The Riddle of Patrick’s Point

This is an old image of mine shot with my Hasselblad in California. It was a truly disappointing morning for a photographer – the hope that the morning light would be good but wake to find it overcast, dark and completely dull. What to do?

So I tell myself a story.

From experience I know that the two little fishing boats can be just glowing point light sources. It was pre-dawn and very dark (I almost slipped off the rocks into the ocean setting up my tripod).

The story I told myself was one of abstract organic lights, or a what if question “What if the sun gave off no ambient light?” Weird, impossible yes, but in my imagination I thought maybe I could create that effect. In the imagination nothing is impossible. I could see the finished image.

It’s just two anchored fishing boats but I made them into something ethereal and other-worldly.

I get a kick out of asking people what they think they are looking at. I don’t think one person has said boats as a first guess. But most everyone gets there eventually. First guess is the sun. Then I point out there is not enough ambient for that to be true. Then there is a pause and the next answer is usually wildly off mark but so fascinating to me. Answers like – planets, yep, or an explosion etc.

I love seeing the thinking process as people make up stories to explain what they are seeing. Then comes “Is it a boat?” Bingo! I get a Wow from most people but also a sense of disappointment that is it not something more exotic and strange.

I wanted to make more of this type of image and turn it into a series and I researched a bit about commercial fishing and what type of boat would have large lights on it. Turns out they are mostly likely to be shrimping boats. The lights attract shrimp. Not a lot of that action happening in Spain on the southern coast. I guess I will just have to be content with this one shot…but still, 20 years later every time I gaze out over the water and see a boat I ask myself if it would work; does it have the lights, is it anchored, am I ready…