Short Takes
- By Rich Turner
- Photographs by Rich Turner
- One Comment
Pampas Grass, Andrus Island, Circa 1985
Digging deep in the archives I ran across this Kodachrome slide from about 1985. I say, ‘about’, because the date stamp has faded.
The Delta’s rich peat soils are world renown for growing almost anything that can be grown. Late one winter afternoon after a good soaking rain I was cruising the levee roads of Andrus Island when I was stopped in my tracks by the low sun backlighting the pampas fronds growing about halfway down the slope of the levee. In order to isolate the subject against the wet, almost-black, freshly plowed peat soil, I decided to use my 500mm catadioptric, or mirror, lens.
This lens has a fixed aperture, meaning you cannot adjust the iris for exposure. You only have the shutter speed – with Kodachrome 64 that meant a very slow shutter – and me without a tripod in quickly fading light. In the Delta, finding a wide enough spot in the levee road to pull safely to the side took a minute, too.
The result is this dramatically back-lit pampas grass with the out-of-focus background going almost completely black.
The added bonus is the lens flare. Normally I work hard to keep this from happening. But when I saw it in the viewfinder, bingo, click!
Award-winning photographer Rich Turner explored, photographed and aerial photo-mapped Antarctica as a U.S. Navy photographer, then spent 19 years as a newspaper photojournalist before opening his own photography studio in 1990. His Delta Grandeur exhibition toured California museums and libraries for five years, sharing his long fascination with the Sacramento–San Joaquin River Delta.
Turner founded Soundings in 2018 as a place for photographers, writers and artists to explore the landscape, people, history and character of the Delta and the surrounding region. His continuing work is rooted in the belief that this remarkable place deserves to be better known, understood and valued.
- By Rich Turner
- Photographs By: Rich Turner
- One Comment
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One Comment
I often see Rich Turner’s photos on Facebook and I am always drawn in to the center and immediately reflect on the time I’ve spent in the Delta area. thanks for the work.