Size: 7.5” x 7.5” on 8.5” x 11” Canson Platine Fibre Rage Paper

Signed and stamped with print number in verso.

I scrambled up to a rib of granite to get a wider view looking back to the Seven Gables Massif. The afternoon storm was building and flowing diagonally toward me. I wanted to capture the immense feel of the basin, it’s undulating granite and wildness. I added neutral density to lengthen the exposure and waiting for the piercing rays of light to selectively illuminate the scene. After I captured the frame I looked down to my left and there was a perfect indentation in the rock, closed on all sides but open to the view I was photographing.

I hopped down and thought this would make a neat campsite. And then I found them, in rock crevices, and scattered in the gravel. Tiny pieces of obsidian, broken shards from larger chunks. Obsidian doesn’t occur naturally in the High Sierra, it has to be brought. At some point in the past, others must have thought this would make a good site too. We are connected by history.

Location: Bear Lakes Basin, John Muir Wilderness, High Sierra.

Technical Info: Hasselblad, 50mm. Red #25, 10-stop ND. Ilford Delta 100 BW film, developed in Kodak X-tol 1:1