“It’s 5 A.M.”

I like watching videos about people working, especially when they articulate their thoughts through monologues or provide commentary.

About one year ago, during a certain period, I frequently watched YouTube videos about cameras and photography. One day, I watched a video from The Verge about the Hasselblad 907X & CFV 100C. After that, I ended up watching a few more videos about the camera. One of them was made by Willem Verbeeck.

Willem Verbeeck is a Belgian film photographer and YouTuber based in Los Angeles. Yes, he is a film photographer and made a video about the digital Hasselblad camera. But soon, my focus shifted from Verbeeck talking about the camera to how he was using it, and then my thoughts were all about his projects. At that point, I no longer wanted to watch more videos about Hasselblad.

In the video, Verbeeck said he wanted to use the Hasselblad for a project about the freeway landscapes in Los Angeles. The next scene shows him driving to a spot. That is a slope with a distant view of the freeway. “It’s 5 a.m. here in Los Angeles. It’s a really cold, windy morning. And I’m back at the spot I’ve photographed…” As Verbeeck says this, he sets up the tripod and gets ready to shoot. After a few shots, when I still thought about the photo he just made, he moved to the next spot.

On the second day, he did the same thing again. He left home by car at about 4:30 a.m. to a spot he wanted to shoot before sunrise. I’ve seen the sky before sunrise many times. It’s beautiful. Then I realized this is not about a YouTuber or working as a freelance film photographer (although I believe many jobs require you to get up early). It’s about the way he lives. He wants to shoot some photos, so he just drives out at midnight or early in the morning. Free and simple.

At that moment, the words “I envy this YouTuber” surfaced in my mind. I know it’s not an easy life. (I guess there is no such thing as “an easy life.”) What I envy is his mindset and lifestyle. It’s like: I want to do something and can do it right away. Of course, I can get up at 4:30 a.m. and go out for a jog or a walk, but driving my car to some spots to get a good photo shot for several consecutive days is a different thing.

The Morro Rock

Putting my envy aside, I really appreciate his projects and related videos. There are two other fascinating projects I want to talk about in this post.

The first project is about a massive rock. It’s the “Morro Rock,” a giant volcanic plug in Morro Bay, California. Before the project, Verbeeck went to Morro Bay once to shoot some photos. One day, while reviewing those images and prints, he noticed a theme that many of them have the Morro Rock in them. In some photos, the rock is the main subject; in others, in Verbeeck’s words, “it’s lurking in the background.” He then came up with an idea: how about making a project about it?

Compared to one-time photography—whether professional or tourist–style—continuously and repeatedly photographing the same subject, or even the same object, over a long period is not only more challenging but also a constraint that hones and stimulates creativity. Verbeeck said the following in a video titled “The Importance of Long Term Photography Projects,” where he reflected on the project called “The Morro.”

Instead of constantly trying to turn new corners now to look for the next best Landmark that I hadn’t gotten a picture of yet, I find it just as exciting, if not more, to go back to the same place that I’ve photographed a 100 times and just see how it looks different this time around.

This reminds me of what Dimitri Bruni and Manuel Krebs, the Swiss graphic designer duo, said in the documentary “Helvetica”:¹

Dimitri Bruni: “We like restrictions. We can’t operate, we can do nothing without restrictions. The more restrictions we have, the more happy we are.”

[…]

Manuel Krebs: “When it comes to type, we will only use, if possible, one typeface, or two, and if possible we will use one size.”

They feel excited and happy when they face challenges and constraints.

Verbeeck’s work is impressive. I particularly like a few of the photos. For example, one shows a storefront full of hand-painted signs, which nicely reflects Morro Rock.

Another good one is a series of photos, or I can call it a sequence of time shifts. Those were taken in the morning as sunlight and shadows swiftly moved across Morro Rock. Verbeeck captured this fleeting transformation in four photos, showing the rapid shift in light over a brief moment—almost like a time-lapse of the moon’s phases. You can see the “dark side” of Morro Rock gradually fading until the entire surface is bathed in golden light. It’s fascinating.

I also like an image of two people playing basketball on the court while the massive Morro Rock fades into the misty background. When Verbeeck pressed the shutter, one player released the ball while the other took a shot. In reality, the mist was constantly shifting, and in the next second, both balls would fall. Rather than simply capturing that fleeting moment, Verbeeck’s camera seems to freeze time itself.

Of course, Verbeeck shows many other good photos in the videos. But I have to stop right here and leave the rest to tempt you into watching the video.

I like how Verbeeck sets up a project in the video. As a former student of a specialized art program in middle school, I find it similar to sketching and painting the same objects over and over—sometimes hundreds of times. It’s a good way to hone my skills and push myself to explore different angles and expressions. I can also apply the concept to a personal photography project, perhaps in a place where I live or one I visit frequently.

Verbeeck has visited Morro Bay about 20 times. Recently, he finished the last shot of the project and made a video about it. I recommend you watch all three videos. You may come up with some ideas to start your own projects. I’m looking forward to seeing the results if he puts them in a photobook.

The Purple Glow at the Night

The other project is about streetlights. The story is that one day Verbeeck learned that in Los Angeles, due to some kind of coating problem, a few LED streetlights started emitting a purple glow. Again, he drives out at night to find the purple streetlights to shoot and make it a personal project. People tipped him where to find those purple streetlights through Instagram DMs, and he marked them on Google Maps. “It’s like a treasure hunt,” Verbeeck said.

When I saw the purple streetlights in the video, I kept thinking about a scene in the Pokémon Go app or its predecessor, Ingress.² Because the location with the purple streetlight is like indicating there is a “Gym” or a “Portal.” And it’s not on your smartphone screen; it’s in real life. Isn’t that cool?

Although I love shooting photos in bright sunlight, night photography has its own unique charm. From time to time, I take more good photos at night than during the day. And since night photography usually involves long exposures (in Verbeeck’s case, he’s doing film photography), what we see and what the camera captures can sometimes be drastically different. This visual dissonance—or even conflict—can be intriguing.

The other reason I like this project is that it’s fun, and its theme comes from unexpected events in everyday life. “There was a time when, every evening, the neighborhood would be shrouded in a purple glow.” I don’t know if any local residents will recall their childhood this way, but I hope they can use Verbeeck’s video as proof when sharing this strange memory with friends.

Verbeeck’s YouTube videos cover various photography-related topics in multiple formats. While some may not be as popular or entertaining, they are genuine. I truly enjoy watching his passion for photography unfold. I think you will find some of them truly inspiring and beautiful.

Thanks to Verbeeck, I’m planning to write a post about a photobook I discovered through another one of his videos, “A Tour of My Photobook Shelf.” I’m so glad I had a chance to read a photobook like that. Feel free to take a guess at which one it might be.