When I need to process life, I tend to look for solitude in nature. Getting away from the noise helps me slow down, think, pray, and listen. Nature has always had a way of healing me and bringing me closer to God.
I had been biking these hills near Cannon Beach quite a bit and kept seeing this rocky outcrop from a distance. From the right angle it looked a little like the head of a stegosaurus, so in my mind it became “Stego.” Eventually I decided I needed to find my way out there.
It was about 4.5 miles from the nearest road access, with roughly 1,500 feet of climbing by bike. By the time I reached it, I was way back in the hills with nobody around. Exactly what I had been looking for.
Sometimes I need to get far enough away from everything else to hear what God might be trying to tell me.
Nude Soul
I photographed in two different spots up there. The first was on top of this huge rock with the clear-cut hillside and Coast Range stretching out behind me. I climbed up, set the camera, and mostly just moved. Balanced. Stretched. Sat quietly. Celebrated being there. The whole place felt enormous around me.
As the light faded, I moved to another rock beside this old dead tree. That became a completely different kind of shoot. The tree had this twisted, reaching form against the sky, and I became fascinated with trying to answer it with my own body.
Mirrored Form came out of that. I wasn’t trying to imitate the tree exactly. It was more like listening to the shape it was making and responding to it. Its branches reached one way, my arms another. Two very different forms standing together on the same hillside, both shaped by the world around them.
The video above is the full sequence from that first rock. I like having it here because it shows all the in-between moments too, not just the handful of frames I eventually chose.
By the time I finally packed everything up, it was dark. I still had the bike ride back down ahead of me, but I remember feeling incredibly peaceful and grateful. The miles went by quickly.