“Morning Trees, Shadows” Trees in morning light as mountain shadows recede across a meadow.
I made this photograph on the final morning of my late-August visit to the Tuolumne Meadows area of Yosemite. Since I had until noon to vacate my campsite, I figured I would do some early morning photography before breaking camp. I had a particular sunrise photograph in mind, and after completing that I looked around with no particular agenda and decided to head up to the meadows around Tioga Pass.
“Valley and HIlls” — Cloud shadows move across a northern Scotland landscape.
When I encounter a new landscape I virtually always start comparing it to other landscapes with which I’m familiar. I think this is my way of trying to make sense of unfamiliar spaces. Some of the vast, open spaces of northern Scotland reminded me, at times, of parts of the American Southwest or the wilderness of Alaska. I think this is a combination of the very long views, the lack of large vegetation, and the huge valleys.
“Cubist Wall” — A wall of rectangles and colors, Cork, Ireland.
When we travel we like to combine the new with the familiar. That was true on our recent trip — the Scotland portion was an extension of the familiar, and Ireland was new to us. That’s right, this was our first visit to the Republic of Ireland. We know there is much, much more to Ireland than we could see in a week, but on this trip we focused on three cities: Dublin, Galway, and Cork. This photograph comes from Cork.
“Autumn Black Oak Leaves” — Autumn black oak leaves in Yosemite Valley.
Is it ever too early to start thinking about autumn? I don’t think so! Every fall I revisit familiar places to photograph the signs of the changing seasons. One of these is Yosemite Valley, where the most interesting colors often peak right around Halloween. At a minimum I make a long day trip up and back from the San Francisco Bay Area. But my preference is to visit for at least a coupe of days.