Star Seeds April 2010 ©Marty Knapp

Editor’s note: Each of the photographs featured in this post are linked to Marty’s online catalog where they are offered in a wide variety of sizes and styles.

How Photographs May Come to Us
Some photographs arrive by accident or due to “mistakes.” I’ve found that images sometimes appear when I least expect them. I consider these events to be “gifts” and am grateful to receive them. Such is the time that Star Seeds appeared, unexpectedly, in my viewfinder.

In 2010 I bought a large bottle of hand sanitizer. The beautiful tiny bubbles suspended in the clear viscous liquid caught my eye. One evening, I poured the fluid into a clear acrylic container and created a lighting set for my subject. My macro-lens camera was fixed inches away from the chambered liquid. I pulled a stool right up to the camera and peered at the image on my display. The tiny bubbles, now magnified, were fascinating. The starbursts were a surprise!

An Incredible Voyage
Time seemed to slow as I gazed into the depth of the liquid. When I rotated the chamber, the spheres seemed to dance with each other. I was transfixed, and felt I was floating in a darkened sea of glowing celestial bodies. I could’ve been voyaging to the far reaches of interstellar space. As the evening wore on, I kept on gathering new compositions. After this first exploration, there was one image that stood out. I show it here, titled Communion.

Communion April 2010 ©Marty Knapp

My Fortunate Blunder
There was a point, late during this first evening, where I decided an adjustment to the angle of my camera would create new possibilities. And seduced by what I was witnessing, I failed to notice my fatigue. Then it happened!

As I loosened the swivel mechanism on the camera I failed to support the freed-up weight with my other hand. Suddenly, the camera tilted forward and knocked the chamber over. A puddle of sticky glop rested on my table. Resigned and irritated for pushing things too far, I got up to find a towel to clean this mess up. As I rounded the table I looked down at the spill and was amazed! The surface of this gelatinous puddle was fascinating. I no longer felt tired, but with newly-found inspiration, I prepared to shoot some photographs from above.That is how Star Seeds came into being one night in 2010.

Postscript:
Because of my “fortunate blunder,” I decided to do some more exploring of the surface of this viscous fluid. So on a subsequent evening I deliberately poured a puddle on the table. I made Terrain 716. shown immediately below. I’m curious… Which one do you prefer, Star Seeds or Terrain 716, and why? Please let me know here: info@martyknapp.com.

Terrain 716 April 2010 ©Marty Knapp

Star Seeds April 2010 ©Marty Knapp

In July of 1987 I heard of an intriguing “stone wall,” some megalithic stones and mounds on Tomales Point at the extreme northern area of the Point Reyes Seashore. A friend told me I would find these mysterious stones if I was attuned to their presence––they would beckon me. Having had a long fascination with stones and their alignments with the seasons and the risings and settings of celestial bodies, I wondered about this site. On that late July afternoon, I brought my camera and headed out to the trail to take a look. The following photo essay reveals what I found there thirty-seven years ago, followed by what I saw on a subsequent visit last January.

IMPORTANT NOTE: IF you visit this site please be respectful. Do not disturb or deface in any way the stones you see there. These stones are sacred to certain indigenous peoples.

There are two predominant theories about the stones and their origin on the Tomales Point Trail. One theory hypothesizes that the lined-up stones are property lines from ranching in the 1800s. The other proposes that they are far older and serve as “stepping off stones” for the spirits of indigenous peoples to journey in the afterlife to the Farralon Islands or perhaps to Mount St. Helena. Both places are visible from the highlands of Tomales Point. Neither of these theories have conclusive proof to back them. For now, the history and purpose of their construction remains a mystery, a compelling one!

First Visit to Tomales Point Trail
On my first visit in 1987, I hiked up the long grade and at first noticed no interesting stone formations. I did, however, gain a spectacular overview of the rocky point at McClures Beach to my south.

As I was nearing the plateau of Tomales Point, I saw a striking monolithic stone to the west of the trail. Drawn by its presence, I walked toward it for a closer look. I was moved to photograph it. I recently learned that this megalithic stone has a name––Goliath! I didn’t notice at the time that there was a 6-pointed star petroglyph carved into its west-facing side. I also recently noticed, while taking a closer look at this early photograph, that the petroglyph side of the stone seemed unusually flat as though it had been somehow carved down.

 I returned to the trail, wondering where the so-called “stone wall” was. In about a hundred yards, I walked right through it. If I hadn’t been scanning the horizon left and right I might have never noticed it. What I discovered was the wall was more of a “stone line.” At the trail the line of stones was interrupted and continued on the other side of the path in a line heading in a more easterly direction. Both lines were exceedingly straight. I wondered if they pointed at a visible geographical feature. Most of the stones were submerged and barely visible. Every so often a larger rock stood up like a beacon. I made a couple of photographs featuring one of the larger stones that looked like it had been chiseled into a cube!

Returning: January, 2024
I had been thinking of returning to this site for a couple of years and so, on a January morning this year Jean and I went to visit this unusual place. The trail seemed much steeper than I remembered it, and well, it had been thirty-seven years since I walked it. On the way I up, I paused to photograph the overview of McClures Point. The winter view is darker, more somber.

Further up, we saw a healthy coyote, hunting.

Somehow, I walked right past Goliath and ended up at the stone line, where I made a quick documentary photo.

We then looked toward the north, and saw a mound of rocks. We later learned it is called the Sol Mound; from there you can observe the sun clearly, throughout the year, setting and rising, on every horizon. As we approached the elevated mound, one rock stood out––the Sol Stone.

Here are two views from the top of the mound.

Upon leaving the Sol Mound, I turned to look at it one more time. We talked about coming back sometime soon for another visit.

“To see a World in a grain of sand,
And a Heaven in a wild flower,
Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand,
And Eternity in an hour.”
― William Blake, Auguries of Innocence

Communion: Exploring Other Worlds
The photograph I titled “Communion” is hanging in my gallery. Lately it has gotten a lot of attention. It is mysterious & provocative. If you look closely you can see what appears to be a floor. What are those spherical bubbles? Are they stationary? Are they moving? How large are they? What exactly are we looking at? These are some of the questions visitors have asked me. I tell them what they are seeing and how I came to make this photograph.  But there is more to this story, plus two other images intimately connected to this photograph. The following narrative reveals how I found and photographed these incredible bubbles and how a fortunate accident revealed an amazing view into another world.

Here is what you’re seeing:
About a quart of clear viscous liquid is contained in a clear rectangular acrylic chamber. The bubbles are tiny, the size of pin heads, and suspended in the fluid. The container sits in my studio under controlled lighting with a black backdrop. My tripod-mounted camera records the scene via a macro (super close-up lens). I rotate the chamber slowly, looking for  compositions as the bubbles change relationships with each other. I see starbursts as I work the scene. It is a delightful voyage as I explore the beauty of light and form in this micro world.  The photograph Communion is the best of the evening’s work.

Discovery: How it All Began
If you have shopped at Costco you’ll know that many consumable products come in over-sized containers. You might wonder if you’d live long enough to use the contents up! One afternoon I noticed a quart container of generic, clear hand sanitizer. It made me chuckle, but then I stopped because something caught my eye. The viscous liquid was loaded with tiny, suspended bubbles. Perfect little spheres that sparkled in the light! Fascinated with views into a smaller world, I couldn’t resist this item. I thought it worthy of a photo exploration.

Back at my studio, I put the bottle on the end of my work table where it was soon forgotten. Then one day, purely by accident, I saw something that stopped me in my tracks. The back door of my studio was open in the late afternoon and the sunlight streaming in trans-illuminated the bubble-filled liquid. It was a moment of serendipity–I would not have seen it if I hadn’t been working later than usual. Plus the door had to be open at that moment on that day. Everything was perfectly aligned–the moment in time, the angle of the beam of light, just everything was synchronized! I stared for a moment, captivated by this small world of bubbles brilliantly backlit. I took the container outside and placed it on birdbath pedestal, got my tripod and camera and made a few exposures. Here is the best of my first exploratory work.

Star Seeds: A Fortunate Accident Reveals an Other-Worldly View
The evening after I photographed Communion I returned to the studio to look for more compositions. That night I worked very late, losing all sense of time. Very late, looking for “just one more composition,” I loosened the tripod head to adjust the camera angle. Bang! I moved too quickly and the camera cantilevered toward the container, knocking it over, making a messy spill on my table. Damn, I had pushed myself too far! I was irritated with my carelessness and walked slowly around the table to retrieve a towel to clean up the puddle. As I was about to begin the cleanup, the light on the puddle caught my eye. It was gorgeous–other worldly! Star-bursts and jelly-wave patterns created a mysterious tableau. I reset the camera and made the following photograph–Star Seeds.

“To see a World in a grain of sand….”