To say that photography means many different things to many different people— that photographers approach image-making with many different approaches and intentions— is to overstate the obvious far too obviously. That said— I have never been one to carefully plot the course for any image I have taken, preferring, instead, to encounter what I encounter when I encounter it (secretly hoping I might happen upon the stuff of wonder as if such moments are gifts).  One day, back in 2016, I visited the shoreline of Crescent City, near the California border with Oregon.  Crescent City is a small, unassuming city that many have likely never heard of— its most significant claim to fame being its unfortunate offshore geography which is ever too inviting to tsunamis, several of which have damaged portions of the city after major earthquakes in faraway places such as Alaska and Japan.  

I still recall, fondly, the day that I decided to follow the road that hugs the shoreline and, after taking what would soon be a fortuitous left turn down a small hill to the shoreline, I encountered this beautiful pine tree.  It was and remains a gift—one that I readily and gratefully accepted and then revisited on three separate visits from 2016-2018. 

In the practice of bonsai, one of the most dramatic styles is the rock planting called ishizuki-- in which the tree and its roots are grown so that they cling to the rock.  Thus, I have chosen that title for my images of this lovely pine, which clings to this rock on the edge of a small cliff.  This tree, of course, is not a bonsai—but the style was, after all, adapted because of those who first decided to shape bonsai trees based on such naturally occurring features.    With this in mind, perhaps I can persuade you to see these photos as their own recreations of the actual tree— making each image its own bonsai-like impression and reflection.