 |
| Detail from 4th photo |
By Craig McCollum & Maik Strosahl
More than one reader have requested more information about how the photo for our “Making a Splash” piece from September was produced. Let Craig tell you about it:
I had already been enjoying Craig’s pictures for a couple of weeks, but the photo below (from the September post) was the one that made me decide we had to share his photography in some form. For the original photo “Sun Glass” below, I have added to its caption some “tech” info.
This afternoon,
there is fire in the water,
there is sky throughout the land.
There are grasses growing taller,
splashes rising,
then dripping away,
and I am the god,
bringing them together,
for but a moment of glory
across the surface of a rock,
before the water
swallows the stone,
the surface gathers,
the ripples fade
to all but memory
and the permanence of film.
More than one reader have requested more information about how the photo for our “Making a Splash” piece from September was produced. Let Craig tell you about it:
It was a lazy afternoon hanging out on the shoreline of Echo Lake in Montana. The sky was still filled with smoke from distant summer wildfires. It was getting late and I was caught by how the hazel light from the sun reflected across the water.
My son Corbin walked into the water next to me and noticed the ripple flow across the reflection and thought that added a nice element to the photographs I was taking.
So I ask him to move in the water again, for a few more images. Then I started to wonder what it would look like if he dropped a rock right in front of me with the sun behind the splash. So I ask him to toss a rock. The first few looked pretty good. So I had him move behind me and ask him to drop it in specific spot in the water. As the time went on, we honed our skills in rock placement and angle of camera.
Corbin and I really enjoyed trying to capture that one moment in time. He still talks about our fun afternoon at Echo Lake.
I had already been enjoying Craig’s pictures for a couple of weeks, but the photo below (from the September post) was the one that made me decide we had to share his photography in some form. For the original photo “Sun Glass” below, I have added to its caption some “tech” info.
 |
| “Sun Glass,” photograph by Craig McCollum, August 2021 Camera was a Google Pixel 3 XL, f/1.8 1/499 4.44mm ISO48 |
This afternoon,
there is fire in the water,
there is sky throughout the land.
There are grasses growing taller,
splashes rising,
then dripping away,
and I am the god,
bringing them together,
for but a moment of glory
across the surface of a rock,
before the water
swallows the stone,
the surface gathers,
the ripples fade
to all but memory
and the permanence of film.
| Copyright © 2021 by Craig McCollum & Maik Strosahl | |
| Originally a flat lander, Craig A. McCollum received his degree in photography and headed west. He lives in Montana with his wife and two sons, exploring the outdoors while hiking, biking, and chasing moose – the latter only with a camera, of course. |  |
| Michael E. Strosahl has focused on poetry for over twenty years, during which time he served a term as President of the Poetry Society of Indiana. He relocated to Jefferson City, Missouri, in 2018 and currently co-hosts a writers group there. |  |
Maik you often give a blasts from the past, and this is a multiple. Tossing rocks in the water was a basic skill set when I was a kid, skipping them to the other boys yelling "Good one!" or "You stink!" Then a couple "maroons" throwing rocks in the water, and I hear Bugs Bunny, in now very non-PC cartoons, "What a maroon. What a gulli-bull!" And then you turn it into fantastic art, visual and written, and I feel that feeling from long ago, about being the god at the center of that earth and sky and water, and it feels good.Really good.
ReplyDeleteAnd, at age 78, earlier this year in Minnesota, I laughed myself onto my back on a pebbled beach of Lake Superior skipping smooth stone after smooth stone across the lake’s surface for my granddaughter. And there was a videographer(!) on hand (my daughter-in-law) to capture some of the event. I still had the skill.
DeleteI grew up within walking distance of the Mississippi, where we regularly skipped stones and kerplunked huge hunks of broken concrete. Glad you enjoyed the piece and again, thank you Craig for sharing your talent with us all!
ReplyDelete