Recent winter rainstorms have battered the San Francisco area in Northern California with much needed rain. In a break in the weather I decided to hike to Cataract Falls on the slopes of Mount Tamalpais. Usually when I visit this area following a heavy downpour the creek is running muddy and is heavy with run-off. This time, the rain had been persistent and long-lasting enough over many days that all the mud had run its course, and the creek was clear, with pure white cataracts. The lighting was bright and overcast, and made no significant shadows.

I set my tripod up beside the creek, on a spot where I could look up at the primary falls, and took a few establishing shots up the creek and down the creek. Then I stopped to simply be present in the magic of moment of time and place.

It came to me that I didn’t need to make another image of this waterfall as it stood in the reality of the world. Instead, I became interested in the ever-changed gesture of water that I saw, very simple, and always in black and white.

This kind of image is about the poetry of water in motion reduced to a minimum. Lengthening the exposure time—to a five to ten second duration—softens the water and allows the gesture the water is making to become the subject of the photo.

It’s not about a place, but is discovery of an archetype and an abstraction. As such, there’s a commonality in approach and technique to Photographing Waves.