Bob Dylan's "Ring Them Bells"

In my head I kept hearing Bob Dylans' song, "Ring Them Bells," as I worked on this photo. It's on his Oh Mercy album, one of my all time favorites. The man is a genius.

Initial work with Sony NEX 7:

Whoa! This camera has great potential. And in spite of all the criticisms I read about the kit lens before I purchased this camera, all these photos were taken with it, and I think the image quality is outstanding. You do, however, have to carefully choose your aperture and focal length settings for best results.

Landscape Arch

To me, this is the most beautiful arch in Utah. I do love that red rock desert country!

In the Groove

Life is good, what's not to like....

Mars? ...Nah, Utah

A near-by Volcano blew its stack several thousand years ago, hence the beautiful chunks of black basalt spattered all about the red sandstone. Thank you, Mother Nature, good job, good visual acuity.

Left Behind

The twentieth century saw the most massive migration off the lands and farms into the cities. Homes, and bits of hearts and souls, were left behind. Alone, they deteriorate.

Wisdom

Acceptance

Out of the darkness

.Basho's frog?

Red

Life, be open to it.

Spring Seeding in the Palouse 2013

All hours of the day, late into the night, the work goes on to get the crop into the  ground. An amazingly few people manage to supply all the world's food, feeding almost 7 billion people, when 40 years ago, Lester Brown and countless others vociferously swore and lobbied that we would never be able to feed 5 Billion. The noise of the dooms-dayers always makes better media coverage than the untold accomplishments of the real producers.

Starbucks Morning

Ubiquitous:  

Colt 1911 45 cal.

You will stop. Now.

Back in the day...

26 horses pulling a wheat harvesting combine on our family farm, 1906, Homesteaded in 1877, Whitman county, Washington, USA.

Zen

No words necessary.

Have a...

...cuppa, you'll soon be out of here and the air will be free and clear and the mountains will rise up to greet you, the crowds will be behind you. God bless Colorado.

Dark Mountain

Dark mountain, dark mountain. Forgive my trespass, I'll go lower now.

Or maybe I'll wait just a bit longer and see what happens.

Beware the Plains

The High Plains make me humble -- and careful -- there is nowhere to run, nowhere to hide. Cling to the earth, seek the low spots (but not a dry wash) and hope the wind and lightning won't be too bad. Oh, and don't forget the probable hail.

Damn, I love it out here, I surely do.

Loathe to Leave

High snow pack grudgingly yields way to spring and regrowth of the tough, wiry tundra plants; they stake their claim to life and the snow sneaks higher, trying to pretend it's not happening.

Think I'll camp here tonight, looks like a fine spot.

Cycle of Life

High meadows, grazing sheep and a gathering storm; what, oh what, shall we read into this.

Life goes on. People and animals die, new ones are born... the storm passes.

Dante's Dream

...and which circle of Hell might this be, or is it just the desert?

Which ever, it so is beautiful. So happy I'm able to be out here.

Ghost Trees

Strange forms, strange ghostly forms, shadows in the dimming light. I'll stay close to the campfire tonight. Who knows... won't hurt to be cautious.

Time's Effects

Here lie the last vestiges of the old, ancestral Rocky Mountains, junk sprawled out on the high plains, only a few isolated buttes and badlands left.

Once in a while, in a really bad storm, small bits of the current Rocky Mountains wash down the near-by Platte River. Too thick to drink, too wet to plow, the pioneers said.

Independence Pass Colorado

No, these colors aren't fake, it's just the high country, early autumn sun going down. John Denver, who lived just over the hill, sang that he saw "fire in the sky."

He surely did; the boy knew what he was singing about.

Hustler

Ahhh, the streets of New Orleans. So bright, gaudy and alive at night. Quieted down by morning, some seediness shows through. In the daylight the whole place looks tired.

Layer Cake

Driving through the desert, flat sameness everywhere, then, suddenly....

Escher's Falls

As in an Escher print, this water seems to flow uphill in this odd perspective when in reality it suddenly plunges 200 feet sown, on it path to the Snake River and the sea.

Summer's Last Ride

A snowboarder trudges up high at over 12,000 feet, seeking one last ride before summer sets in.

Pattern of Abundance

Harvest time in the Palouse, gold all around.

Dreams and Hard Work Up High

The air is cold and thin, winter long and dreams are deep, up above Leadville, CO. Can anybody say, Molly Brown?

Playin' the Blues

Street musician heavy with saxophone, soul and a fine shirt.

The Doors

I really like the paint on these doors, offset by the family eating behind them.

St. Louis Cathedral, New Orleans

The late afternoon light illuminating these two figures high up in New Orleans' St. Louis Cathedral caught my eye as I rested from three hours of street photography.

Monolith

This monolithic chunk of basalt stands isolated, 300 feet above the flowing river cutting around it. Eastern Washington state.

Palouse River Canyon

At the end of the last great ice age, 15,000 to 13,000 years ago, the Missoula Floods, carrying volumes of waters three times as great as the current flow of the Amazon River, swept from Montana to the sea, ripping away the soil and exposing the massive basalt flows of eastern Washington state, forming the Channeled Scablands you see here.

Palouse Falls

Palouse Falls, and icon of the Inland Pacific Northwest, briefly glories in the increased water flow and rainfall of April.

Terrible Beauty

The terrible beauty of steam and air pollution rising from one of the Northwest's last large pulp and paper mills, Lewiston, Idaho. The nose twinges and the eyes burn... and thousands of employees earn their livings.

Dawn comes to Pawnee Buttes

Before the heat of the day, the cool beauty of dawn sunlight sweeps across the Great Plains, illuminating all.

Neighbors

Life on Main Street, it is similar everywhere, two friends stopping to share the daily news while life and other people flow around them.

Man and Pig

There is obvious mutual affection between these two, but I'm wondering if the bond is stronger than the smell of bacon cooking in the morning?

Small Town Memories

My memory of small towns, their businesses and people, are often painted within the glow of nostalgia... yet within my memories, those colors are real.

Gnome

Yet another gnome hides within the bark of a Redwood, they are everywhere!

Rhododendron

Within the fecundity of life, nurtured by the moist forest, blooms the stillness of the rhododendron.

Beautiful Dawn

I climbed a sandstone knoll in the dark and waited for this shot to emerge. I wasn't sure what might be coming, but I knew it would be spectacular. I love the peace of these subtle colors.

Fire and Water

...and so life's spark flows, through turbulent battles and fiery floods.

Great Frozen Troll

Did Tolkien's characters somehow camp here overnight and engage in a great battle, freezing this poor gentleman troll to be slowly weathered away through the eons?

Travel Here

Travel here, if you dare, through the exposed magic of the Great High Plains.

Sandstone Patterns

A story of millenniums, earthly changes and climate shifts etched in sandstone in the deserts of Utah. Walk across this stone and you will leave not a visible mark, your path going unnoticed.