From the collection, “Beautiful Things That Are Gone”. Watch the TED Talk about this collection here.

After a full 36 hours awake through New Years night at Rialto Beach I was ready for sunrise light.  Ansel Adams said, “You don’t take a great photograph, you make one.” I like to take it one step further, “You don’t make a great photograph, you create one.”  Standing a top a gigantic fallen, 10’ off the ground and safe from the high tide, I waited for more than than an hour between captures for the sun’s rays to eclipse the wooded foot hills behind me and kiss this lonely tree.  I was freezing and constantly looking back at my camp fire smoldering 50 yards away but a well laid plan is worth the wait.

This monolith or seastack, along with the tree, fell in the heavy winter storms of early 2016.