The snow stuck with us for a while over most of December and into the first week of January. Unusual for the lowlands, valleys and even the foothills nearby. But great fun to wander in. The way the light tends to break, I’m glad I thought to buy some gaiters over the summer for this winter. I can now wade in and stand thigh deep in the snow for the half hour it sometimes takes to set up a shot or wait for the clouds to part and not loose feeling to the knees. It’s so magnificent, even among the destruction of storms and logging, that it’s difficult to focus, literally. I sometimes draw out the minutia of taking a photograph, even standing in knee deep in melting snow, and fumble clumsily even with my own breathing.
But it is startling, these voids where once were dense forests. Incredible new views are opening up, which is a guilty pleasure to say the least. As with Striped Peak, the Sol Duc Valley now is lousy with photographic possibilities. This guilt seems to want to exclude it from alignment with any pure notions of beauty. Not sure why exactly, except for extemporaneous, politically correct reasons. But still, I’m not really sure how to feel about it yet. Certainly I’ll take advantage until I sort it out. Which might take some time: my deepest thoughts this week have been if I should print this series in Albumen, or Saltprint, or some such hollow gimmick to match the period feel of the project? I really need to snap out of it.