Plate No. 02. Coastal dune grass at f/1.2, Oregon Coast — wide aperture, paper-thin plane of focus.
Vol 03 · Plate 02
DUNE GRASS IN THE WIND
Movement, frozen at f/1.2.
$75.00
Standard 16 × 24 · Archival photo paper · Signed
I was set up on the beach photographing my daughters in the water when I heard the squawking. Not a gull sound I've ever heard from a healthy bird in a calm situation. I turned around.
I shot this wide open at f/1.2 — almost no depth of field, a paper-thin plane of focus running through the grass at exactly the height I wanted. Everything else is fall-off and color.
The variation in the grass itself is the photograph. Greens, yellows, the strange ash-pink at the tips that only shows up in certain light. Most photographs of dune grass either freeze it into a botanical illustration or smear it into a watercolor. I wanted the version in between — frozen enough to read, soft enough to feel like wind.
I made this on the spur of the moment, walking back from another shoot that hadn't worked. Some of the photographs I like most happen this way.
"Frozen enough to read. Soft enough to feel like wind."
Walking back from another shoot that hadn't worked.
The Frame
Conditions
Steady wind, partial cloud
Status
First public release
