A couple of years or so ago, California photographer Kerry Drager moved from an inland part of his state to a coastal area in central California. And much to the benefit of those of us who follow Kerry’s photographic work, he not surprisingly fell under the spell of the California coast. The spell has drawn him back again and again to photograph the beauty of Cambria, Cayucos, and San Simeon, and some of the results can be seen in the exquisite little book Coastal Visions recently published on blurb.com.

Kerry has infinite patience. You can see the results in this book: waiting for that wave to break just right, for the seagull to position itself in the optimal spot; working out the optimal composition, waiting (or returning again and again) for the sweetest light.

But not all the images are strictly of waves, rocks, gulls, and other things that one readily associates with coastal places. No, there is more to a coastal vision than that.  A stunning backlit group of daisies; an abstract of rock and lichen – Kerry  is renowned for his close-ups both as photographer and a teacher; a fence –what fellow Californian Ansel Adams would likely have called an extract, a portion of a fence in an image composed so as to get the maximum effect from minimum subject matter.

Kerry Drager’s Coastal Visions can be purchased from blurb.com.

And as if the book weren’t enough, Kerry currently has a show running at The Photo Shop in San Luis Obispo until March 14. The show features prints from the book, so it must be quite a treat to see these beautiful images in large format on the wall. Do go and have a look if you live in the area or are passing through.

I eagerly await more publications from Kerry; he is working on other projects and in his own good time – Kerry is methodical, he doesn’t rush impulsively into things (which is why he excels at what he does) – he will show us further products of his creativity. Coastal Visions promises much, and much will certainly be delivered.