layers

12 May 2014.   The calendar on the wall displays a photograph of lush, green lady ferns beside a stream in Banning State Park, Minnesota.  But here on the mesa, there is snow on the windows and the sky is bleak.  Snow in May is not without precedent.  Friends of ours from Colorado claim that the most terrifying drive of their 70+ years was when they left our house some years ago, again in May, making their way over U. S. Highway 64 from Tres Piedras to Tierra Amarilla.  The road is narrow, and drop offs occasionally are not for the faint of heart.  In blinding snow, hold on for dear life.  As they did.  The good news about snow in May and fire season, is that moisture of any kind is welcome, and the high winds have diminished, even if temporarily.

Given that backdrop, I turn to photographs in bright sunshine - layers of earth.  Not being a geologist, I cannot tell you the depths nor the ages of the layers, but instead use the photographs as a demonstration of visual beauty and interest.

The first is of a series of dunes at Great Sand Dunes National Park and Reserve in southern Colorado.  The light and dunes constantly change, providing endless photographic possibilities.  I love the way clouds alter the look of the dunes.

Echo Amphitheatre near Abiquiu has distinct geological layers that are stunning in color and shape.

Kasha-Katuwe Tent Rocks National Monument contains passageways through the layers of sandstone, waiting to be discovered.

until next Monday,

DB

a passion for the image

water crisis

There is good news and bad news from the western United States this morning.  For American football fans, particularly those following the Broncos and the Seahawks, the Superbowl will feature two teams from the west.  Not being a fan myself, I don't know how long it has been since that has happened, but surely there is much joy in both Denver and Seattle today.  While all the celebrations and recaps continue, the water situation in most parts of the west is becoming increasingly dire.  Several friends made trips to California in the past month and they have never seen it that brown and dry.  For coastal parts of the state, this is the time of year when the landscape could be described as looking like Ireland, filled with Kelly green grass and lovely, lush oaks dotting the hills.  Although you cannot convince climate change naysayers, particularly those in the midwest and East who have just been through an extremely wet and very cold period, that the conditions are part of climate change, but they are.  Governor Jerry Brown declared a water emergency this week, and aerial photographs of the snowpack and normal conditions speak the truth.  This is going to be a tough year.  Am I the only one thinking about moving water from extremely wet areas to the dry areas?  Oil and natural gas are shipped by pipeline, why not water?  Of course, that really is not the answer.

The irony and good news in all of this is that one part of California is not in drought - the Mojave Desert.  Of course, all things are relative and it is a desert, but landscape photographers may want to have their cameras in hand for photographing the deserts of California and Arizona because 2014 may well be a stellar year for wildflowers.  It is a guessing game, but here are a few shots from years past to whet your appetites!  They are third generation - from slides to prints to scan - but still provide some visual warmth and juice.

until next Monday,

DB

a passion for the image

"Because it is clean"

After searching the 2002 edition of Bartlett's Familiar Quotations as well as the internet at length for the specific quote of T. E. Lawrence about loving the desert "because it is clean",  I am still unsure as to whether the quote was from Lawrence himself or a screenwriter's dream.  Regardless of the source, the phrase is epic, one that addresses both the human fascination with and repulsion of the desert.

We have what many from damp climates might consider a desert just north of us in Colorado, Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve.  I have blogged about this place before because it is mesmerizing, as all deserts and dunes can be.  The dune stacked in the background with scrub in the foreground, has an otherworldly, fantasy quality about it.

Below is a detail of one of the "holes" in the dunes, created and ever changing with the capricious spring winds.

This is the perfect time to explore the dunes, while the temperatures are moderate and Medano Creek may be running courtesy of snow melt.  For the full effect, double click on the images.

until next Monday,

DB

a passion for the image

nature's backbone

It is more often referred to as the life blood of the earth, but water takes myriad shapes, sizes and forms.  The intermittent, seasonal stream known as Medano Creek that runs through Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve in southern Colorado definitely has its time and shape, depending on runoff.  The warm, summer day on which I made these images, demonstrated how water can literally and figuratively be a backbone.

Already, ice is changing form and becoming water, which will flow, as is its nature.

until next Monday,

DB

a passion for the image

sent across the pond

Our friend, Victoria, emailed photographs from a friend she had recently visited in Scotland.  So I thought I would bounce a few back to him in this morning's blog.

These were shot during two different trips, one in February when all the inn keepers to a person asked why we were visiting during February, and one in April five years later.  The one thing that may be obvious from these images is the fact that the light is very low.  In a latitude that far north (between 56 and 58 degrees), the sun doesn't rise until 8:30 or so and sets around 3:30 in February, so I had to make the best of those hours.  These were scanned from Fujichrome Velvia slides.

Below is the Glenfinnan Bay of Loch Shiel, in western Scotland, where a monument to Prince Charles Edward Stuart (Bonnie Prince Charlie) was built in 1815.

The light was extraordinary when I took this photograph of the Glenfinnan Viaduct.  I don't recall this but apparently film of the Viaduct was used liberally in the early Harry Potter films.

Low sun is again apparent below in an image made on the Isle of Mull in west central Scotland.

Here's to you and your friends, Peter!

until next Monday,

DB

a passion for the image