(“A Photograph Exposed” is a series exploring some of my photographs in greater detail.)
“Two Islands, Fog” — Two grass covered islands in thick fog.
This simple-looking photograph represents a number of things that are important to me and to my photography — so I think it is worth adding to the “A Photograph Exposed” series.
I made the photograph on a late-autumn day in California’s Great Central Valley, a day that felt more like winter than like fall. We were there on one of the first trips of the season to photograph migratory birds in the Valley — geese, pelicans, herons, ibises, cranes, and more. In a typical autumn/winter season this is a place of fog, ponds, and amazing collections of migratory birds. On this morning it seemed to be mainly about the fog!
People stroll past a restaurant along a narrow street of Altstadt-Heidelberg
Here is another photograph from our 2013 visit to Heidelberg, Germany. (And London, and Bavaria, and Salzburg. Can we go back, now?) We stayed within walking distance of the altstadt section of Heidelberg, the old town area along the Neckar River and near the castle, and we walked over by way of the Philosophen Weg many times, hiking up and over a small hill between where we stayed and this popular area.
Being in the old town, it is no surprise that the streets are very narrow here. In most of this section of the town there are no cars, and people walk everywhere — except for the many folks on bicycles — and restaurants spill out onto the streets.
A lamp casts a shadow across a textured wall, Salzburg, Austria
This is another take on the ubiquitous Salzburg lamps found attached to the walls of many buildings. In the afternoon the light passes right across the textured surface of this wall, producing shadow that is much longer than the lamp itself.
I don’t know what the actual story is regarding these lamps, but once I recognized them I started seeing them all over the place around Salzburg, attached to the walls of various buildings and braced by a pair of curving metal pieces. In many places their locations seemed almost haphazard to me.
“Lake, Rocks, and Clouds” — Evening clouds reflected in the surface of an alpine lake with a cluster of rocks
I recently revisited this older photograph, one that I had shared in a color rendition in the past, and this time I felt like I wanted to see it in monochrome. This is a sort of scene familiar to anyone who has spent much time in the high country of the Sierra Nevada, that region where lakes, large sub-alpine meadows, sparse trees, and surrounding peaks come together to produce a landscape like no other.
I often visit this lake, typically several times each season. I go there for several reasons, ranging from practical to aesthetic. The lake is not too far from roadways, and sometimes I have just enough time on a late afternoon to park my car, load up my pack, and do the short, steep hike up and over a nearby ridge to get to this alpine world. In fact, Once there I wander this familiar landscape, often revisiting lakes, rocks, streams, and trees that I have visited many times before. As the evening wears on, I know that I should head back to my car before dark, but I am never able to leave quite soon enough, and I end up lingering through sunset and into early dusk, often ending up on the that ridge between me and the road as darkness comes on, and arriving at my car after dark.
