“Receding Terrain” — Layers of sandstone landscape lead toward a distant ridge, Arches National Park.
The first time I visited Arches National Park I went with virtually no prior knowledge of the place. I had read about it in Edward Abbey’s “Desert Solitaire,” but I knew little more than that it is red rock country and a popular park. Such a lack of preparation could seem like a problem, but it also turned out to be a gift to myself. It is one thing to arrive at such a place knowing what to expect, but driving into the park and discovering its garden of towers and arches and fins was overwhelming. I had no idea!
“Mud Patterns” — Colorful patterns formed in dry and cracked mud, Capitol Reef.
Recently I went through my archives to see just how many photographs of dried mud I have made over the years. It is a lot! There are perhaps a few dozen finished photographs of this subject that I have shared publicly. But there are scores of them sitting in my unprocessed raw file archives. This one, in fact, is one that I “discovered” during this search, and I’m now sharing it for the first time.
“Beco do Garcês” — A meeting of steep, narrow lanes in Alfama, Lisbon.
My recollection is that we came to this little wide spot among narrow Alfama lanes by following an interesting-looking stairway that led off to the side from a busier way. Our general plan was to climb up through Alfama to a viewpoint, and then to traverse over to the St. George Castle. But we were not in a hurry, and when we saw the side-route we decided to investigate.
“Cliff Face in Morning Light” — Warm early-morning sunlight intensifies colors and textures of a sandstone cliff, Arches National Park.
We had finished dawn photography of nearby formations on this October morning at Arches National Park. As I was working that subject I kept noticing this remarkable bit of cliff, also in the direct morning sunlight. The larger formation of which it is a part did not offer me any obvious photographic subject, so I switched to a long lens and zeroed in on the colors and textures of this small portion of the scene.
