Winter approaches

As much as I'd like the ground to stay dry and uncovered, winter creeps in on quiet feet.

No stopping!

Sometimes it is very difficult to behave.

I was driving west on the New York Thruway, heading to my parents' home for a weekend visit. Driving, down a long stretch of road, when my camera eye was drawn by reflections in the quiet water of the Erie Canal.

Sometimes, it is so hard to not follow those camera desires. I would have loved to have pulled over, to have tromped down closer to the canal accompanied by my camera, to have grabbed a few images. It was a very gray day, and yet there were still distinct reflections in the water. A beautiful sight, captured by words instead of pictures...

Ghost town art

Rhyolite beckoned, an abandoned town, ghosts of the gold rush. I gave in to my curiosity and left Death Valley, heading over the Amargosa Range to visit a ghost town. Little did I know that I would also find some amazing art there.

"Just outside of Rhyolite, Nevada, a spectacular ghost town off the road leading to Death Valley, California, a group of prominent Belgian artists, led by the late Albert Szukalski, created a self-described art situation consisting of seven outdoor sculptures that are colossal not only in their scale, but in their placement within the vast upper Mojave desert."

...quote courtesy of the Goldwell Open Air Museum

Jumping into my camera

Visions of the desert, intense colors, sand, rocks... My too quick trip to ramble in Death Valley National Park lives on in memories, and in photographs. You can follow my ramble in words in my journal or in pictures in my A return to death photo galleries.

In the valley... Badwater to Golden Canyon:

High... Zabriskie Point & Twenty Mule Team Canyon:


In the valley... Furnace Creek to Mosaic Canyon:


Sand Dunes sunrise:


Rhyolite... ghosts & sculptures:


Red Rock Canyon:

Seeing things?

The first time these two planes passed over my head as I wandered the sand dunes in Death Valley I thought I was seeing things, that my imagination was working overtime.

The second time? I knew they were real, my first view of a stealth fighter in the air.

Yes, the images are really tiny. The planes were moving quickly, and I had to just use the lens that was on my camera at the time.

A return to death...

Death Valley, that is! I'm heading west today for a short wander in Death Valley National Park. I hope to be updating my journal from the road, but whether I will have web access is questionable.

Please look in on my wanderings in my journal, A return to death.

I'm wandering with my camera, happy...

A windy day

Morning brought an end to yesterday's endless wet. Instead of rain, the wind prevailed, a howling wind, a wind that swept clouds across the sky. It was a day of cooling temperatures, a good day for walking...

Patches of green

The leaves are down, the colors have faded, and yet... there are still visible patches of green.

Will the light change?

I haven't been able to turn left into or out of my drive since the end of May. A relatively short chunk of road has been under construction for far too long. And finally... yesterday the left turn restriction was removed. How nice! Now I no longer need to go in a circle when I simply wanted to turn left.

The new puzzle? I noticed signs on the pavement that imply a bicycle will trigger a change in the (currently non-existent) traffic light. It looks like a new light is about to be installed. And there are bicycle "spots" on the pavement, indicating that my bicycle and I will be able to get the light to change. I've been suspicious of these pavement markings for a while, thinking that they were just a placebo as opposed to a way for me to get a red light to turn green. It will be very interesting to see if this set of markings really hide a trigger. That would be a real change; I can't tell you how many times I've had to go through red lights because there was no way for my bicycle to trigger a light change. In fact, one of the locations where I regularly stop, looks, and ride across on red is right in front of a police station.

A splash of fading color