Down To 48

From over 1,300, I’ve finally selected the final 48 photos for Twelve Months at Hurricane Ridge. Whew, and thanks for the congratulations. Now it’s time to polish them: straighten horizons, remove dust and spots, and maybe better balance color, light, and contrast. There’s always more work to do.

Note that I said I’ve selected the final 48, not necessarily the best 48. These are the 48 that represent twelve months of Nature. Some months will have more than 4 good photos. Some will be too repetitive. This is my 14th Twelve Month study, though only the 11th photo essay. I’ve done this before.

The first Twelve Month study was an exercise in frustration. Life can be that way. There was no grand plan except to get out of the house, and I didn’t want to fuss with finding a new place to go every week. Thank you, Teanaway Valley. I didn’t think that it was a worthwhile thing to chronicle until I was part way through.

Then I wrote a book, Just Keep Pedaling, and I realized I could write a book about my Twelve Month idea; so, I wrote three: Twelve Months at Barclay Lake, Twelve Months at Lake Valhalla, and Twelve Months at Merritt Lake. I wrote them. I took photos as notes – and was surprised when people wanted to buy the photos. OK.

Move to Whidbey Island where folks want to hear about how I retired at 38 (Dream. Invest. Live.), including a New York Times best selling author. They encouraged me to publish mine when they published theirs. Fine, but that didn’t leave time to write a Twelve Month book, so I created a photo essay, identified four more sites on the island, then extended it out to 10.

Move to Port Townsend where Olympic National Park is closer than many commutes so naturally I decide to produce photo essays of Hurricane Ridge (because it is close), Kalaloch Beach (because the bluff is sliding), Hoh River (because it is well known), Lake Crescent (because it is convenient), and a few other sites. Years worth of work. Maybe a retrospective.

But the photos in the essays are there to tell a story, not to create a series of disconnected snapshots.

There are two duplications spread out over two months, but maybe that is good too.

The next step is as I mentioned above: straighten horizons, etc. 

In the meantime, I will also be taking photos at Kalaoch Beach.

Why not do all of them at once? I’m busy!

At least now that I know which ones made the final cut, I can start sharing the ones that are snapshots, or abstracts, or simply ones I like.

Stay tuned.