Every year I like to look back at the Fine Art Photographs I have created and select a small handful of my favorites. Capturing a unique and powerful image often takes many failed attempts in order to get right just one time. On other occasions you get lucky and everything works out on the first attempt. Either way, the enduring allure of beautiful locations with incredible scenery and atmospheric conditions are all the components necessary in order to keep me out chasing the light. Each of the images below is available for sale as limited-edition museum quality fine art prints. Each Fine Art image has its own short story that you can enjoy below, enjoy!
“Afterlife“
“There are but a few moments in life where we simply sit to admire the grace and majesty of our great earth. This morning was one of those moments! I set up for this shot watching the fog drift through the trees with a quiet grace that filled my heart with emotions that had me almost to tears. I could only imagine light and emotion over the land like this in the fairytale of my dreams, yet here I was to see it and experience it in person. A morning that left me both breathless and changed forever!”
“Castaway“
“I had long dreamt up ways in which I could capture this particular image! It was technically challenging and had quite a few barriers to capture. For example, there were giant coastal redwoods overhanging a 150 ft cliff above a churning sea and no way to safely get down to where you could set up for a shot without ropes and customized equipment to make the shot possible, not to mention the grove of poison oak surrounding the area where one would want to shoot from. To top it all off, I needed moody dark skies and an angry sea to convey the scene as I wished to capture it. Fast forward six years and I finally decided that it was now or never. I went and acquired a few necessary items for safety and custom built a mechanism that allowed me to get my camera ten feet off of this cliff! Then I hit the road! The weather was supposed to be stormy and moody with a NorthWest swell of eleven feet… I was excited and nervous all at the same time! Once down to the location, I put my harness on, found a solid anchor point and got everything ready to begin my descent to the cliff edge where I set up for the shot! Light was beginning to fill the atmosphere with a glow through the light rainfall and the waves crashed below me, I could see the silhouette of the sea stack before me and I began to take test shots to see if everything was going to work. After a few tries, I was getting the hang of it, all while hanging rope into my harness at the edge of this cliff! As light began to bring justice to the scene, I began capturing epic moments of wave action and after a few incredible swell sets, I had captured the perfect shot! Once back in a safe place, I was elated to see the images on the back of my display, they were incredible! It was only then that I looked to my feet and saw the swath of poison oak sticking up below me, for the next month I suffered from multiple lesions and itching that kept me up many nights! I can confidently say that it was all worth it and finally, I had the shot that I have always dreamt of capturing!”
“Dawning Moment“
Some places evoke a sense of mystery, while others evoke a sense of a heightened or altered reality. While all of these feelings came to mind while standing before this scene, none fully describes the way I felt while composing this shot well enough for me to settle upon just words alone in capturing its simple, yet complex allure. Mt Hood has a magic all unto itself, as she has a very specific tendency to hide behind clouds after a large snowstorm rolls through. This is a shot that I have wanted to capture for some time now, however it has eluded me for years! Many times, I have been here, snowshoed in the dark and set up waiting, hoping for a brief moment of clear weather for the sun to break through and cast a special warm glow on to the giant flanks of hear crown. Were it not for this morning, I may have felt it as an impossible feat, however, with grandeur and majesty here she was on this morning showing off under a warm and glowing winter sky!
“Awoken“
The sea has always held a magic about it. However, this place took things to another level on this morning! I have just shot blue hour into sunrise at the historic and beautiful Pigeon point Lighthouse and after capturing a very moody and incredible scene, I turn around to see light rays beginning to burst from the clouds! For a brief moment I sat there in awe of the scene before I frantically rushed down the cliff face to try to find a composition that did this moment justice… Every now and then I stumble onto something unbelievable in plain sight and this morning was exceptional! I found a nook in the rocks where the tide was perfect and there was a double waterfall coming into this crack in the cliff, I couldn’t believe my fortune as I set up really quickly trying not to get too much water on my camera! Each wave would get my lens wet and I hurriedly tried to wipe it off so as to capture the perfect flow of water over the rocks paired with this incredible light! I can vividly recall yelling joyfully as the scene unraveled as I simply knew I had captured a spectacular moment!
“Lighting the Way“
As a young boy I sailed around the world. As far back as I am able to remember, we navigated by sextant to the furthest reaches of the globe! Lighthouses always remind me of being at sea and after a long voyage, seeing a lighthouse can be a sigh of relief, in that you were going to be safe and that landfall was not far away. The allure of the sea is as tortuous as the fear that chills through a sailor’s bones during a force ten gale at sea and when you need your course to be sailed true, a lighthouse is something of a sentinel of hope and a glimmer of safety. Capturing this shot conjured many emotions within me and while so many only see a simple lighthouse, I see the centuries of early navigators who utilized these beacons as a navigation aid to safe passage along treacherous coastlines! So, with that said, I give to you “Lighting The Way” a tribute to mariners around the world and a memory of my own as a young man at sea.
“Entwined“
“I can only imagine the stories that these two might tell, out of many seeds, these two germinated here together placed just far enough apart that with time they would grow together. That decades would go by without touching one another, yet in this time and place they were perfectly within reach yet have room to breathe. I marveled for a while at how the coincidence of their coming to be in this place might have been and I couldn’t help but to be in love with the idea of them. With great honor I bring you this image in the twilight of day, where the fog danced about these two majestic trees, a moment in time captured forever for you to enjoy.”
“Hidden Lake“
The storm had begun to depart as we began to crest the pass, the crisp mountain air filled my lungs as I took in the view you see here now. Not a breath of wind made for an incredible reflection upon the lake far below Bearhat mountain catching the first rays of sunlight. The sky was soft and very atmospheric, which for a moment lit up with intense pinks and purple tones that left me speechless!
“Realm“
The fog danced quietly among the soft green hills covered in oaks and redwoods. This enchanting scene reminds me of everything that is good in this life. I was sitting in the stillness of the pre-dawn light as this scene unfolded before me, positioned to capture it, I recall clicking the shutter to this shot only to be mesmerized by what shown up on the back of my display! A dreamlike, soft light that took me to a place that I had never been to before, a place where all concern or worry simply faded away… In this magical capture, I see the past, present and the future all within grasp and yet without another breath, left gasping for a moment longer to see its purest of beauty.
“Winter Heart“
Hidden deep within the heart of the Alaskan North, there lays this scene. If you look deeply, you will see a natural heart shape come to view, I was absolutely taken by this scene! These enchanted and heavily laden conifers were bent over with the weight placed upon them by all of the snow, ice and hoar frost! These natural pine arches captivated me the moment I saw them, and I simply knew that I had to capture them with aurora! After setting up my composition just the way I had envisioned it, I captured this shot with the aurora swirling and dancing overhead. It was a truly magical moment and one which has since captivated my heart.
“Lupine Oak“
Thick drifts of sky lupine covered the hillsides in the spring sunshine among the oaks. Such a marvel of nature to see the fields of brilliant blues and purples covering everything in sight! However, it wasn’t just the flowers that captivated me, it was this perfect lone oak out in the middle of this field of flowers all on its own that I was drawn to. It reminded me of the renewal of spring and the resilience of time. These two elements joined together was a visual feast for the eyes and senses.
“Aurora Dawn“
For the better part of a decade, I have spent time during the winter months chasing the green lady. Northern Lights or otherwise known as Aurora Borealis are something of an otherworldly spectacle that can leave you breathless for what seems like minutes at a time and while I am certain I was breathing during these moments of outer body experience; I was so taken away into these moments that I simply forgot anything was happening around me. What was even more immense was that this particular event was supposed to be much more insignificant that it was predicted to be! That very cold early morning I stood there in awe as one of the best shows of aurora danced across the sky well above the arctic circle. The trees were covered in snow and the ice of this little spring laced the edges delicately as the sky came to life with an incredible array of colors and shapes. A memory etched into the very fabric of my being forever.
“Maui Dawn“
I had spent days and years attempting to capture this never before shot location. The difficulty always came from one of three elements… No sky, too much wind or the swells were simply too big to get close enough to the edge to capture safely. On this day, everything seemed to come together just right, however it was not without its technical challenges. Ocean spray would cover my lens almost immediately upon uncovering it for a shot, which meant continuous wiping and covering, then with a moment’s notice, I would try to capture the shot before everything would get wet again. The technical difficulty was so great this morning that I wasn’t sure I had even captured the shot until I was already back home and working on my new files. After much effort and a lot of tricky camera work, I was able to give you this cherished frame! One of which will certainly go down as one of the more challenging images that I have ever captured.
“Bathed in Light“
With the recent rains, the hills of Central California began to grow a lush green, as spring progressed it was apparent that something special was certain to be soon revealed. As temperatures soared, the plants began to grow rapidly, and the bloom was imminent. Right as it was nearing peak, I silently slipped away from all of the hustle and bustle to capture one of my favorite little flowers! The Lupine here in this field surrounded by oaks was truly remarkable and left me invigorated with a sense of renewal. As the sun went down, the light cast gentle rays across this field and the vibe in the calm spring air was simply rejuvenating!
Any of these images along with many others can be seen at www.marlonholden.com All Artworks are limited edition and sell out quickly. If you are interested in seeing any of Marlon’s works, click the link and enjoy the collection!