Morning Bridge

Behind the Image

I made this image early one spring morning along the Merced River. The dogwoods weren’t blooming yet, but the cottonwoods had just begun to leaf out. Their new growth caught the backlight like small flags. I was drawn to the way the vertical trunks broke up the soft glow behind them.

I positioned the sun near the edge of the frame to create a subtle starburst through the trees without overpowering the scene. The stone bridge became a natural anchor, its low horizontal form grounding the vertical lines of Half Dome in the distance.

The balance of warm and cool tones was important. The golden light on the river and the pale green of the cottonwoods played against the purples and grays of the shaded granite. Though bears had begun to emerge from hibernation, the valley still felt quiet. Visitors hadn’t yet filled the trails, and I had time to work the composition with intention.

This image is about emergence — of light, of color, and of the season — and how all of that can be organized into something calm and cohesive.

About the Artist

Charlotte Gibb is an award-winning and renowned nature and landscape photographer based in Northern California. She is known for her mastery of "Intimate Landscapes" — small scenes derived from a large landscape.

The youngest of nine, she spent her early life playing and exploring the rural Northern California mountain area of her childhood home. Her father, an avid mountain climber and nature lover, made sure his kids shared his passion for the outdoors. After his death in a climbing accident, her mother continued to encourage an attachment to nature, ensuring that family vacations were spent outdoors camping, hiking, and exploring.

Charlotte earned her Bachelor of Arts degree from the Academy of Art University in San Francisco. She cut her teeth in the advertising business as an art director in the 1990s, then operated her own graphic design firm in the San Francisco Bay Area for decades. Throughout her long career as an artist, her photography was constantly infused in her design work. Her darkroom has since been replaced with digital darkroom tools, and her style has evolved from a somewhat journalistic approach, to one that pays tribute to the natural world.

Charlotte writes and publishes on the subject of photography and creativity, has been a keynote speaker and educator for several national photography events, served as a judge for international and local photography competitions, and exhibits her work throughout California.

She can usually be found tromping with her camera bag in the wilderness areas around the Sierra Nevada range and Yosemite National Park in her home state.

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