Cabin Camping in Marin on 35mm Film

A dream came true. And I don’t say that lightly.

I am completely enamored by the Steep Ravine cabins of coastal Marin. Rugged, old, extremely coveted by those in the know. And yet on my first night there years ago, they somehow felt like a secret. When you’re “down there,” it feels like no one else knows.

After falling in love with the place we threw ourselves at securing reservations for our family. Last-minute, weekday, mid-winter – whatever popped up, we took it. Once we scooped our daughter from daycare, grabbed takeout en route, and ran out to Steep Ravine for dinner and bedtime. We left after coffee in the morning for school by 9 am.

The photos I took on these trips feel like heirlooms that will tell of an era for our family, potentially of our daughter’s earliest memories. I deeply wanted to photograph another family while they experienced the power of this place in their own way. I knew it had to be the right family. I knew it had to be on film.

This little crew of Bay Area natives (photos below) had never been to Steep Ravine. They wanted pictures that were artful, yet real. Intentional, yet human. They wanted to share something really special with their young daughter, and they wanted pictures to someday show her how it felt.

This was the family I had been waiting to photograph.

We met in the redwoods of Mt. Tam, went for a short walk together, then carpooled down to the cabins at Steep Ravine (you can only bring one vehicle). I watched as they opened car doors to the salty breeze blowing off the Pacific, as they opened the cabin door to the smell of redwood constructed in 1938, as they looked out over Stinson and Bolinas and pointed toward the Farallons.

These pictures tell of it better than I can.