After last week’s Southern Oregon Coast expedition with Colleen Miniuk, I got to spend three
more days with my friend Amy. We stayed in a
little house in Newport and had the luxury of some time to hike and chat. She knows that at such times, I sometimes think
about the theme for my next post here. I gratefully give her credit for the
idea on this one.
Colleen set the stage for our wanderings by talking about
this life philosophy; saying yes. She
reminded me that the first rule of improvisational theater is to say “yes, and…”
This is the way of going forward into story, and ultimately into a rich joyful
life.
She went on to talk about something she learned in writing
workshops with Craig Childs
(whose writing I adore). He says,
apparently, that the way to have experiences that create stories is to put yourself in interesting situations
where things are likely to happen. Courage. This reminds me of a good friend who, I'm
sure, will be thinking of the story even before he’s sure he’ll survive
unscathed. He’ll recognize himself, I know.
If I’m honest, I’ll say that my first reaction to something
new is likely to be a “no.” I’m not
proud of this, but it comes from aspects of my upbringing. One of the privileges of middle age is to recognize our biases and work around them. Just because my first reaction is negative
doesn’t mean I have to stay with it.
If I had any doubts that I should write on this theme, a bit
of serendipity convinced me to forge ahead.
Two days after I got home, once the laundry was done and bills paid, I
stumbled on a Netflix video from Brené Brown
in which she talks about courage.
Specifically, she persuaded me that courage is only possible with risk
and uncertainty. In short, we must be
vulnerable to be courageous, and that’s scary.
Saying “yes” in my creative life might include going to a
location which requires a little courage, pushing past the desire for comfort
(laziness), or curiosity and experimentation.
On this trip, I worked on some more abstract images. The stunning reflection in this image lasted all of
twenty seconds so I only got one chance. It’s a little different for me
artistically, and I really had to work on the “yes” which was showing it to the
group. This one paid off, with kindness
and support from my fellow travelers.
Brené Brown does make the point, though, that when you’re committed to
being vulnerable in this way you’re going to fail, a lot, and that perhaps having
taken the risk is the real success.
A disclaimer; there are some things that the “yes” should
not be. It is not, to quote The Eagles, “everything,
all the time,” nor is it a sort of manic forging ahead without pause. Though Colleen loves to say, “you can sleep
when you’re dead,” I’m enough of a sleep junkie that sometimes I’d best say “yes”
to the nap.
We had a very windy, socked-in evening at Face Rock Beach in
Bandon. We all bundled up and hesitated at
the top of the stairs to the beach. I
probably won’t take any pictures, I thought, but I’ll carry my gear down there
and just have the experience. Sometimes
I have to accept the challenge in stages. I did shoot, of course, and ultimately
I found some things I really liked. The best of those is this long-exposure
shot. I needed to hold my tripod to keep
it from blowing away.
Another morning the full moon was setting over the
ocean. Once I realized that I could
catch it in the notch of the arch rock, I shook off my native laziness and
jogged down the beach in time to capture this, one of my favorite images of the
trip.
With the full moon comes excellent low tides. At Yaquina Head
Outstanding Natural Area (yep, that’s really what the sign says) the tide
pools are fabulous, but slippery. When
you add to that the need to get me and my tripod low on the rocks and cast shade to eliminate
glare, it’s a bit of a contortionist act. I’m so glad I did, though.
Cape
Kiwanda was an enroute stop for Amy and me.
We didn’t expect to find such great shooting there, but the angry skies
and ocean were irresistible, despite the need to scramble on the rocks as the
tide came in. It was a black & white
shoot, any joyfully so.
Sometimes I must stop and shoot even when the setting is
absurd. The lilies were planted just
outside the restrooms at Shore
Acres State Park. Don’t tell.
The Oregon Coast Aquarium
in Newport was a convenient grey-day stop and gave us a great opportunity to
photograph captive shorebirds. Puffins
are irresistible. We said “yes” to
something rather off the beaten path of nature photography.
Yes.
And, just between you and me, making my writing public in
this way feels rather vulnerable as well.
Thanks for riding along for the failures as well as the successes.
More images are in the Pacific Northwest Gallery on the
website.