Drakes Estero from Home Bay, September 1991

Excerpt from Point Reyes 20 Years: The Estero trail takes you over grassy pastured hills and through an old Christmas tree forest before dropping down into the delta of Home Bay. I've walked it for many years, even before I began to photograph the area. In the autumn of 1991, I was working with my 4x5 view camera which teaches you to think about shapes, spaces, and their relationship to each other. Because I was looking at the world upside down and reversed, I started to consider composition in a new way. Also, I was forced to slow down, to become more contemplative about my images. When I carried the view camera, I began to feel free to discover and to be surprised. It was a new way to regard the landscape. I like to think of this approach as "taking what is given."

At Drakes Estero one September afternoon, when I arrived at the water's edge, I was struck by the lighting on the mud flats. The extreme low tide revealed fascinating shapes and patterns in the mud. The angular rays of the sun created a tactile dimension to the shapes in the flats‹revealed the fine details. It's hard for me to express how delightful these clear contours looked on the ground glass of my camera back. Under the dark cloth, in an upside-down world, I adjusted the camera. Gradually, the shapes moved into a composition that pleased me.

2009 Calendar

Back by popular demand is Marty Knapp's Point Reyes Seashore wall calendar for 2009. This elegantly designed 9x12 fine art publication is superbly produced in duotone and bound with lay-flat metal wire-o. Single copies are 15.95, with special discounts offered for purchases of four or more. Read more...

Point Reyes 20 Years - Deluxe Edition

This fine art coffee table volume features 43 of my most evocative photographs created between 1986 and 2006 on the Point Reyes Peninsula. Personal essays reveal an intimate look at the creative process during the making of the images. Read more...

Point Reyes 20 Years - Collector's Edition

The Collector's Edition of Marty Knapp's award-winning Point Reyes 20 Years comes with a signed 8x10 gelatin silver print. Limited to 300 signed and numbered editions, the volume is presented in an elegant cloth-covered clamshell case. Read more...