Site check: Steamer Lane in Santa Cruz, California

Yesterday I had a chance to drop by Steamer Lane in Santa Cruz for a quick site check. Figure 1 shows what it used to look like here. In the photo from 1887, you can see the arch that used to be there. I love how people used to climb up onto those things and have their photograph taken for posterity. By 2006, the arch had collapsed and only a piece of it was still left. That bit of rock is still there today, but it’s worn down in the past 18 years. Here’s what it was looking like yesterday:

Figure 2. Steamer Lane, 8/26/2024. Photo by Ryan B. Anderson.

If you compare with the images in Figure 1, I wasn’t in the right spot. The horizon line is too high. I needed to move down just a little lower, and probably a bit to the left. The tide was rising and already at about 3.5 plus feet and banging around on those rocks, so that wasn’t possible. The lighting is also off—it looks to me like the 1887 and 2006 images were shot in the morning. And of course the I need to use a closer lens—I shot this with a 35mm lens and it looks like something around a 50mm would be much closer to the 1887 and 2006 images. So when I go back I need to make sure to get the tide, time, and lens right. Still, always good to get a chance to get out for a site check.

Location Scouting for the Coastal Rephotographic Project: Wilder Ranch

When Mark Klett and company undertook their ‘Third View’ project, they revisited and rephotographed 110 sites in the US west. I have a similar project in mind for the California coast, and one logistical issue will be choosing my own sites to revisit. Part of the decision-making rests upon the kinds of changes and stories I’d like to tell. Ideally, I’d like to have sites that exhibit a range of coastal landscapes, from those that have changed very little over time to those that have undergone extensive change (whether from natural forces, human intervention, or a combination of both).

A good place to start, of course, is locally. I’ve like the image of the old natural bridge at Wilder Ranch (Figure 1, left). This was taken around 1900 apparently. I’d like to find out who the photographer was, if possible. This image was included in the book by Griggs and Ross that I mentioned in my last post. They rephotographed the same site about 100 years later in 2006 (Figure 1, right).*

This one is easy to relocate and rephotograph, since I’ve been there several times in the past and it’s on a well-known coastal trail. I guess the main question is whether I’d like to lug along a view camera as well just for fun. I do like the idea of using relatively similar equipment for at least some of the sites I rephotograph…even though some of my friends and colleagues think this is kind of insane.

*Figure 1 comes from this post by good friend and colleague Gary Griggs.