“Kosovo Mountains” — Mountains haze in Kosovo— the “Accursed Mountains.”
This photograph comes from a wonderful day in the “Accursed Mountains” of Kosovo west of Pec. It is full of great memories, though short on specific location details. We headed into the mountains from Pec, following a narrow and rugged river valley. Eventually we passed through a mountain town and continued to ascend. We took a narrow side road and eventually got out and walked… right to the Montenegro border. From there we somehow ended up at a remarkable “lodge” where we had a stupendous lunch on a grand outdoor covered deck.
I made the photograph at the lodge, looking back up towards the summit of these beautiful mountains and directly in to the haze- and sun-filled atmosphere. Side note: I read that there is some difference of opinion regarding how these beautiful mountains came to be known as the “Accursed Mountains.” From what I saw and from some subsequent reading, it would not surprise me if this area becomes a mecca for outdoor enthusiasts.
“Corkscrew Peak, Evening” — Evening light on the giant alluvial plain leading up towards Corkscrew Peak.
This peak has long intrigued me — along with the entire ridge that it lies on. Perhaps the name first caught my attention when I was trying to identify landmarks in photographs I took from out in the Valley. Hint: it does not really look much like a corkscrew, though I can see how the tilted rock layers that seem to run around it inspired the name.
I photographed this on my first evening in Death Valley back in February. After a very long drive from the Bay Area I set up camp, rested a bit, and then it was time to go find something to photograph. Since it was late in the day I wanted to keep it somewhat simple, so I headed to this spot along a road leading out of the Valley, arriving just in time to photograph the day’s last light.
“Funeral Range, Last Light” — The last direct light of the evening shines on the Funeral Range, Death Valley.
Am I the only person who has a set of odd little personal spots where they like to stop — places that others might pass by without noticing anything special? Over the years I’ve collected quite a few: a rock outcropping in Tuolumne Meadows, a bench at the high point on a local trail, a particular tree in the Central Valley, and this place in Death Valley National Park.
Years ago I turned off the road that passes through here and walked to the top of a small rise with my camera. There are no icons visible from the place, but it is in the middle of a portion of the immense, still, quiet space of this park. Something about it resonated with me, and I go there on every return trip. This time it was evening when I arrived, and I photographed the very last sunlight of the day on the Funeral Mountains.
“Desert Mountains, Morning Shadows” — Early morning light casts long shadows across desert mountains, Death Valley.
This photograph was sort of “unintended” — I made it after I finished with my primary subject for the morning. A plan to photograph shallow water near the edge of salt flats brought me to this spot well before sunrise. The Panamint range (behind the camera position in the photograph) catches the first light, and I photographed from its arrival on the highest peak until it worked its way all the way down and across the valley floor.
This was a period of focused and continuous photography which sometimes entailed working quickly as the light changed — and refocusing a tilt/shift lens setup that I was using. Eventually the light came to my camera position, and the landscape of light and shadow that I had come for was now behind me, literally and temporally. I paused, looked up, took in the full circle of the landscape, and for the first time noticed the morning shadows stretching across these desert hills and mountains.
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