Landscape photography to me is a search for rare places and rare moments. The images on these pages document a landscape that is not often seen. Most of these images represent moments that I shall probably see only once in my lifetime. Even after meticulous planning to discover the best places in the best light, it takes me perhaps one month of searching to make a single great image. This opportunity to capture such rarity on film is what makes landscape photography so meaningful to me. I suppose this is why digital imagery and digital image manipulation represent such a concerning development to many landscape photographers. With the fantastic image manipulation capabilities that we now have, it is practically impossible to determine whether the images we see correspond to what was actually there. For this reason, I have matched these images as closely as I can to what was originally captured on film. Although it is tempting to do so, I have not tweaked color or sharpness to achieve magical, unrealistic effects. Although I am generally opposed to addition or removal of subject matter from the original image, there are three images in the land and water galleries to which such adjustments have been made. In the image of Bandon Beach, some animal footprints were removed from the sand around the rocks. In the image of Cascade Meadow, two lupines that moved during the exposure were sharpened. Finally, in the image of cottonwood trees, a few disturbing branches were removed from the far upper left side of the image. My goal as a photographer is to convey the feelings I have in a wild place to the viewer of my images. As long as an image compels the viewer to feel something for the natural world, I consider it to be successful. It is my deepest wish for these images that they make a difference in how we relate to our natural heritage.
Although I have seen much that saddens me deeply in our treatment of nature, I still hope that landscape photography can do something to promote respect and love for wilderness places.
I'd like to thank you for visiting Maru Landscapes. I hope so much that you enjoy the images.
NB. Since first writing this (2007), I have become much more familiar with digital post-production techniques and have begun to use them more than I did a few years ago. In the last 2 years, I have made some images that involve subject matter movement and perspective of view modification. The following is a list of images that have been modified: 1) r09014 - in this image I duplicated some of the icicles to create a more pleasing overall look 2) r09019 - one side of the image was duplicated and flipped horizontally, color was not changed 3) r09038 - a few stones were removed from the foreground to emphasize the shape of the foreground rocks 4) r09053 - in this image the color and saturation of the rock in the middle of the waterfall was increased to make it more visually prominent 5) r09055 - in this image the perspective of the image was altered to give Zopkios Ridge a more prominent impression and 6) r09057 - the foreground water was flipped horizontally so that it leads from right to left, not left to right as it did in the original.
All images copyright of Maru Landscapes - 2010. Landscape Photography of the Pacific Northwest.
