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Chimney Rock and Cimarron Ridge – on the way to Owl Creek Pass,
Uncompahgre National Forest – San Juan Mountains, Colorado, USA
I really enjoyed my time in this place, I missed it on my last trip to SW Colorado and had it high on my list of places to visit. I want to go back to spend more time exploring these forests and the other side of the ridge. When I got up to ~10,000ft (not 12,000' like I said in the video) Owl Creek Pass, evening light was starting and some snow was loose in the air. I returned to the west slopes to catch evening alpenglo on the ridge. I also made an image of approaching weather bringing snow that was featured a couple weeks ago at CreativeTechs.com/training. I had underexposed this exposure by three stops which introduced lines of noise in the dark areas. Jason Hoppe tried a few things trying to minimize the noise without losing detail and ended up blurring the dark cloud area in a selective edit. On screen in the video, it looks like a solution but seeing the original file, I didn't like how the 'texture' of the image varied across the image and the lines of noise outside the blurred area still had noise. Good try but I decided to try a different route by introducing more noise so it was deliberate and a sort of texture... but, in the end, I chose not to use the image and don't have it online to show. Here's Jason's video though with some interesting tries... (my voice is a little garbled in the video because I was talking via phone and not via my computer) Peace
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The Needles in morning light - Canyonlands National Park, Utah, USA
©2009 Ed Bookon my autumn Rockies tour last month, after I left Colorado on my return toward home, I stopped by Canyonlands to do some scouting (and photography) for a return next spring, perhaps with some students. I arrived in the area late and passed the rock art at Newspaper Rock too late to photograph and then stopped for the night along the road to the national park. In the morning I was up before first light wondering where I would find a location for morning images with no pre-scouting... It's as if one is racing the sun and not knowing where it would come up and what it would paint with morning alpenglo... I drove toward the national park and was surprised by the sun rising without much color in the sky and no discernible earth shadow opposite the rising sun. I was at this location and was looking at the map still wondering what, where, but I did know when, (and it was that moment)... I pulled out camera and tripod and set up just as the sun broke through the distant cloud bank in the east to paint warm light on the needles and I was clicking... The Needles (seen in the distance in this image) form the southeast corner of Canyonlands and was named for the colorful spires of Cedar Mesa Sandstone that dominate the area. Later in the day, I would be much closer to the spires when I hiked the Elephant Hill trail toward Elephant Canyon. I ran out of daylight and didn't want to be caught on the trail after dark because it's difficult to follow in the dark (and in some places a challenge finding it again if one wanders away from the track). It normally takes a couple days, at least, before I get into the making images mode, but, there in Canyonlands, I only had one day and I was lucky to start clicking with the scenery immediately... a very prolific imagemaking day it was... I'm excited for a return in the spring. wanna go? Peace
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would you watch or ignore the rain?
Many who cross the sound often or daily absorb themselves in books, laptops, newspapers, or conversation to ignore the crossing. I've lived in western Washington state only since '73 so haven't been here long enough to get tired of the rain and don't ride the ferries often enough to get tired of the view - even if the view is fogged by rain... but I've always been like that, I love to enjoy the view when I go from here to there or from there to there or there to here... Back when I worked for wages at the place in Bremerton that did stuff to ships, I enjoyed my commute and the view, especially on the way home - for more than the fact that I was going away from that place... I often took the long way home... often my ten mile commute would stretch to fifty or a hundred or more miles and even in the rain... and even though I usually rode a motorcycle.
Now, that I work at home, I often sit by a window watching
the rain...
but, today, no rain, cold and mostly clear but no rain... but, I watched for it...
Peace
ps this afternoon I saw the bright orb drop from a cloud and hide behind the Olympic Mountains...
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I just found this and wanted to pass it on...
For OpEdNews: Rowan Wolf - Writer The U.S. is deeply embedded in the mythology of the heroism of the warrior culture. There is a lot of rhetoric about the courage and sacrifice of the those who have fought (versus those who have served) for our "freedom." Never is that "freedom" defined. However, it is true that many have served - willingly or not - under the belief they our protecting our "freedom" and "our way of life." I will not besmirch those sacrifices, nor will I be silent on the utterly shameful way that both the government and the people of the United States have met the needs of those who have served. We call them "heroes," but as a nation living with heroes is a more difficult task than remembering (once in a while) those who have died. Many return from their service transformed All too often, they are too uncomfortably transformed to fit into the "civilian" flow of life. For some, it is more comfortable to return to bloody combat and the risk of death, than to return to friends and family, and co-workers, and a clueless populace. The adrenaline, and violence, and death-linked comradery is a real embrace. The invisibility and lack of understanding of "home" is a different kind of death. For some, there is no return to war zones, and for better or worse they wrestle the demons and some "win" and some "lose." Some rebuild their lives. Some end up on the streets, or in the jails, or numbed by drugs of choice. Many, and certainly their families, cling with all their might to the comfortable myth that "it was all for a grander purpose." I have heroes who are veterans. I have watched many face the demons of war (and military "actions") that remain with them - often for a life time. One of the sacrifices they made is the tattering of a glamorized entertainment myth of war and fighting in the face of bloody reality and burned indelibly upon their mind's eyes, and upon their hearts. It is a cost beyond bearing, and one that goes virtually unacknowledged by the populace. Instead, they all too frequently face a betrayal by those societally tasked to know - and support - them. Namely, the Department of Defense, and the various military services, and the Veterans Administration. Conditions such as PTSD and psychological issues are frequently ignored, or those who have served are dissuaded from pursuing services. Then there are those other things that the military does not want to acknowledge, and therefore refuses to provide service - the "atomic" vets, agent orange, depleted uranium, Gulf War Syndrome, the effects of vaccinations, the paltry benefits left to the families of the fallen, the list goes on and on. The realities of serving - or surviving serving. Once a year (twice if we count Memorial Day) the nation is called on to recognize these heroes - standing and fallen. This sanitized recognition does not mean embracing the reality of the service or the true sacrifices made. This sanitized recognition does not even recognize the human and national costs of that service. Certainly, nothing is said in this war glorifying culture regarding what the best recognition should really be - a commitment to ending war and working for peace. Yes, peace is work - ongoing work. However many veterans DO make this commitment, and for veterans that commitment comes at a higher price than for most who have never served. So I want to say thank you to the most courageous of veterans who I know - those veterans who struggle for peace. They have fought, and continue to fight, incredible internal battles while waging the most significant of struggles - the struggle for peace. Thank you veterans for this ongoing service to an ungrateful nation. Thanks also to those veterans organizations that struggle untiringly for peace and truth, and support those who have served in this critical struggle. Please thank a veteran, and thank a Veteran's organization such as those below. Importantly, also commit to fighting for veteran's rights and to creating a world where such sacrifices are never needed again. Veterans for Peace Iraq Veterans Against the War Veterans Against the Iraq War
*my edit: WinterSoldier.org
www/uncommonthought.com/mtblog/ Rowan Wolf is an activist and sociologist living in Oregon. She is the founder and principle author of Uncommon Thought JournalPeace,
Ed* I changed the link from one that was obviously incorrect.
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Poll #1481715 it's...
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 36 what/where is this
View Answersflooded rice paddies in Arkansas just west of the Mississippi River
   1 (2.8%) stairs at Steffin Hill School, Beaver Falls, Pennsylvania
0 (0.0%) riverbank shale Slippery Rock River, McConnell's Mill, Pennsylvania
12 (33.3%) Grand Prismatic Spring, Yellowstone NP Wyoming
5 (13.9%) slickrock sandstone, Elephant Canyon, Canyonlands NP, Utah
6 (16.7%) sidewalk I-80 rest stop west of Cheyenne, Wyoming
1 (2.8%) walkway under the waterfall, Watkins Glen, New York
0 (0.0%) the bottom during low water at Thurmond lake on the Savanna River, Georgia/South Carolina
4 (11.1%) Ocracoke Island sand on the Outer Banks, North Carolina
1 (2.8%) waste paper Townsend bag mill, Port Townsend, Washington
0 (0.0%) Pennsylvania Blue Stone (not always blue) along US-6 west of Waynesboro, Pennsylvania
1 (2.8%) a rock along the Ausable River in the Ausable Chasm, Adirondack Mountains, New York
1 (2.8%) marble along the Long Trail in the Green Mountain Wilderness north of Smuggler's Gap, Vermont (not far from Ben & Jerry's ice cream plant
0 (0.0%) parking spot at The Yurt, Mount Tahoma Trails, near Mount Rainier, Washington
0 (0.0%) sand uncovered at the bottom of our llama pasture after last night's very heavy rain, Nika Trail, Washington
4 (11.1%) see my answer to the question for the correct answer (click the 'view answers' link in the comments section) As in all my quizzes, I've been to all of these places... Peace
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aspen forest on the approach to the Sneffels Range in the Uncompahgre National Forest
San Juan Mountains, Colorado, USA©2009 Ed Bookhow I made this image - long exposure (1/2 sec) and moved the camera up and down. I processed the image only with adjustmens to white and black point, clarity (mid-tone contrast), overall contrast, brightness. I had to make a lot of exposures checking results immediately ("chimping") and then trying again and again till the camera dance and my eye were getting into sync... The RAW image looks a drab grayish blur but from experience I knew what I could expect from my normal range of adjustments. On my last visit to this area I was impressed by the size of the aspen clones (grove of trees connected together by their roots) and wanted to visit just for photographing these trees. Although they are at the base of one of the most spectacular mountain fronts in the Rockies, the aspen groves are worth visiting even when the mountains are in the clouds. The approach to the National Forest passes through some private lands and by the 'no tresspassing' signs posted along the roads it appears that the roads themselves are private. But no, they are legal accesses to the National Forest - since my last trip the number of new excessive consumption ranch homes (probably second or third or forth homes) and fences added is noticable. (an indication of the widening gap between the excessively rich and the rest of us). I made this image along one of those roads that goes to a trailhead into the widerness. On this occasion, like on so many others, at the indication that the road was narrowing and getting rougher, I should have parked at a wide spot and walked but I thought I'd go a little farther to find a better turn-around place... 'turned out that I had to drive through a dip where the topography of the dip was more acute than the length of the van's wheelbase length... I caught the trailer hitch on a big rock and was stopped from going ahead or backward... After climbing out and scoping out my predictament I decided to give a run at going backward and bounced over the rock and the hitch dug a deep furrow in the roadway (actually in the dry stream bed I was crossing - I had measured and remeasured clearances between the rock and everything hanging down underneith the van to assure that if I shifted to the right a couple and no more than four inches, I'd be safe... I often have these little adventures... ones that my high-clearance four-wheel drive van left at home would not even notice... (the problem with the four-wheel drive van is that it beats one to exhaustion when driving down a freeway although cruises nicely on the roughest back roads... agressive tires, stiff suspension, and short wheelbase contribute to the rough ride...) Sometime, I'll tell about the mushrooms that I found growing in the rug and on the steering wheel leather cover when I returned from a very long trip and found that a housesitter who didn't have my permission to use the van lent it to someone to help them move and when they returned it, didn't close the sliding door... in the rainy Pacific NW winter... It took the whole next summer to dry out. The van is for sale now (minus growy things - except some moss on the roof) in case you know someone looking for a very capable 'get there' vehicle or trailer puller... Peace
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wish I could come up with something witty to say about these cows... I made the image on the last day of my autumn tour and just after I was turned around from trying to cross the Gifford Pinchot National Forest in the southern Washington Cascade Range... snow, turned me around, or rather the snowplow I was following that turned around influenced my decision. So, I had to return south to the Columbia River to get to I-5 and homeward... I met these cows near the river where it had just begun to snow and the cows were wandering as they do... even when they ran, their tracks wandered all over... and that says something... In my experience, domestic animals wander but wild animals take a direct route... follow a pet dog's tracks and you're find that there seems to be no reason to the trail... just this way and that and some more that and return to a former location and then this way and that again... but a coyote or wolf track is unmistakable (beside size) in that they move across the land with purpose, no loitering here or there to visit this post or that mailbox to read the latest peemail... so, how do I know these were domestic vice wild cows? they wandered... plus, I don't think I've ever seen a wild cow. (bovine that is) Tags: animals, snow, wa, white
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'currently at a wifi eatery in Hamilton, Montana. - the air is full of thick smoke from a fire in the Bitterroot range near here. I'll be moving south and over Trail Pass and eastward ... 'the past few days... visited Talus (Grandson) then visited the Mount Tahoma Trails a couple nights with visits to High Hut, The Yurt, High Hut again and Paradise, Stevens Canyon, Chinook Pass in the park and down the American River to Yakima, then easterly to the wind farms of Columbia and Garfield Counties in the Blue Mountain Foothills. [one day photographing from before sunrise till about an hour after sunset... then I climbed into my van for the night till the wind arrived during the night shaking the van ... In the morning, the windvanes spinning in the 26 knot winds... one day still air... the next day strong steady winds that gave a totally different impression of the site... the added parameters of sound and air motion and the visual spinning windmills.... and what did that mean for exposures? the tactics and maneuvering differences were interesting. Then, the wind filled the air with fine dust so I drove northerly to the Snake River and a dam crossing where they record your identification and then open the gate for you to pass across... then across the Palouse to Steptoe Butte a high 360 degree view of the Palouse except that that evening there was so much dust in the air the setting sun just fadeded near the horizon. I left and drove south to Lewistown and then up US 12 to Lolo Pass and down into Montana. from here, I'll drive south up the valley till the air clears... or to near where the medicine tree used to be till one day it fell over Peace Current Location: Hamilton Montana
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I woke to cloudy skies and light rain this morning.... uh oh normal Washington weather is back. The past month, I've been editing and optimizing for my online archive, images that I didn't want to post to ruin the summer experience for journal watchers–Autumn images... Now, I'm ready for summer but seem to be out of sync. So, here's an image I made last year at the end of August to ease into the autumn season... Stevens Canyon clearing clouds – Mount Rainier National Park, Washington
©2008 Ed BookThe end of August, last year, I was up at Mount Rainier and after spending a couple days around the Paradise Meadows with constantly changing skies – 'the mountain' was making low clouds and they were swirling quickly across the Tatoosh Range. I made a few series of exposures at set intervals of the clouds scudding across the peaks from up in the Paradise Valley and then visited the Reflection Lakes to a closer vantage point and different perspective. While at Reflection Lakes, I looked down into Stevens Canyon to see that the clouds that had filled the canyon were clearing with rugged tree-populated ridges silhouetted. I made a few more series of exposures of a couple dozen each and then with light failing, headed down the canyon to the Cowlitz Box Canyon where I found interesting late afternoon light. more similar images from that occasion if this one wasn't enough...
These are a few from some of those series but are not the sequential series because they are reserved for a multimedia package. Peace
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...who would think a boy and bear would be well accepted anywhere...well, the bear was wild and I didn't see it dance, but I did see and photograph it eating huckleberries and mountain ash berries, walking down the trail, startling Sally which amused Bronka, and then stopping about ten feet from the trail to curl up under a bush to take a nap. Sally's website with lots of information about Mount RainierThis was one of a few cubs I photographed in the Paradise meadows last autumn. I spent about an hour with this guy including waiting twenty minutes while it snoozed. The cub acted as if there were no people present as it never seemed to look at or acknowledge their presence. A little later, a coyote came down the trail and it also ignored me except that it did step off the trail when it passed. It was in a hunting mode with a vole or mouse on it's mind. Luckily for these animals, they had evidently not been habituated to people feeding them which is really bad for wildlife because they then depend on humans for food and lose their ability to forage. Peace ps ...it's just amazing how fair people can be... (do you know this song?) Tags: -print available-, animals, autumn, mount rainier, people pics, trail, wa
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