spanning the upper Columbia River before the completion of the Grand Coulee Dam. There is still controversy between Colville & Spokane Tribes, the Bureau of Reclamation, National Park Service, the local communities, Washington State Fisheries and sportsman groups regarding the management of the lake. None of which will I delve into here.

As a final shoreline view of Lake Roosevelt I'll give you image #5, below, 'Passing Twilight Thunderstorm'.

Moving right out onto the 'big pond' (a cruising sailor's term for the Pacific Ocean) rendered image #6, below, is titled 'Mother, Mother Ocean'. All you Jimmy Buffett fans will know the tune.
And speaking of sailors, I threw in this one called 'Departing Smuggler's Cove' as image #7 below.

For image #8, below; I chosen 'Mount Baker, Rosario Strait' photograph taken from the eastern slope of Orcas Island in the San Juan Island group, Pacific NW. In this rendition I enjoy the soft pastels and rich, dark textures of the final image.

Sunrise breaking through a dense, multi-layer cloud cover in Desolation Sound, B.C. creates the stage of light for the passage of this fishing boat in photograph #9 entitled 'Kinghorn Island, Desolation Sound'.

The image of 'Moonlight Sail' represents that juncture of photograph and digital darkroom. It is a highly rendered image but finally after many tried and much contemplation I truly enjoy the final product. As in any form of art some things flow quickly and easily, some things take much longer and somethings, try as we might are never meant to be.

Leaving the coastal waterscapes behind for the end of this posting in the final image, #11 below; we change locations to a small inland pond, Cochran Lake, where the trout fishing is good and the neighborhood usually quiet. There's a certain magic in the air of this piece of photo-art. I hope you agree...

Foster

P.S. Speaking of moonlight sailing; here's a link to a profile I keep on Cruising World's Community Site. The link will take you to a video vignette of sailing in the moonlight which won Cruising Worlds Autumn 2008 video contest.

http://forums.cruisingworld.com/videos/viewVideo.php?video_id=280&title=AQUILA__Rising_of_the_Moon___