Dogwoods in Fog

This is my first post on my blog site. I thought I would share with you the story behind one of my most favorite photographs, “Dogwoods in Fog”. It took me three years to take this photograph. In the spring of 2002, I visited Yosemite valley. Dogwoods were in full bloom. While wandering around the valley in search of a good composition, I came to this location near the Merced river. The beautiful dogwoods bloom composed by these strong lines of the tree branches immediately caught my attention. I photographed several compositions with my 35 mm film camera I owned at that time. I made some prints, but was not happy with the smaller resolution of the 35 mm film. In that year, I acquired a 4″x5″ large format view camera. Over the course of the next two years, I would come back to the same location with my large format camera and capture several images. Finally, I was happy with my capture in 2004. The cloudy weather and the atmospheric mist added the right emotional content to my photograph. However, it would take me another six months of trial and error before I was able to transfer my feelings into the print. The emotional content is very important in whatever I photograph. In the words of Rabindranath Tagore, the Nobel laureate poet from India, if my photograph can speak to the heart of a thirteen year old, I would feel more successful than if I were to be praised by an art critic.

This photograph has been admired by a wide variety of audience and has been collected by many individual art lovers. It was selected in the coveted annual exhibition at the Center for Photographic Art (founded by Ansel Adams), Carmel in 2011. The photograph is featured on the 2011 Juried Exhibition book published by the Center for Photographic Art.

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