Wave-Forms; Fact, Reality, Immediacy, Part Five; Maui, 2017
To an observer at ocean's edge, the fine subtlety and nuance of patterns playing across the backsides of waves are completely overshadowed by the crash and roar of green-water waves curling and breaking. The early morning swell repeatedly pushes big waves higher up the beach. The visual and aural result mesmerizes. It is hard to leave or even look away.
Insistent immediacy is on display here. The fact of each repeated rolling explosion and the reality of water rearranging the sand on shore offer lessons in power and implacability. It is a natural opera, and the ocean is on stage. It won't allow itself to be ignored. The saying, "Never turn your back on the ocean," is apt, even for those who aren't in the immediate theatre.
Here are a few opera images, some at very fast shutter speeds to freeze motion and some at slow shutter speeds to emphasize the energy and drama of a wave's collision with shore.
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After a lifetime of mainly expressing myself with words, my postings here will mainly rely on images. They will speak for themselves to some extent, but I'll usually add a few comments of explanation. I've taken photographs for decades, since the 1950's, inspired in part by my father's photographic skill. Four years of photo assignments and quality darkroom time eventually gave way to decades of casual and family picture-taking. I re-immersed myself when I left film and turned to digital.