Category: Landscape
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Branch Office | Othello, WA | November 2019 “The reason that fish form schools, birds form flocks, and bees form swarms is that they are smarter together than they would be apart. They don’t take a vote; they don’t take a poll. They form a
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Islets | Potholes Reservoir, WA | November 2019 Some sages say the simplicity we seek floats atop all the complications of daily life. It rises above the chaotic demands (and resulting worries) of clocks, people, money, status, health. It’s calm, quiet and disconnected from the clamor below. Simplicity comes, they say, from accepting life’s messiness…
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Goose Lake | Othello, WA | November 2019 Probably best not to question climate science. Hotter temps and sinking islands mean something’s afoot. But the Channeled Scablands west of Othello always put my puny existence in perspective. My ego shrivels amid the Scablands’ grander schemes. For instance: Here comes a storm forged from ocean currents…
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Power Poles | Rock Island, WA | November 2019 How do we manage a layered life? Not easily. Responsibilities of work, family and community overlap, make demands. Media roils our minds and emotions. The internet urges us to be interested in everything. Silence, stillness, centering remain elusive. An exquisite meditation chapel in Portland, Oregon, overlooks…
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Escarpment | Spanish Castle, WA | November 2019 Winemakers say that a vineyard at the base of a cliff (in photo) has distinguishing qualities. Such as: Unique mineral pockets, a channeled air flow, cooler temps due to shade, warmer temps due to reflected sunlight. If a grape’s essence is enriched by such a micro-climate, imagine…
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Self-portrait | Badger Mountain, WA | October 2019 I’m part of all my photos even if they lack my silhouette. I’ve learned that taking a picture doesn’t steal a subject’s soul, as some believe, but rather injects a piece of my own. Shutter clicked; essence sent. Not a bad thing, as long as creative juices…
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Stanchions | Badger Mountain, WA | October 2019 They’re seemingly everywhere in Eastern Washington. Stanchions and the electric lines that connect them stretch across some of the region’s most dramatic vistas. I cursed them at first for slicing through my landscape photos, but soon realized they are landscape. Or, at least, a major element of…
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Highway Tunnel | Chelan, WA | October 2019 The tunnel appears as a little blemish on the side of the mountain’s huge, rocky face. Like a freckle, hardly noticed. It’s definitely big enough for cement trucks, but also smaller than some boulders on the cliffs above. Once or twice a month we zip through the…
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Windbreak | Orondo, WA | October 2019 Autumn Orchard #3 | Poplar windbreaks, this one ablaze at sunset, have long been part of the fruit industry’s old-tech toolbox, along with pickers’ ladders, human sorters and hand-packed shipping crates. My guess is that new trellised orchards and hybrid varietals are less susceptible to wind damage, which…
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New Ag | Orondo, WA | October 2019 Autumn Orchard #2 | The image of Grandpa and Little Timmy ambling back to the farmhouse with a bucket of Braeburns has always seemed more fantasy than fact. So today’s new-fangled fruit farms — industrialized, computerized, optimized — don’t stir my yearning for the good ol’ days.…
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