One Photograph: When the Sea Turned Brown
During most of February, 2017 along the Northern California Coast, it rained. It rained for days and days. The rain came straight down. Some days it blew sideways and sometimes it felt like it was coming up from the ground with everything so soaked. Around the end of the month, it stopped and I had such cabin fever, I grabbed my Canon F1, wound on a roll of Kodak Portra 160 and headed up to Jenner where the Russian River empties into the Pacific Ocean. For the better part of the week prior, the river had overflowed its banks causing some minor flooding up in Guerneville and Monte Rio.
I parked the car at Goat Rock State Beach and climbed a dune to look at the river. It was high and I was shocked by how brown it was—the color of coffee with cream. As I headed over to the beach, I saw that the river was pouring all of that muddy water straight into the ocean. As far as I could look, the sea was the same color as the river.
The Pacific Ocean at Jenner CA, February 2017.
After so many days of rain, it felt damn good to be outside and even better to be there with a camera. It was my first roll of Kodak’s slower speed Portra and I was pleased with everything I shot that day, including an image that ranks up there as one my all time favorites.
I’ve never been all that comfortable with street photography. I am not good with taking photographs of strangers and I always seem to miss the decisive moments. Street photography on the beach is so much easier. People love to stand and look at the ocean and no one pays much attention to someone taking pictures.
There weren’t many people on the beach when I saw a woman begin to walk into my frame. I intended to catch her strolling along the sand, but then she stopped and looked out at the brown water, pausing long enough for me to focus and dial in an exposure.
Coastal Meditation, Jenner, CA, Canon F1, Canon FD 501/.14, Kodak Portra 160
I have said it many times here…I was very fortunate to have had the opportunity to have lived on the Pacific Coast for so many years. I never took a day for granted, no matter what the weather dished up.