Landscape meets Seascape
Crystal Cove State Park, Laguna Beach, California
Tag Archives: landscape photography
Sunday Stills, the next challenge: Walking in a Winter Wonderland
Brookville Lake, Whitewater Memorial State Park, Indiana
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Travel Theme: Freedom
Freedom = The Open Road, Road Trippin’
Caribou National Forest, Idaho
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Photography 101: Triumph
After a month-long road trip in 2005 I realized I’d been to 47 of our 48 contiguous states. If I’d known this I would have driven the two hours north. This minor annoyance haunted my travels for several years. Then in 2009, a few months into my two-year road trip, I finally arrived in my 48th state – North Dakota. Many friends remarked “This obsession with visiting North Dakota is a little strange. There’s nothing there.” For me the only reply was “It’s there.”
This is my triumph…
Theodore Roosevelt National Park, North Dakota
Photography 101: Landscapes
Landscapes are not only my focus in photography but also in my geography research. While photography focuses on wide sweeping landscapes geography looks at the broader landscape as well as singular elements and their connection to the broader landscape topic.
Yellowstone National Park, while not nearly the largest, is certainly a massive park. In square miles it’s nearly three times the size of Rhode Island. My first visit put all those square miles I read on paper into perspective.
We approached the gate in the early evening, still daylight, when the ranger warned that we may not have time to get to the closest campground before it filled. “What? How is that possible”. He explained it was 50 miles to the closest campground. Again, “What?” My mind couldn’t wrap itself around that number. He further warned if we didn’t get a campsite not only would we have driven 50 miles for nothing we’d have to drive back the 50 miles to the exit and another 50 miles back to Cody. Well we didn’t chance it and found a lovely cabin only about 20 miles outside the park.
This put these 3400+ square miles into perspective but the next few days would show me how vast and varied the Yellowstone landscape really is. It is one of the most amazing places I’ve visited in the lower 48 and one of my three favorite national parks along with the Teton’s and Glacier.
Ansel Adams is my favorite photographer and as good as he is even he could not capture the true vastness and sense of amazement of our national parks. Photos can entice us to visit but you will never feel that sense of wonder unless you are fully present, looking on its beauty with your own eyes.
It’s about 10 miles from Norris Basin in the forefront to the Gallatin Range in the back.
And here is my attempt at an Ansel type image…
Beauty & Joy
If we do not permit the earth to produce beauty and joy, it will in the end not produce food, either.
~ ~ Joseph Wood Krutch ~ ~
Buffalo Bill Reservoir, Wyoming
Monochrome Monday: Mormon Row
Mormon Row, Grand Teton National Park, Wyoming
For the Love of Geography: U-Shape Valley
U-Shaped valleys are just what they sound like – a valley shaped like a “U”. These valleys are the result of glaciers carving further into an existing depression created from a river called a v-shaped valley. The valley is transformed from gradually sloping side to steep sides and a flat bottom. Rivers often remain from glacial melting that replace the original river. U-shaped valleys are found at high mountain altitudes worldwide.
Rocky Mountain National Park, Colorado
Gifford Pinchot National Forest, Washington
A Photo A Week Challenge: Layering
LAYERS of Nature
This simple photo is one of my favorites. It may seem uninteresting and there was nothing special about the park until I started hiking this trail. It was such a quiet beauty that all stress was relieved by the innate serenity. Each layer, each color accentuates the next and builds a remarkable landscape.
Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve, Colorado
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Sunday Nature Quote: Give them nature
“Do not feed children on maudlin sentimentalism or dogmatic religion; give them nature”
Luther Burbank
Caribou National Forest, Idaho
Geophilia Photography 
