This image was created on a sheet of 8x10 Fuji Provia large format film not too far from San Francisco, in between Carmel and San Francisco to be more precise.
The story of this photograph begins in early 2019 when a good friend of mine visited us for a couple of weeks in San Francisco. One day we decided to go explore not too far from home with the goal to bring at least one worthy image, instead of traveling as usual somewhere too far.
Scanned sheet of 8x10 Fuji Provia film.
Our first destination was Carmel-by-the-Sea, where we hoped to spend the majority of the time photographing Pacific cypress trees. As we reached the state park we found that it was closed for restoration. After discussing other options we decided just to drive along the coast and see what see. What are the main three rules of landscape photography after all? – Explore! Explore! Explore!.
We arrived at the Bean Hollow State Park in the late afternoon, and after seeing these interesting rock formations decided to stay and scout the area for compositions.
I made a few shots on my Hasselblad 501cm medium format camera at first and after seeing the film back at home in a few days I realized that there is a huge potential and I should certainly come back here with a larger camera.
Fuji Velvia 50 film transparencies on a light table taken on Hasselblad 501cm medium format camera back in 2019.
Since then I made a few attempts, but they turned rather unsuccessful mainly due to the poor light conditions and strong winds which make it impossible to work with the large format camera and long exposures.
Me during one of those unsuccessful attempts wrestling with the winds that blow off my dark cloth making it nearly impossible to focus the camera…
Finally, a year later, the weather conditions were promising for the photograph that I was hoping to make. I loaded several sheets of film into the film holders and embarked on a trip.
I wanted to photograph this scene in a subtle post sunset light when the blue hues are the most dominant, thus, I needed entirely clear skies for these hues to reflect on a grey rock.
Waiting for the proper light having my Area Swiss 8x10 camera setup and ready.
I waited for a brief moment when the sun hid behind the horizon and made only one 20s exposure. In a minute the light was entirely gone and it quickly became too dark for making a second exposure which I typically do just in case. My only hope was that that one single sheet of film will come out properly exposed and clean without any light leaks. And to my satisfaction – it did!
Please, if you decide to visit this place, recreate responsibly and step very carefully as these rock formations are very fragile. Leave the place better than you found it!