Water, Rocks, and Moss
The textures and shapes of this little stream against moss-covered rocks caught my eye. I blurred the flow of the water to capture the soft feeling of this little stream. Color was not important, in fact, it detracted from the feeling I had. Converting to black and white made the image for me.
The textures of the various plants, moss, and rock caught my eye. The hardness of the rock, the softness of the moss, the glossy smoothness of the the blade-type plant coupled with the variegated shades of the three-leafed plant attracted me. I converted to B&W to focus on the various tonalities and textures. Just experimenting …
Snow Mountain Ranch – Dark Cloud Starkness
As the afternoon progressed, dark clouds started to come in. The atmosphere of the day changed from bright wildflowers to stark dead sagebrush. It was a sign to start heading back to the trail head. It was a very special day, a day of seeing, a day of reflecting. I look forward to future visits.
Stairs to a Hidden Garden – Golden Gardens, Seattle
My friend and I went out for a little photoshoot on a bright Spring day. This was the first thing I saw. The stairs, surrounding rocks, and the plants were all different shades of brilliant green. I thought the different tonalities would make a good black and white image.
Sagebrush – Straight Out of Camera
This is an experiment to try to create an image that was in my mind when I shot this photo. The above image is the base image I captured. The sagebrush seems to blend into the background. I lost the 3D feeling that I had when I saw this bush. I first tried to add structure to the bush and delete structure from the background. That did not achieve what I wanted. I then tried black and white. That merged the brush with the background even more. I then tried to blur the background. That looked to “fakey” to me. I then blended the blurred B&W to the color image to come with the image below.
Sagebrush – Processed
This came the closest to what I saw in my mind.
Just a couple more petroglyphs from Gynko Petrified Forest Visitors Center
Petroglyph, Gynko Petrified Forest
This image was taken from below the Gynko Petrified Forest Visitor’s Center near Vantage Washington. Seeing these brought back many happy memories of my youth.
As a young Boy Scout, I can remember hiking along the Columbia River north of Vantage, Washington. Huge basalt cliffs rose above the free flowing river. We could climb up along the rocks and see these funny drawings made by ancient Indians. We did not think much of it back then. When the Wanapum Dam was built, the backwaters flooded the area where many of these artifacts were located. Luckily, someone had the foresight to carefully remove these petroglyphs before the water covered them up. Today several of the saved petroglyphs are displayed below the Gynko Petrified Forest Visitors Center.
Note: Notice the initials and heart above the man and woman. Why would anyone deface such a piece of our history????
Drumheller Channels – Othello, WA
The first thing I thought of when I looked up and saw this section of columnar basalt was that it was missing a tooth. Columnar basalt is very susceptible to water erosion because of its many fissures. The raging water of the Missoula Floods easily plucked the columns from their path.
Large Pothole – Drumheller Channels
Water did this! During the Missoula Floods water rushed through Drumheller Channels at about 55 miles per hour. The water level was about 200 feet above the mesa on the upper right corner of the photo. Through the Drumheller Channels the water followed multiple channels. Turbulent circular, tornado like, flows cut potholes throughout the area. This one is unique due to the outcropping in the “eye” of the swirl.
A short walk on the Upper Goose Lake trail will bring you to this amazing phenomenon. The uniqueness of this area continues to amaze me.
Drumheller Channels Overlook
It is hard to comprehend how enormous the Missoula Ice Age Floods were. The edge of the bluff in the top left hand corner is approximately 200 feet high. The water level during the Missoula Floods was about 200 feet above the top of the mesa. The distance across the Drumheller Channels was 8-11 miles wide. The water is estimated to have moved through here at 50+ miles/hour. The landscape left behind is amazing. My mind wanders about contemplating what it must have been like.
This image was taken at the overlook off the main road running through the reserve.