Focal Points

May/June 2023

As nature photographers we are sensitive to the effect of location sharing on the landscape. I’m often secretive about where I’ve made a particular image, particularly if it’s a sensitive habitat or an off-road area that would be swarmed by Instagrammers if revealed. But on occasion I consider it part of my mission to share places that are dear to me, if I think that sharing will help that place be protected and to grow. Three articles in this issue are very clear about where they made their photographs, and they tell us very clearly where those places have been, where we are now, and where we are going.

As you will read in Amanda Thompson’s cover story, the Sepulveda Basin Wildlife Reserve (SBWR) is a recent example of creating habitat from urban wasteland. Amanda’s photography is splendid, as is the work of the photographers she has recruited for the book. Just as importantly, she’s using her book on the SBWR to bring attention to the possibilities of creating wildlife habitat in other urban areas by using abundant treated wastewater. As she points out this is already occurring in several places in the West, and it is a conservation story that we should all be following and encouraging. Her Kickstarter is fully-funded, but I still recommend that you look at it to see what she has in mind.

Peter Bennett has been photographing the Los Angeles River for many years, documenting how it has changed over time. He has published a book on the subject, and conducts workshops to the river with students from the Los Angeles Center of Photography. Under normal conditions a significant portion of the water in the river comes from the same Tillman Water Reclamation Plant that keeps the SBWR alive. As he reports in this issue, his most recent workshop took place after the high water of winter scoured much of the channel. Even with that high volume, though, many of the trees that form the backbone of the river habitat remained firmly rooted.

Steven Cohen has written a first-person account of the aftermath of the Woolsey Fire in late 2018. The fire began in the Santa Susanna Mountains, crossed US 101, and roared through the Santa Monica Mountains to the sea, destroying habitat, houses, and human lives. Long-term residents of Southern California are familiar with the plumes of smoke on the horizon, the red sunsets, and the sounds of firetrucks on their way to meet the blazes that regularly occur during fire season. What Steven Cohen has brought us is the close-up view of what we couldn’t see from a distance. It is the power of photography. Five years after the fire, this eyewitness account is still haunting.

Close readers of Focal Points will notice that I have not written my regular “How-To” column for this issue. I have turned it over (temporarily) to Rebecca Wilks. She is a regular contributor to Arizona Highways, an excellent photographer, and my friend. Almost everything I know about shooting star bursts I learned from her, and she’s now explaining it all to you.

This issue also includes a special section on the wildflower explosion that typically follows a winter of heavy rainfall. I’m very grateful to the photographers who contribute their work to make this magazine beautiful.

–Joe Doherty