What you are seeing in the “Thousand Splinters to Pull†series are wood pilings emerging from water, and it’s the long-exposure technique that blurs the movement of the water into a soft, ethereal haze. Many may think the name comes from the rough texture of the wood itself, and while this might be a great reason for the name, it is in fact not correct. The name is actually derived from what felt like a thousand splinters in my legs as they began to thaw out from the frigid water in which I was standing in order to capture this 6-image series. The spring of 2015 in Colorado was what seemed like nothing but rain. Local reservoirs were flooding, creeks and rivers were running fast and overflowing their banks, and landscaping companies were backed up until late summer due to not being able to work. This, however, turned some ordinarily non-photogenic subjects into just the opposite. These pilings normally mark the parking lot boundary and sit about 50 yards from the lake’s shore, but the heavy rain put them 2-feet under water. So I waded into the frigid water knowing that I would be there for a bit; it takes roughly 15 minutes per image captured to set-up, compose, focus, calculate the long-exposure time, double-check the focus, put on the ND filters, and finally open up the shutter for the 4-minute-long exposure. However, I was not going to let some cold water stand between my vision and actually bringing it to fruition. I hope that my dedication to these images has provided you with something you will enjoy, knowing you were not the one standing there feeling splinters in order to capture. Cheers!
