As part of a multi year project documenting the effects and regrowth of the ecosystems in the Santa Cruz Mountains, California, This image put me high on the mountain ridge lines surrounded by almost 90,000 acres of burned landscape. It was this viewpoint that gave me a deeper understanding of the scope of a large destructive wildfire. It was a truly impactful experience near the beginning of what has become a long term project photographing the return of these forests.

Shot on a Canon 5Ds with a 70-200 f/2.8L lens.

This is a panorama image stitched together from a series of 9 individual vertical frames shot at 70mm and combined using Lightroom Classic. The final image is cropped from the resulting panorama. It was created in this manner to keep the compression of the short telephoto lens and expand the field of view resulting in a higher resolution image.

Throughout the project I used a wide variety of lenses ranging from 14mm to 500mm+, including macro and perspective control lenses. HDR and panoramic techniques were often used as well to increase the amount of detail and information in a final image.

All levels of subjects were photographed from wide landscapes to close-up details.

My overall motivation for this project was to document what happens to the forest after the fire. I was able to generate thousands of images over time. My contacts within local conservation groups gave me access to areas that were closed to the public. While I still work on the project, the images are taken less frequently to allow more time for change. I expect to return to these places for the next several years. The real challenge is showing that change, especially when the change happens at a very slow rate.

Access into these areas was difficult, not just due to a lack of public access, but the fact that they were actively dangerous places to be. While there ar ea few roads, there were no trails to follow. There were constantly large branches and even trees coming down, I was not allowed entry on windy days. There were also deep holes where tree stumps used to be. It was even possible that the roots in those holes were still smoldering months after the fire.

This has been one of the most personally important projects, many of the images have been donated for use by the conservation organizations that manage the properties.