Off to the Big Trees for a respite...

My wife, Susan, and I are off to one of our very favorite national parks this weekend.  We are going to Sequoia National Park, and are going to be staying at Wuksachi Lodge right in the middle of the park.  This is a belated birthday present (I was 56 on April 28th).  It'll be interesting to see how the dry winter has affected Sequoia and whether there are any wildflowers blooming, and what the wildlife are up to in early May.  We plan on getting in some good hiking, maybe a little photography, and just generally relaxing in one of the most beautiful landscapes in California.  Oh, did I mention that there are a bunch of simply ginormous trees in this national park?  They truly do defy description, so if given the chance don't pass up a chance to visit Sequoia National Park, created in 1890, the second oldest park in the Nation's national park system.  Wish me a lovely, stress-free, and fun-filled weekend with Susan!  Woo-Hoo!

A Poem for the Day: "Autumn" by Christina G. Rossetti

Here is a poem by one of my favorite Victorian poets, Christina Georgina Rossetti (1830-1894).  Christina was the younger sister of the PreRaphaelite poet and painter, Dante Gabriel Rossetti (at left, is his pencil and chalk portrait of his sister).  She was a prolific poet who, through the course of her life, wrote something over 1,000 poems, and is perhaps best known for her epic poem, Goblin Market (1859).  Also, about two years ago I read Jan Marsh's seminal biography of Rossetti entitled Christina Rossetti: A Literary Biography.  While it was tough to find a copy (my used copy came from Britain), it was well worth the effort (and money!) as it shed so much light on this lesser known, but very important poet.  If you're interested in learning more about Christina Rossetti and Marsh's wonderful biography, have a look at my book review in this earlier posting here.

The poem I'm posting is entitled Autumn and was written in April 1858.  I have always loved this poem for its introspection, vivid imagery, and similes.  For some reason, I have always kind of looked upon Rossetti's Autumn as being akin to Tennyson's The Lady of Shalott (originally written in 1832, but revised in 1842).  Obviously, Rossetti must have been very much aware of Tennyson's poetry (he was, after all, Poet Laureate during much of her life).  Anyway, without further ado, here is Christina Rossetti's poem--

***

AUTUMN

I dwell alone--I dwell alone, alone,
Whilst full my river flows down to the sea,
Gilded with flashing boats
That bring no friend to me:
O love-songs, gurgling from a hundred throats,
O love-pangs, let me be.

Fair fall the freighted boats which gold and stone
And spices bear to sea:
Slim, gleaming maidens swell their mellow notes,
Love-promising, entreating--
Ah! sweet, but fleeting--
Beneath the shivering, snow-white sails.
Hush! the wind flags and fails--
Hush! they will lie becalmed in sight of strand--
Sight of my strand, where I do dwell alone;
Their songs wake singing echoes in my land--
They cannot hear me moan.

One latest, solitary swallow flies
Across the sea, rough autumn-tempest tost,
Poor bird, shall it be lost?
Dropped down into this uncongenial sea,
With no kind eyes
To watch it while it dies,
Unguessed, uncared for, free:
Set free at last,
The short pang past,
In sleep, in death, in dreamless sleep locked fast.

Mine avenue is all a growth of oaks,
Some rent by thunder-strokes,
Some rustling leaves and acorns in the breeze:
Fair fall my fertile trees,
That rear their goodly heads, and live at ease.

A spider's web blocks all mine avenue;
He catches down and foolish painted flies,
That spider wary and wise.
Each morn it hangs a rainbow strung with dew
Betwixt boughs green with sap,
So fair, few creatures guess it is a trap:
I will not mar the web,
Tho' sad I am to see the small lives ebb.

It shakes--my trees shake--for a wind is roused
In cavern where it housed:
Each white and quivering sail,
Of boats among the water leaves
Hollows and strains in the full-throated gale:
Each maiden sings again--
Each languid maiden, whom the calm
Had lulled to sleep with rest and spice and balm,
Miles down my river to the sea
They float and wane,
Long miles away from me.

Perhaps they say: "She grieves,
Uplifted, like a beacon, on her tower."
Perhaps they say: "One hour
More, and we dance among the golden sheaves."
Perhaps they say: "One hour
More, and we stand,
Face to face, hand in hand;
Make haste, O slack gale, to the looked-for land!"

My trees are not in flower,
I have no bower,
And gusty creaks my tower,
And lonesome, very lonesome, is my strand.

(Composed, April 14, 1858)

***

The painting that I've attached to the right of the poem is by the famous American landscape painter, Thomas Moran (1837-1926), and is entitled A Scene on the Tohickon Creek: Autumn and was painted in 1868.  Please, please do 'click' on the painting and enjoy the larger view of this exquisite work of art!

Moran is one of my favorite landscape painters, and is one of the artists from the mid-19th century American artistic movement known as the "Hudson River School".  Other artists in this 'school' included, for example, Frederic Church, Thomas Cole, Albert Bierstadt, and Martin Johnson Heade.  The artists of the Hudson River School were influenced by Romanticism and the earlier artistic works of landscape painters like J.M.W. Turner and John Constable, as well as by the literary works of Henry David Thoreau and Ralph Waldo Emerson.

Thomas Moran traveled out west with one of the early exploratory teams from the U.S. Geological Survey (the Hayden Survey, 1871) and made many beautiful sketches and paintings of the scenery that he encountered.  It was largely because of his landscapes and sketches being exhibited back east that Yellowstone National Park was created.  In fact, the U.S. Congress purchased several of his large canvasses that were then hung in the Capitol building for years (they are now in the Smithsonian Museum).  Some of Moran's paintings can currently be found in the Department of the Interior building, the Smithsonian, and in the Oval Office of the White House.

I have always very much admired the compositions and lighting conditions depicted in the landscape paintings of Moran, Bierstadt, Church, and Cole, and continue to strive to duplicate the qualities of those elements in my own photography.  Whether or not I have been successful is a determination I leave entirely to the judgment of the viewer.  If you're interested in taking a look at my current portfolio of landscape photography, please have a look here.

***

I'm Baaaaack! Woo-Hoo!

Wow!  It has been a while since I added an entry to my blog--about three months!  Let me see if I can explain why.  There really has been a lot going on, and pretty much all of it good too.

Susan and I went to Florida over the long Memorial Day weekend in late-May and visited our friends Mandi and Brian in Palm Harbor, near Tampa-St. Petersburg.  We had a blast!  Ate some great food, hung out at their beautiful pool, and just generally relaxed for several days.  The weather was fabulous, and we had fun visiting the little coastal communities near Palm Harbor like Tarpon Springs and Dunedin.  I also hauled my landscape photography gear with me and managed to get out a couple of times and photograph some of the beautiful landscapes in this part of Florida.  First, I want to share the early morning view from Mandi and Brian's pool and patio area. How would you like this view with your morning coffee?  Pretty spiffy, huh?  I should mention that if you want to see a larger view of the attached images, please feel free to 'click' on it and open up the larger view. 

I also visited the John C. Chestnut Regional Park late one afternoon and early evening.  This park really highlights most, if not all, of the beautiful ecosystems found along much of the Gulf Coast of Florida.  There is a terrific boardwalk nature trail that winds its way through an amazing saw-palmetto swampy area, and then the trail traverses along the shoreline of Lake Tarpon.  I climbed one of the observation towers and captured a beautiful and tranquil sunset over Lake Tarpon.  It really was a wonderful moment!  I should mention that this part of Florida is loaded with alligators!  It was pretty cool seeing these prehistoric reptiles, in all sizes, occupying just about any body of water, no matter how small.  You surely have to be conscious of these creatures as you wander around next to the water's edge.  I'm still not sure that I'd stick my toe in ANY body of water, other than a pool (and I'd check the pool twice too!), if I lived in Florida.  Trust me, there's a lot of 'gators down there!

Susan's friend, Mandi, is an incredibly accomplished tennis player--really pretty much semi-professional caliber.  We went with her to her club and watched her play a match with one of her friends.  It was really quite inspiring and completely rekindled my life-long love affair with the game.  And this brings me to the next chapter in my 2011 summer of rediscovery.

First, a little background is necessary.  I am tall; in fact, I'm 6'3" in height.  I used to be a pretty fit and trim fellow, but you know how it is as one ages.  Over the years I just kind of let myself 'go to hell in a hand-basket.'  I went from 170 lbs., and swimming a mile several days a week, to 235 lbs. and doing absolutely nothing except eat and drink.  In the meantime, my wife Susan has been diligently trying to watch what she eats and spending several days a week working out.  As I do the lion's share of the cooking, I found that I wasn't helping her one bit.  In fact, I was surely unintentionally sabotaging all of her hard work.

Well, something just 'popped' inside me as I watched Mandi play her friend in that match of tennis in Florida.  I really was tired of looking at the mid-fifties fat guy in the mirror with a double (triple?) chin day-in, and day-out.  In the spirit of full-disclosure, I was also drinking waaay too much booze too.  I found myself knocking back a bottle of red wine darned near every night along with all of the food I was eating.  Something had to give.  Well, my bad and unhealthy habits had to give way to a different lifestyle.

I have not had a drop of alcohol since early June 2011, and it feels fantastic!  Now, I'm not saying that I won't drink again, but I'm going to (1) give myself some time to clean up my act first, and (2) then allow myself to enjoy cocktails with friends in a socially responsible and healthy fashion.  The second big thing that I've done is undertake a significant physical fitness program, and I'm having a blast sharing this part of my new journey with my wife, Susan!  I am playing tennis several times a week, running and walking on the off days, and jumping rope out on the patio.  I took several weeks of tennis lessons from one of the local pros up here in Valencia and it has made all of the difference in my tennis skill level and my entire outlook on the game as a whole.  I feel like I am in my mid-twenties again, and I have developed a ferocious topspin forehand and a pretty wicked two-handed backhand to boot!

Finally, I would say that the biggest thing I've done for myself is that I've become an inveterate user of an app on my Android HTC Inspire phone.  I use "My Fitness Pal" to faithfully record my daily caloric intake, my daily exercise routines, record my weight, modify my fitness and weight loss goals, etc.  I cannot tell you how wonderful and how important this program has been to the new me!  I use the barcode scanner on my phone to scan food items that I eat, and it tells you all of the nutritional information, serving size, and so forth for everything that you're inclined to put in your mouth.  My Fitness Pal has something like over a million food items in its database.  It is amazing to have all of the nutritional information simply pop-up after I've scanned the barcode

I currently have a goal of 1,280 calories a day, and adhering to that goal would allow me to lose about 2 lbs. per week toward my goal of about 175 lbs.  Obviously, exercise helps by allowing you to take in more calories per day.  I encourage you to look into this wonderful program--both, as an app for your phone and for your PC--if you're at all interested in helping to get a better handle on the food that you're eating day-in and day-out.  Sure it takes maybe 15-20 minutes per day to log your diary entries into the program, but its only 15-20 minutes out of your entire day!  Just think, for the very first time you are really getting a true sense of exactly what, and how much, food you are taking in, which is then counter-balanced by the exercise that you do.  It is really quite empowering.

So there you have it--an overview of my summer in just a few paragraphs!  I am still reading some wonderful books, and will be adding some reviews and thoughts about those in the near future.  I've also signed up for the next level of tennis lessons through the local parks and recreation department here in Santa Clarita.  I also bought myself a great pair of really good running shoes.  I feel like a million bucks, and I'm having a blast.  Stay tuned!

Yosemite National Park & Landscape Photography--Part II

I have now had a few days to browse through many of the photographs that I made during my recent trip to Yosemite National Park.  I spent several days camping in Lower Pines campground in the eastern end of Yosemite Valley, and then taking the free shuttle bus to various locations throughout the Valley in an effort to find some interesting photographic opportunities.  Because Yosemite National Park is so heavily photographed by photographers of all skill levels, I find that it is intellectually quite challenging to find some original and visually intriguing photographic compositions and subjects.  Obviously, everybody likes to have the obligatory photographs of the various waterfalls, and the iconic views of the big-walls of granite like Half Dome and El Capitan; but as a landscape photographer, I am always on the prowl for images and compositions that are representative of my own artistic interpretation of this beautiful national park.

An example of an iconic view that I felt compelled to photograph is this view of Half Dome taken at Sentinel Bridge near the Yosemite Chapel (see photo above, at right).  I happened to be nearby, late one afternoon, and even though there were no clouds in the sky whatsoever, I decided to at least take a few photographs from this well-photographed location.  I decided to convert the image to black and white in an effort to highlight the leafing out of the alder and birch trees along the banks of the Merced River (the lighter colored trees at right in the photograph).

I also shot, in my view, perhaps a more interesting perspective of Half Dome from Lower Pines campground, where I was staying.  I happened to be sitting at our campsite reading Thomas Hardy's, The Woodlanders late in the afternoon, and happened to glance through the pine trees and noticed that the light was getting very good (i.e., yellow-golden) on the face of Half Dome.  I grabbed my camera gear and walked over to the edge of the Merced River and set up the camera and tripod and shot a few frames.  Again, I loved the late-light contrasts and felt that this massive wall of granite was best portrayed in the black and white medium.  I'd be interested in which image of Half Dome that you prefer--the first, more iconic view of Half Dome and the Merced River from Sentinel Bridge; or, this more close-up and detailed 'head-shot' of Half Dome.  Please do make sure that you 'click' on each photograph for an enlarged view of the photo.

Over the past few years I have become quite interested in capturing images that I call "intimate landscapes".  These are photographs taken of natural scenes that literally encompass just a square meter or two.  In other words, the challenge is to find those smaller elements in the natural landscape that, when photographed, do a decent job of representing the larger landscape as a whole.  To this end, I have found that reflections in water are a very credible way of creating some artistic photographic images.  Too many photographers spend their time walking through the landscape looking up, or looking off into the distance.  There's really nothing wrong with this approach, but you may be missing a whole host of wonderful images scattered all about you within just a few meters.  For example, I hiked up to Mirror Lake, which offers spectacular views of Mount Watkins, Half Dome and Ahwiyah Point.  Normally, most photographers focus on the larger scale photographs that include Mount Watkins, Mirror Lake, and Half Dome.  I didn't even bother with that view at all, and spent my time wandering along the edge of the lake looking for reflections in the calm water of the mountains and trees around me.  The color version, above left, is just such one of my attempts at capturing the reflection of Half Dome and Ahwiyah Point.  During post-processing, I flipped the image vertically and horizontally.  Personally, I think it kind of has the feeling of a painting from the French Impressionistic movement.  Note that you can discern the 'sand waves' on the base of the lake at the bottom of trees in the image.  What do you think?  Is it an appealing photograph, or is it just too 'out there' for your tastes?

Whilst at Mirror Lake I found a huge boulder sitting near the edge of the lake that had a great reflection in the still lake water.  I played with various compositions and exposures, and finally found one that appealed to me.  This big granite boulder was streaked with a large wide stripe (maybe a quartz-rich pegmatite dike?) that was really quite fetching to the eye.  Given the excellent tonal range exhibited in the image and the newly leafed-out vegetation in the background, I thought it might make an interesting black and white photograph.  I quite like the end results here.  To me, it kind of has a zen-like calming feel to it.  What do you think?

I am also quite fascinated with forested scenes, and always endeavor to make photographs that portray the beauty and mystery of these woodlands.  Early one morning as we were looking for suitable locations to photograph El Capitan from the bank of the Merced River near Cathedral Rock and Spires, I found a beautiful stand of very mature ponderosa pines and western red cedars.  I carefully scouted about for a suitable location and set up my camera and tripod.  I found a little dry gully that wound its way up through the trees and helps to naturally lead the eye into the scene.  During post-processing, I created a black and white rendition (right) and then a color version (left).  Frankly, I like them both, for different reasons.  Again, I'd be very interested in which photograph you prefer, and why.

Finally, during my last afternoon in Yosemite Valley I was wandering around up by a massive cliff known as "The Royal Arches", and I came upon this huge ponderosa pine tree that must have been 150 feet tall and nearly five or six feet across at the base.  A tree like this is probably in excess of 350 or 400 years old too!  I love the bark of the 'yellow-bark' pines, and decided to see if I could make a photograph that captured the textures, patterns, and color of the bark of this beautiful old tree.  I focused in on an interesting section of the trunk of the tree and made a few exposures.  I tried it in black and white and then in color, but decided that the color rendition was really the very best representation.  I love the patterns that nature provides, if only we take the time to look around for them.

So, there you have it--a few representative examples of how I approach the natural world around me with my camera and tripod.  Have I been entirely successful?  I don't know.  I think some of these photographs are pretty well done, and do show off some of the attributes of Yosemite Valley as I intended.  Others are maybe not quite so successful.  Would I have wished for some stormy weather to lend more drama to the sky above?  You bet!  Interesting weather conditions with clouds are always a landscape photographer's best friend.  Unfortunately, I just didn't really have any of those types of conditions; consequently, one does the best that one can with the tools at hand.  And being in Yosemite National Park, at any time of year, and in any conditions, one can hardly go wrong.  Thanks for looking at my images, and please do share your opinions with me.  Cheers!

Yosemite National Park--Landscape Photography & Literature

I'm back!  I have been ever so crazy busy at work the past few months that all of the fun things in life seem to have been set aside--and blogging about books here at ProSe has really suffered mightily.  Fortunately, I was able to get away for a nearly week-long camping trip with some friends during the first week in May.  The primary purpose for our trip was to endeavor to make some decent landscape photographs.  We stayed in Lower Pines Campground in Yosemite Valley in Yosemite National Park.  The weather was splendid, and with all of the snowpack in the High Sierra (almost 200% of normal), the waterfalls in the Valley were just booming.  Truly spectacular!

I took Thomas Hardy's novel, The Woodlanders along with me for a re-read.  As I wandered about the park, from beautiful location to beautiful location, I would sit below a waterfall, or out in an open meadow, or under a tree, or even in my camp-chair next to the campfire, I'd pull out my Hardy and read.  I have to say that this re-read of The Woodlanders was even more meaningful to me than when I first read it in 2010.  Hardy;s description of the dense Wessex forests around Little Hintock and the lives of his rustics just seemed to come alive for me in the grandeur of one of America's most beautiful national parks.

Anyway, I just wanted to leave a short note that I am back to my blog, and that I am continuing to read some really terrific books these days.  I am currently re-reading Hardy's The Return of the Native, Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre for group discussions in a Goodreads.com group, and reading Charles Dickens's The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club for the first time for another group discussion.  I also have R.D. Blackmore's Lorna Doone in my immediate queue to-be-read.

The photograph I've posted here is a photograph that I made in Cook's Meadow on the floor of the Yosemite Valley.  The small pond is one of the ephemeral ponds that are created by the high-water conditions during the spring run-off.  Do 'click' on the photograph for a larger view too.  Stay tuned--more about my Yosemite photography trip and books I'm reading to come.  Cheers!

***

A Poem for the Day: "Cloverton" by Me

Tonight I am featuring a poem that I recently wrote.  I just returned from a week-long trip to Nebraska visiting my daughter and her husband.  My daughter and I took the opportunity to drive a few hours over to Red Cloud, Nebraska and spend the day in Willa Cather country.  Cather is one of America's great novelists of the early 20th century, and was the second female to be awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1923 for her novel, One of Ours (Edith Wharton was the first in 1921).  One of the stops we made was at the tiny Cloverton Cemetery where Anna Pavelka is buried.  Just down the road from the cemetery is the old farm-house where Anna Pavelka lived and raised all of her children.  Anna was the inspiration for Cather's great character, 'Antonia Shimerda' in her wonderful novel, My Antonia.  This visit to this cemetery, and seeing Anna's grave truly inspired this humble effort of mine.  I'd love to know what you think of the poem.

Cloverton

In the wind, the prairie grasses—

Sweep to and fro, and time just passes.

And here, in quiet, now you sleep,

In dark prairie soil, your rest now to keep.

The wind through the trees—a song of peace,

Song of fleeting seasons, never to cease.

South, down the dusty track, a mile or more,

The house, where thirteen children you bore—

Beneath the pale blue Nebraska sky,

Where among the clouds your soul doth fly.

Fields of grain and grasses gently sway,

And song of the Lark still heard at end of day.

Faded silken flowers, that will never grow—

By the stones of Cloverton, a bit of color they show.

Beneath the pale blue Nebraska sky,

Where among the clouds your soul doth fly.

***

[The photograph I have included is an example of the native Nebraska  tall-grass prairie ecosystem that I took at the Nature Conservancy's Spring Creek Preserve.  This is precisely the prairie ecosystem that Willa Cather and Annie Pavelka would have known growing up in the Red Cloud area.  Unfortunately, it is an incredibly endangered ecosystem these days; there simply isn't much of this native prairie left.  Please do 'click' on the photograph for a larger view.]

Cather Country!

How many of you have read the novels and short stories of Willa Cather?  She is one of my favorite American novelists!  I just returned from spending a week in Nebraska visiting my daughter and her husband in Lincoln (home of the University of Nebraska).

We took a couple of day trips and were able to visit Cather's hometown of Red Cloud, Nebraska.  My daughter is quite the Cather scholar and really gave me a superb 'busman's tour' of all of the important Cather sites and scenes from many of her novels.  It was just an awesome experience!

I took several photographs while visiting Red Cloud, and thought that it might be fun to share them with all of you.  The photograph at top upper-right is a black and white conversion that I made of Cather's childhood home in Red Cloud.  Please do make sure that you 'click' on each photograph for the larger view.

Here's Cather's home in color.  The trees are all just starting to change into their fall colors too.








This black and white photograph (at right) is the Miner House (the fictional 'Harling' house), and is where Willa Cather frequently stayed when she came back to Red Cloud to visit family and friends.  This house is thought to have been built in 1878, and is in the Italianate style.  She dedicated My Antonia to two of the Miner girls, Carrie and Irene ("To Carrie and Irene Miner, In memory of affections old and true").

This is the house that Anna Pavelka lived in out on the Nebraska prairie outside of Red Cloud.  Anna is the woman that Willa Cather generally based her character Antonia Shimerda upon in her classic novel, My Antonia.  The root cellar (tornado shelter too?) in the foreground is the one that Jim and Antonia climb out of followed by the gaggle of little children.  While this old abandoned house is owned by the Nebraska State Historical Society, it is in a desperate state of disrepair.  I hope that the means can be found to protect and restore this beautiful piece of Americana.

The photograph, at right, is of Anna Pavelka's grave in the tiny Cloverton Cemetery.  This cemetery is miles from anywhere out in the midst of the endless Nebraska prairie.  It was truly poignant to stand at this woman's grave and realize all that she had accomplished.  Besides being a muse and inspiration for Willa Cather's writing, she bore and raised thirteen children and lived a long life.  I do wish that they (whoever 'they' are) had not planted that ugly metal sign right on top of the poor woman's grave.  Even if one had had to browse about to find her grave, it shouldn't have taken very long.  It isn't a big cemetery at all.

This is a photograph of the St. Juliana Falconieri Catholic Church in Red Cloud.  This is where Annie Pavelka's ('Antonia's') baby was baptized.  It is now owned and protected by the Nebraska State Historical Society.  It was built in 1883 and was used by the diocese until 1903.

This is a photograph that I made of the Red Cloud Burlington Train Depot.  This is the train station that Willa Cather would passed through in her journeys to and from Red Cloud.  It has been lovingly restored too, and was fascinating to visit.  During Red Cloud's heyday, this depot would have seen something like ten trains a day passing through town.  Red Cloud was on the main-line between Kansas City and Denver.

Finally, I am including a photographic portrait of Willa Cather that I have always liked.  The necklace that she is wearing was given to her by her very good friend, and fellow author, Sarah Orne Jewett (The Country of Pointed Firs and Other Stories).  This photo of Willa is thought to have been taken about 1912 and was taken in New York.

Willa Cather was born in Virginia in 1873, and died in 1947.  When Willa was nine years old, her family moved to Red Cloud, Nebraska.  She later attended and graduated from the University of Nebraska in Lincoln, Nebraska.  She then went back east and worked as a teacher, newspaper writer and editor, and an editor of magazines.  Most importantly though, Willa Cather is known for her beautiful novels.  To finish this posting I am including a listing of all of her novels, in the order in which they were published.

Alexander's Bridge (1912)
O Pioneers! (1913)
The Song of the Lark (1915)
My Antonia (1918)
One of Ours (1922, for which she was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1923)
A Lost Lady (1923)
The Professor's House (1925)
My Mortal Enemy (1926)
Death Comes for the Archbishop (1927)
Shadows on the Rock (1931)
Lucy Gayheart (1935)
Sapphira and the Slave Girl (1940)

I'm Back!

I just returned from nearly two weeks of traveling through the deserts and high deserts of New Mexico and southern Arizona. I was able to spend some quality time with my brother, Gregory, in Santa Fe, New Mexico, where he lives; and with my parents in Green Valley, a small town south of Tucson, Arizona. Much of the trip, however, was dedicated to my on-again/off-again hobby of landscape photography. I met up with a fellow photographer, Leo Burkey, at the Albuquerque International and off we went.

Leo and I spent a couple of days photographing some of the landscapes around Santa Fe (e.g., see the photo of Pecos Ruins, above right; click on the photo for a larger view) and then took off for the remote Chaco Culture National Historical Park in northwestern New Mexico. The last time I was at Chaco it was known as "Chaco Canyon National Monument." In the late 1980s, it was designated as a "World Heritage Site," and for very good reaon. Chaco is a fabulous complex of Anasazi Indian ruins and roadways that dates from about 1100 A.D. through about the mid-1300s. The Chacoan peoples were sophisticated architects, farmers, and craftsmen, and likely carried on significant trading with populations of native American peoples along the Pacific coast and deep into Mexico to the south. The U.S. National Park Service (NPS) administers the park in consultation with numerous native American tribes that claim an ancestral connection to the region.

Photographing at Chaco is difficult, at best. The ruins are made of the same rock as that of the surrounding mesas and cliffs and everything tends to blend together. But as one walks through and around these ruins, one cannot but be simply overwhelmed by the amazing architecture and stonemasonry (see my photo, at right, of the three doorways and four rooms at dawn, inside of Pueblo Bonito. Click on the photo for a larger view). To this day, I think it would be difficult to slip a piece of paper between the rocks in the walls. I made some interesting photos at Chaco, but would certainly love to go back and try some different techniques, and also try and be there when there were more clouds in the sky. Truly a magical, mystical, and very spiritual place to visit and camp. We saw a herd of elk and one very healthy looking coyote.

The National Park Service reports that the average number of annual visitors is about 60,000; making Chaco one of the least visited units in the entire NPS system. A lot of that is due to the overall remoteness of the site and the rather beastly washboard dirt road into the park. There is potable running water and excellent camping and rest-room facilities at the park too. I strongly encourage a visit to this world treasure if you are ever in northwestern New Mexico.

From Chaco, Leo and I spent a long day driving south through New Mexico to White Sands National Monument near Alamagordo, New Mexico. As a side-note, we stopped at the fabulous "Owl Bar & Cafe" in San Antonio, New Mexico, for a world renowned 'green chile cheeseburger' and 'green chile fries.' Wow! They were just as good as I remembered from my days of living in Socorro, New Mexico, and attending the New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology. Leo and I drove past the Trinity Site, where the United States exploded the first atomic bomb at the nothern end of the long valley now occupied by the White Sands Missile Range. Leo and I arrived at White Sands National Monument with about an hour daylight left, and just in time for a terrific monsoon thunderstorm event with plenty of clouds, lightning, thunder, and rapidly changing lighting conditions (e.g., see the photo at right; click on it for a larger view).

White Sands National Monument is administered by the NPS and protects several square miles of very unique gypsum sand dunes and its associated ecosystem. Gypsum is comprised of calcium sulfate and water and appears pure white to the eye. We had wonderful skies with puffy and streaming cloud formations for our photography there; and I think we both felt that we got some our best shots of the trip there. Again, if you're in the neighborhood of Las Cruces, or Alamagordo, New Mexico, this is a definite must see.

From White Sands, Leo and I meandered over to the remote Chiricahua Mountains in extreme southeastern Arizona. As you travel about this country be prepared to be contacted by the U.S. Border Patrol frequently. Frankly, this country has never been the same following September 11, 2001. I remember rattling about this country twenty years ago and just banging into the odd rancher or two every once in a while; but now the roads are full of one Border Patrol vehicle after another.

The Chiricahua Mountains are the remnants of a massive rhyolitic volcanic eruption millions of years, and the deposition of hundreds of feet of welded ash-flow tuffs. Subsequent millenia of erosion have exposed the most beautiful and unique geologic formations of weirdly shaped spires and boulders. The National Park Service administers a small park unit in the Chiricahuas known as Chiricahua National Monument. This is one of the prettiest and cleanest national park units I have ever camped in, and I highly recommend it. Excellent hiking trails criss-cross the monument; and all of them are set up for day-hiking. Most, if not all, of the buildings, trail systems, and roads were constructed during the height of the Great Depression by the men of the Civilian Conservation Corps; and let me tell you, this stuff ain't going away any time soon. Again, this park unit is not particularly well visited; and averages about 50,000-60,000 visitors annually. We saw beaucoup wildlife here too - little herds of javelina, lots of Mexican bluejays, several species of hawks, warblers galore, acorn woodpeckers, white-tailed deer, and coyotes.

From the Chiricahuas, Leo and I drove west across southern Arizona to Green Valley, and bunked in with my parents for a couple of days while we photographed in and around the Tucson area. We spent an afternoon at Tumacacori National Historical Park, a morning photographing at the San Xavier del Bac Mission, and an evening shoot at the west unit of Saguaro National Park, where we even found a couple of rattlesnakes at sunset.

Finally, after a day-long drive from Green Valley, we arrived back at my home here in Santa Clarita. I put Leo on a plane back to Florida the next morning and promptly came down with the flu. I have been pretty much bed-ridden the past three-days trying to get over this damn bug. On the bright side, I have been able to begin to carefully go through and begin working up and posting some of my photographs from the trip.

Anyway, there's the rundown on the trip, and here's the link to my on-line photography (click here). The top three folders (i.e., Pecos, White Sands, and Chaco) contain the photographs that I have processed so far. I do hope you enjoy them!