Mendes Edward: Waiting for Perfection

A few years ago my wife and I decided to celebrate her birthday and the New Year along California’s beautiful Big Sur Coast, one of our favorite places.  The Big Sur coast and the entire Monterey peninsula has long been a muse for artists working in all mediums and for good reason as its dramatic coastline features some of the most beautiful and inspiring views you’ll ever see, with your eyes or your camera.

One of my favorite overlooks of the coast is a beautiful coastal pasture that stretches along the shoreline right next to highway one.  As you approach the area the highway gently inclines, lifting you to a higher vantage point; a long gentle curve hides the view just around the corner until the last moment when you come out of the shadow of two hills the road is built between.  At that moment the view hits you, big soft clouds,  a beautiful green pasture and rolling hills stretch to a picturesque bridge almost hidden in the background, all lit by the warm glow of the setting sun.  A perfect scene.

Unfortunately while the image I visualized in my mind was the epitome of perfection it certainly wasn’t the norm and not what I actually saw the first, second or even tenth time I visited the area.  Instead what I would find was a pasture covered in dead brown grass, a blank sky or thick gray overcast clouds that wouldn’t allow even a touch of evening sun to shine through. But I knew the image I wanted was possible, I just needed to wait for that perfect moment when everything would fall into place.

On New Year’s day 2005 my wife and I were taking an afternoon drive down the coast, it had been raining heavily for the last few days, not the best way to ring in the New Year but as it turned out just what was needed to realize the image I had in my mind.  The storm was finally starting to break and as we came around the curve in the highway the image I had visualized so many visits before finally was there right before my eyes, exactly how I pictured it.

To my wife’s behest I quickly pulled the car over, grabbed my camera bag and trusty Manfrotto 055PROB  and ran as fast as I could back up the highway to find my composition.  I wanted to use the lines of the coast to lead the viewer through the image and into the background sky, this would allow the viewer to take in every element of the scene, which I also felt would be best captured in a horizontal orientation.   I worked quickly because as the best light tends to do it only lasted for a few minutes, just enough time to create a few images and capture that perfect moment.

As I reflect back about the creation of that image I always find myself thinking about the uniqueness of landscape photography.  You have virtually no control over many of the elements that make up the final image, light, weather or the condition of subject, just to name a few.  It’s this wiliness to not settle for average and continue visiting a location time-and-time again until those rare moments of perfection show themselves that makes landscape photography such an amazing art.  I waited 5 years before conditions finally came together and I was able to create the image I had visualized so many visits before.  They say patience is a virtue and for a nature photographer in the search of the perfect image I’m certain it’s one of the two most important personality traits you can have.  What’s the other you ask?  Stubbornness.

Accompanying Image Information

Title: Pasture, Big Sur Coast

Camera: Mamiya M645

Lens:  Mamiya 55mm f/2.8

Film: Agfa Ultra 50 Color Negative Film

Filters: Cokin 2-Stop Graduated Neutral Density Filter

Tiffen Circular Polarizer

Tripod: Manfrotto 055PROB with Manfrotto 3030 Head

Exposure:

Shutter Speed Unrecorded

Aperture f/16