Plate No. 05. A Pacific Brown Pelican taking off at first light, South Jetty, Newport, Oregon.
Vol 1.1 · Plate 05
Skimm
The second best-selling print I've ever made, and the one most people think is a painting.
$75.00
Panoramic 20 × 10 · Archival photo paper · Signed
A photographer friend and I drove out to Newport before sunrise to shoot pelicans before they left for the year. About eighty birds on the jetty. I picked one I thought was about to take off. Then I waited.
I waited thirty minutes for that bird. I was set, framed, focused, finger on the cable release. The sun started coming up and a beam of warm light came across the bird's back like it had been staged. My friend, who had been patient too, took two small steps forward to get a different angle.
The pelican took off.
"People ask if it's a painting. I say no. It's the best compliment you can give a photographer."
I wasn't quite ready. But the takeoff was slow enough that I got two frames, and the second one is the print you see here. People ask if it's a painting. I always say no — but I take it as the best compliment a photographer can get.
It's the second best-seller in my catalog, after Mystic Waters.
Thirty minutes of waiting. Ten frames. One print.
The Frame
Location
South Jetty, Newport, Oregon
Coordinates
44°37′N · 124°04′W
Conditions
Pre-dawn, first warm light, calm
Status
Second best-seller in the J.Burke catalog
