point reyes national seashore

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"This isolated swath of land of rolling hills and grasses, wild coastal beaches and headlands, hidden estuaries and forested uplands, hammered so often by howling  winds and fog that chills to the bone,  lies dotted with farms and pasturelands inhabited by those that have learned  to resist in fierce combat, , the powerful forces  of nature, is a land so beautiful that one feels  torn from everyday life and transported  blissfully back to a time long past. It thrills me to be able to stand upon the winding , undulating,  Sir Francis Drake road, breathing in the fresh ocean air howling its song through the grasses and fence posts, while I cast my gaze across the lonely landscape . I search for a bit here, a bit there  to capture with my little Leica, some feeling of what I see. A   fence post, or.a muddy pasture, a piece off the place that rivets the impressions and transient beauty into a fine photograph..Some of these bits and peices can be found in the 3 Point Reyes Seashore Collections that follow."  Kirk Phaling

This collection of photographs of Pt Reyes National Seashore in Tomales Bay California began with a single photograph...While still  living in San Francisco attending art school in 1967 I made a short trip to the area...Of course there was no digital photography then, only film...From the trip I got one photograph that intrigued me . A moody landscape made on 35mm film that had grainy feeling and one in which the horizon faded softly  into the distant fog...That photograph  mind for some 47 years

Still photographing 47 years later I decided to draw upon that photograph too see what I could do,,,,Even though I had been using Leica M9's , I chose to buy an M2 , and some film to try and replicate the feelings my 1967 photograph had evoked...So off I went with 8 rolls of film and my Leica with a 3 day limited trip...When I arrived in Point Reyes the skies were cloudy with sun breaking through, gale force winds up to 50 mph, and off and on rain . Perfect !!  I had restricted my lens to one 35 the idea being to just concentrate on feeling and compositions...Limited means concentrates the mind, and my focus was maintained  throughout the 3 days...I never had to change exposure ......the light was so cooperative. One of light and subjective photographers dream about.  The gaol was to document the place  photographing what was there, not what Wanted to be there..I had no inkling to do the Grand Landscape but rather a reportage, to see what the camera saw with my preconceptions of what a photograph should be, but rather let the camera see with me only guiding the  eye....what will make a photograph ? Well anything can make a photograph...To enhance this minimalist approach I chose to have the fit developed at a drugs store, scanned, and then printed with no computer involved.. Of the 320 photographs developed, over 100 became photographs in my book-Point Reyes National Seashore.!!

In 2014 I ran into the photographer and US West Coast Representative Thomas Brichta who was also running the  Leica Akademie  USA at the Keeble and SChuchat Photography store in Palo Alto California...I showed him my Point Reyes  book which apparently impressed him...A few months later Tom and I began collaborating on producing 4 day workshops for the Akademia, a new venture for Leica....We went on to produce around 20 4 day workshops for Leica until about 2018 when Covid hit..Leica went on line with workshops .I couldn't fathom such an arrangement , so I started my own company American West Workshops, producing some 10 adventures all durin covid..We were never deterred and thumb our noses at the hysteria...We are photographers - we have to be out there photographing !! And that's just what we di ....