18-OCT-2015
Under the storm, Phoenix, Arizona, 2015
A massive rainstorm hit Phoenix on October 17, 2015. It flooded streets and knocked out electrical power for thousands of residents. I grabbed this quick image with my iPhone just as the surging storm clouds overhead mingle with a desert sunset.The rain had already started to fall and darkness has come, yet small patches of the fiery sunset manage to break though the clouds at the leading edge of the storm. Framed by abstracted trees, the storm's billowing clouds, laden with moisture, express the explosive energy of nature itself.
10-JAN-2013
Forever Marilyn, Palm Springs, California, 2013
The dreamy exuberance of Seward Johnson’s massive sculpture of Marilyn Monroe, one of the 20th century’s most iconic actresses, is expressed by the pose she assumed in one of the most famous studio publicity shots of all time. That photo of Monroe standing on a subway grate, her dress is lifted by the rush of a passing train, was made to promote “The Seven Year Itch.” The sculpture, known as “Forever Marilyn” is on loan to Palm Springs. It will loom over the city's central intersection until June, 2013. In this photograph, I placed the top half of the sculpture between two clouds floating overhead. The larger cloud to her right seems both beautiful and vulnerable, almost to the point of fragility. Monroe bends forwards and ecstatically squints her eyes. She does not see this tear-shaped cloud drifting above her, but we do. If one knows the sad story of Monroe’s short and troubled life, that cloud could well serve as its exclamation point.
16-AUG-2012
Transformation, Downtown Los Angeles, California, 2012
This image works with three elements to express the transformation of the downtown Los Angeles skyline over the last hundred years. At its base, matching office towers built in the early 20th century abruptly end their journey upward. They are ornate, yet dull in color and small in scale. In the middle of the frame, the soaring KPMG tower reflects the burnished gold of a setting sun on its sleek façade. And at the top of the image, a funnel shaped cloud seems to symbolically ignite the gilded reflections that illuminate the many windows of the skyscraper. This cloud is the key to the image – it makes it dynamic and expressive, rather than descriptive.
17-AUG-2012
Eagletail Wilderness Area, near Tonopah, Arizona, 2012
I caught sight of these mountains while traveling between Los Angeles and Phoenix along Interstate 10. The mountains in themselves are impressive, but not in themselves worthy of a photo stop – we came through this area around three in the afternoon, and a high scorching sun rendered the scene essentially neutral. However, the weather gives us a bonus here. It is Arizona’s monsoon season and severe wind, dust, and rainstorms were in the area. Huge cumulous clouds, layered with bluish lenticular clouds, loom over the mountain range, and dictated a sudden stop. I scrambled up on to the shoulder of the highway and quickly made this image. Because of those clouds, this landscape changes from a post card view to an image of an oncoming deluge
24-NOV-2011
Tankers off Malta, 2011
The southern Mediterranean shipping channel narrows as it funnels ships around the island of Malta, which lies between Sicily and the Tunisian coast. The horizon fills with tankers as a feathery line of rain clouds follows their path across the top of my frame. I noticed that the shape of the large cloud just left of center seemed to echo the superstructure of the tanker just to the right of center and made this image from the balcony of my cruise ship cabin.
16-NOV-2011
World War One Memorial, Suez Canal, Ismailia, Egypt, 2011
A single rain cloud slips past the sun and seems to spawn a family of similarly shaped but much smaller clouds over Egypt’s Suez Canal. The reflection of the sun on the canal offers a counter-balance to the huge cloud. Meanwhile, a towering memorial reaches toward those clouds in the center of the image. It honors the 30,000 Indian, British, and Australian troops who stopped the Turkish army from seizing the canal early in 1915. The focus of the attack was a key railroad junction here at Ismailia.
09-SEP-2011
Leading lines, Cajas National Park, Ecuador, 2011
Nature gives me a perfect diagonal leading line here, the edge of a cloud mass that draws the eye to the distant Andean peaks that tower over one of Ecuador’s largest national parks, just an hour or so outside of Cuenca. While my 24mm wideangle focal length reduces the scale of the mountain peaks, they are easily located within the frame because of not only the striking diagonal edge of the cloud mass, but also because of the billowing line of clouds that creates another leading line just above the sloping horizon.
21-SEP-2011
Mountain storm, Paccha, Ecuador, 2011
The lonely house stands as a sentinel on an Andean ridge high above the village of Paccha, a small town about an hour outside of Cuenca. The tiny building not only seems isolated and vulnerable by its position on the edge of the mountain ridge -- it is also dwarfed by the scale incongruity of the threatening storm clouds looming overhead.
02-AUG-2011
Evening sky, Brooklyn, New York, 2011
A huge dissolving vapor trail contrasts in scale to a small cumulous cloud, which in turn is paired with a thin cirrus cloud floating into the scene just above it. All of this activity is embraced by a triangular pattern of urban greenery in three of the four corners of the image. A setting sun backlights the clouds as well as the buildings that anchor the image.
25-DEC-2010
Infinity, off the coast of Brazil, 2010
There is always something to photograph on a cruise, even when the ship may be far out at sea. I enjoy finding cloud formations at sea that seem to tell a story on their own. Using a 24mm wideangle focal length, I was able to frame a series of clouds that seem to hang above the distant horizon, strung out over a velvety ocean along a deep blue sky. The image speaks of infinity – the scene appears to go on forever.
26-DEC-2010
Clouds over the Amazon, Belem, Brazil, 2010
As we approached Belem, which sits at the mouth of the Amazon, an enormous cloud hovered over the city, dwarfing its skyline. This image defines the vast size of that cloud, using scale incongruity to tell the story.
01-SEP-2010
Storm over the Pacific, Mission Beach, San Diego, California, 2010
Clouds over water are often loaded with moisture, and when they become translucent via backlight, they often reveal striking textures and forms within. In this case, storm clouds off California’s Mission Beach cause rain showers to fall out to sea, and the patterns of those showers, when related to the early evening sun, become striking “God’s Rays.” No matter how evocative the pattern created by light, moisture, and clouds may be, it takes a flying gull to add a focal point here, a place for the eye to go. It seems to flee before the storm.
20-AUG-2010
Moonrise, Phoenix Mountain Preserve, Phoenix, Arizona, 2010
I made this image from the same spot in my backyard that I made the spectacular explosive sunset clouds posted last month at:
http://www.pbase.com/pnd1/image/126956577 This image is just the opposite in its voice. Instead of a desert explosion, I was able to photograph a metaphorically spiritual grouping of clouds over the same peaks. A three quarter moon rises over them, as well. I can't help but give these clouds a human dimension. They resemble, if a bit elongated, Michaelangelo's great fresco, "The Creation of Adam" on the Sistine Chapel ceiling. (
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Creation_of_Adam ) My clouds also have reversed the positions of Michaelanglo's main characters, but the spirit of creation is certainly present here.
11-JUL-2010
Fifth Avenue Dusk, New York City, New York, 2010
When photographing clouds, I have the option of shooting them for their own beauty, or else placing them into context with other subject matter. I choose the latter course here, placing a diagonal cloud between a row of repeating diagonal flagpoles and the silhouetted buildings straddling New York’s Fifth Avenue. The dusk sky is powder blue, while the cloud shows tinges of pink, still reflecting the departed sun.
Evening sky, Phoenix, Arizona, 2010
I used my spot metering mode to control exposure, and a 14mm super wideangle lens to stretch the scene and seize the golden light in the desert sky that seems to explode here just beyond my own back yard. I had only a few moments to make this image – the sun had just set behind me and the monsoon clouds reflected its flaming farewell to the day above the Phoenix Mountain Preserve. Both sun and the clouds are in motion, and in photographs such as this one, seconds do count. This scene carries a dual message: some might see it as catastrophic, while others will cherish the artistry of nature’s own palette, expressed in the evening sky.
14-NOV-2009
Fisher Towers, Moab, Utah, 2009
Is it a cloud or is it fog? This image asks such a question. Both are made of condensed water – clouds generally soar high above the earth while fog hovers close to it. In this case the line is blurred, because Moab’s iconic Fisher Towers rest upon the ground but rise into the sky, and I find the moment when they emerge from the billowing clouds of fog that have gathered around the snow covered butte. The billowing mist abstracts the scene, rendering the Towers as stylized skyscrapers – a city of ghosts. The scene is quite different from the one I photographed from the same spot at sunset, three years earlier. (
http://www.pbase.com/image/69219410 ) In that image, Fisher Towers is wreathed in shadow and bathed in gold. In this one, it emerges from the mist as a primitive cityscape. Each plays with the imagination, but in strikingly different ways.
27-SEP-2009
Feathery trails, Alberta, 2009
An expressive cloud image often requires not only striking clouds but also context for them as well. The Canadian sky here is filled with soaring trails of feathery clouds, given contextual thrust by the ridge of massed pine trees that sweeps across the frame below them. This was a difficult image to make. I had to shoot through the window of a moving train, and the ground level context was almost always distracting or irrelevant. I had only a couple of seconds to link these clouds to this soaring ridge of pines.
22-JUL-2009
Sunset on the Annisquam, Gloucester, Massachusetts, 2009
A glorious summer sunset at the mouth of the Annisquam River paints an overhead canvas of layered clouds in reflected swirls and splashes of orange, red, gold, and gray. I used spot-metering mode on the sliver of sun itself to control exposure and get the most out of the reflected colors.
Columbia River, Fort Stevens State Park, Astoria, Oregon, 2009
The Pacific Northwest gets a lot of rain, but along with it comes cloudscapes that can enchant the eye. This bank of clouds is moving from the Pacific Ocean over the mouth of the Columbia River. I layer this image with grasses, water, the distant horizon, and the towering pile of gray and clouds that loom over it all.
08-APR-2009
Coppery clouds, Saguaro National Park, Tucson, Arizona, 2009
This image is all about rhythms. The band of horizontal clouds, turned coppery orange by a setting sun, beats time against the stand of vertical silhouetted Saguaro cacti that soar below them. Clouds hold reflected color for only few moments – I was able to catch this color at its peak.
11-APR-2009
Oncoming storm, Coronado National Forest, Arizona, 2009
I use the jagged silhouette of the Harshaw Mountains as an anchor for the turbulent coils of storm clouds that fill the sky overhead. I was tempted to convert this image to black and white, because those are the only colors here, aside from a touch of blue sky in the upper right hand corner. However, this color version offers a subtle trace of hue that proves central to their energy. And energy is what this image is all about. Clouds are usually gray or white, but they often act as reflectors, picking up subtle coloration from whatever may be around them.
11-APR-2009
Santa Rita Mountains from Arivaca, Arizona, 2009
The most dramatic cloud images usually result from unsettled weather conditions. It has been raining much of the day, and as we reached the point where the paved road ends near the tiny town of Arivaca, we stopped the car to marvel at the sight of storm clouds slowly lifting about twenty-five miles to the east over the Santa Rita Mountain range. I use a 400mm telephoto lens to move in on the clouds that hover around Mount Wrightson, the highest peak in the area.
13-APR-2009
Contrails, Grand Canyon National Park, Arizona, 2009
The sun had already set over the Grand Canyon, but there were still expressive images to be made. The width of my 24mm wideangle lens embraces the thrusts of these storm clouds that hang over the canyon and its surrounding countryside. What makes this photograph special, however, are the man made thrusts of the jet contrails that stab the sky at the center of the image, and fade gracefully away at the left. The canyon itself is no longer visible, but its presence below these clouds adds an element of wonder.
09-NOV-2008
Cumulous crown, Kairouan, Tunisia, 2008
While in Kairouan, our group was invited to lunch by a Tunisian family. This view was made from the roof of their four story building. This vantage point offers us a clear view of an enormous cumulous cloud floating over Kairouan -- the single most impressive cloud I saw in Tunisia. Aside from its huge scale, it offers both shape and texture, forming a crown expressing the dominance of nature over the work of mankind.
09-NOV-2008
Cottonball Sky, Kairouan, Tunisia, 2008
This mass of tiny clouds, rarely seen in Tunisia, provides a supernatural context for the dome of one if Islam’s holiest shrines – the Great Mosque of Kairouan. Dating to the 9th century, this dome points towards Mecca. The lacy cloud cover acts as a veil, adding a spiritual dimension to the scene.
09-NOV-2008
Filling the space, Kairouan, Tunisia, 2008
The narrow street, spanned by a thin arch, seems to squeeze the huge cumulous cloud that soars overhead. The scene would be lovely without it -- it becomes surreal once the cloud exerts its pressure above the tiny figures standing below the arch.
07-NOV-2008
A painter’s sky, Cap Bon, Tunisia, 2008
The massive outline of Zembra Island echoes nature’s brush strokes in the clouds that loom just off the tip of Cap Bon – where Tunisia juts into the Mediterranean, only 100 miles from Sicily. I increase the painterly look by muting the intensity of color and darkening the image slightly to bring out the texture in the billowing gray and white clouds that hover the island.
07-NOV-2008
Watchtower, Sousse, Tunisia, 2008
A fluffy cumulous cloud hangs in the late afternoon sky next to a golden watchtower standing over the 9th century wall enclosing the ancient medina of Sousse, central Tunisia’s port city. I liked the way the cloud repeats the round shape of the tree below it.
08-OCT-2008
Boardwalk, Grand Prismatic Spring, Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming, 2008
I compare the scale of these dramatic rain clouds to the tiny figures of the tourists on the boardwalk below them. The tourists are silhouetted, which reveals form instead of detail – there is ample variety in their posture and gait, particularly in the man at far right who incongruously seems to be crouching. (Perhaps he, like me, is making a photograph.) The steam rising from the thermal pool behind the people defines their silhouettes by isolating them from the dark background. The hill at right is lined with dead trees – the residue of the 1988 Yellowstone fires – adding a surrealistic touch to the scene.
07-OCT-2008
Mount Moran from Oxbow Bend, Grand Teton National Park, Wyoming, 2008
By framing Mount Moran vertically, I stress the flow of dark clouds that gather around its 12,600-foot high summit, as well as the reflection of its glacier in the Snake River below. A moment earlier, I photographed the same scene in a horizontal frame (
http://www.pbase.com/pnd1/image/104710882 ), eliminating most of the clouds and making the mountain larger in the process. These images express their ideas in differing ways – this vertical shot draws the eye from river to sky, while the horizontal shot sweeps across the mountain range and its reflection. This image expresses its idea through a vertical sweep of moisture -- we move from the river and its reflection, to the glacier, and finally to the rain laden clouds overhead. Without those clouds, the scene would not be as expressive.
11-JUL-2008
Cloud of gold, Phoenix Mountain Preserve, Arizona, 2008
It is important to remember that we are not just photographing the shapes and textures of clouds themselves, but we are also photographing the intensity and coloration of the light that may be reflecting off the clouds. I made this image after sunset, from my own backyard. The large cumulous cloud soars from its nest, bursting like a projectile through the veil of thin clouds encircling it. The silhouetted hills and circle of lingering thin clouds offer context to the huge cumulous cloud that still reflects the colors of a sun that has already slipped below the horizon. The summer night is upon us, yet the golden cloud reminds us of the day that is done.
20-MAY-2008
Tulloch Mill Ruins, Knights Ferry, California, 2008
Thousands of miners passed through this town as they crossed the Stanislaus River on their way to the gold diggings during the heyday of California’s Gold Rush. The massive ruins of a flourmill still stand in a field of rusty weeds under a sky that seems to come from a Van Gogh painting. The swirling white clouds in the deep blue sky echo the swirls of pattern in the weedy field below. Effective landscape photographs will often convey meaning by combining ideas expressed by both the land and the sky above. In this case, the repeating swirls on both ends of the image provide a richly textured canvas for the ruins of the old mill.
03-APR-2008
High flyer, Kerala backwaters, India, 2008
As the sun sets on the final evening of our Backwaters cruise, a stork soared high above our houseboat. By shooting at the stork, which was well above the horizon, I removed everything on the ground, making it seem as if the image is made from a plane, far above the setting sun. The light rain clouds provide an atmospheric screen, gradually diminishing as they rise into the sky, almost embracing the stork.
03-APR-2008
Storm cloud, Kerala backwaters, India, 2008
A few minutes after making the preceding image, a magnificent storm cloud gathered behind a stand of palm trees on the horizon. It moves towards us through the glow of a setting sun with explosive energy.
03-APR-2008
Heavy cloud, Kerala backwaters, India, 2008
This image was made forty five minutes after the preceding photograph. The oncoming storm cloud is now directly overhead but the rain never comes. Instead, the day’s last light glows above the distant palm trees. The heavy black cloud gives this image its character, and sets it apart from an ordinary post-sunset image. I composed this photograph differently than the preceding shot, including less sky and more water, adding space for a reflection that echoes the pink sky and black clouds overhead.
05-APR-2008
Crown of gold, Cochin Harbor, India, 2008
The gateway to Cochin's harbor offered us an unforgettable sight just after sunset. A blue hole in the golden clouds suggests a harbor of its own. I spot metered on the brightest spot in the sky, darkening the scene and giving the circle of clouds as much room as I could in the frame, reducing the amount of water and allowing ample space for the crown of gold to work its magic.
28-AUG-2007
35,000 feet over the South China Sea, 2007
Looking out of the window of our jet heading into Hong Kong, I noticed that the towering cumulous clouds were reflecting on the surface of the South China Sea and could not resist digging my camera out of my carry-on and making this image.
It was hard to define the exact boundaries between cloud, sea, and sky. It is this ambiguity that gives this image its incongruous fascination and great beauty. Shooting through the heavy plastic window of an airliner may not be the best way to make photographs, but in photographic expression, content is always more important than form. And this image works as expression.
04-SEP-2007
Railroad Station, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, 2007
Kuala Lumpur’s train station, built in Moorish style in 1910, saw its last inter-city train leave in 2001. Today it serves as a commuter station and a railroad museum. The colorful dual Malaysian flags draw the eye to the scene, but it is the clouds that give the image its expressive qualities. They appear mystical, spiritual, and lead us to the towers out of the sky, one by one.
31-AUG-2007
Cloudscape, Singapore, 2007
What makes this cloudscape so unusual is the thrust of light that illuminates it. The clouds and the building at lower right have partially blocked the setting sun, creating diagonal slabs of light in the sky. These slabs fan out from behind the building and trees to illuminate the edges of the billowing cumulous clouds that explode over the city. It is the contrast of the light and clouds, framed by abstract buildings and leaves that stir both thought and emotion here. I used a 28mm lens to make the most of its expansive character.
04-JUL-2007
Fourth of July at Coors Field, Denver, Colorado, 2007
Viewing a sporting event from the upper deck of a huge stadium can be a magical experience at dusk, particularly when the cloud cover itself makes a bold statement. In this image, I make the clouds my subject and the stadium becomes context. I use a wideangle lens turned vertically to make the stadium seem smaller and the cloud-laden sky larger.
05-JUL-2007
Civic Center, Denver, Colorado, 2007
I loved the way the evening sky reflects in the windows of this office building. However, it is the various kinds of clouds and their relationship to the building that that make this image so expressive. I create a three-panel wideangle image, squeezing an overcast cloudscape between the left hand edge of the frame and the building. The clouds continue to flow in an almost liquid-like reflection across the face of the office building in the middle panel, and then float free again in the panel between the building and the right hand edge of the frame. The building functions as a giant strainer – processing the clouds from dense to thin as they flow from left to right.
06-JUL-2007
Sixth of July at Coors Field, Denver, Colorado, 2007
On this evening, the cloud cover was completely different, and so was my vantage point and framing. Once again, the clouds are the subject, while the stadium provides the context. I exposed for the clouds, abstracting the stadium. The crowd, so evident in the other image, is invisible here. The light towers play against the feathery white cloud cover, giving them scale. The clouds resemble massive plumes of smoke, symbolic of a community gathering around the “campfire” of sport.
11-JUN-2007
Ascent, Petaluma, California, 2007
A single cloud, a feathery vapor trail ascending into the sky over the tower of a cathedral, can express as much meaning as a sky full of clouds. In this case, the juxtaposition of cloud and church imply a spiritual ascent. I saw the vapor trail in the sky when I was a few blocks away from the church, and walked around it until I was able to position it directly over the tower. The deep blue morning sky was as clear as a bell, and the sun was low, brushing only one side of the tower in light. The lone vapor trail stood out in contrast – the church leans slightly towards it, as if it is willing the cloud into the sky. Of course, we could read the image the other way around as well – the cloud could be seen as descending rather than ascending, almost as if it was blessing the church.
10-JUN-2007
Fan, Petaluma, California, 2007
Wherever I happen to be, I try to take a long walk with my camera early in the morning. I find that the low angle of the sun, and an array morning clouds can often produce striking images. On this summer morning in a small California city, I walked down to an old bank building, which now houses an antiques collective. The morning clouds had formed a fan that was exploding out of the bank building, which is abstracted by back lighting. Radiating clouds suggest dynamism and energy, and perhaps a touch of spirituality, as well. By creating a foreground layer featuring a vintage lamppost, I add a sense of depth perception plus a symbolic salute to a town where the past still matters.
22-FEB-2007
Dusk, Death Valley National Park, California, 2007
The setting sun has turned a stormy sky over Death Valley into a scene worthy of an artist's palette. In the distance, winter winds blow a stream of salt and sand along the base of the Panamint Mountains. The ominous storm cloud overhead contrasts to the patch of clear blue sky, the pristine white clouds, and the golden underbelly of the projectile-like cloud at left. This wildly unpredictable mix of fair and foul weather generates the wind that drives the long thread of dust along the horizon. This image is a weather story, and most of its energy comes from the vivid clouds that virtually fill my frame.
18-FEB-2007
Clouds up and down, Tecopa Hot Springs, California, 2007
Wetlands, the remnants of an ancient sea, can still be seen at Tecopa Hot Springs, just outside of Death Valley National Park. I used a camera with a 28mm wideangle lens to stretch the image in order to include both the cloud filled sky and its reflection in the waters below. The clouds are really the subject here – without them, this would be a descriptive, rather than an expressive, image. They link the sky above to the ground below, making them one and the same.
23-FEB-2007
Summit of Mt. Whitney, from Lone Pine, California, 2007
Lone Pine is just 40 miles from Death Valley -- home to the lowest spot in the US. We could stand on Lone Pine's main street, and gaze up at the highest spot in the contiguous United States -- the summit of Mount Whitney, wreathed in light clouds and blowing snow. These nearly transparent clouds, moving through rays of ethereal lights, give this image its meaning. It is if we are watching a performance. The mountain may take star billing, but it is the clouds and light that provide the costumes and the drama.
19-FEB-2007
Funnels, Death Valley Junction, California, 2007
Just a few miles from Death Valley National Park’s Eastern entrance, I noticed three frail funnel clouds dancing across the horizon. I don’t know if these wispy funnels were caused by gusts of swirling wind, or if they were merely the curving spaces between descending columns of distant rain. In any event, they bring the flow of the clouds in this image almost down to ground level. It is an image of nature doing what it does best – showing off.
25-FEB-2007
The Nile, Bakersfield, California, 2007
The Nile Theatre stands empty in downtown Bakersfield. Its graceful Art Deco design recalls the era of the great movie houses built long before the advent of TV, DVDs, and cinematic multiplexes. Yet without the fragmented threads of fading jet contrail clouds floating in the sky overhead, this image would be merely descriptive, rather than expressive. To me, those fading contrails symbolize the old searchlights that used to sweep the night skies over those great movie palaces. The contrails are almost gone, as are the searchlights that once lured entire cities to the doors of its movie houses. These fading clouds, extended by my use of a camera with a 28mm wideangle lens, best tell the story of this shuttered theatre.
18-FEB-2007
Lenticular barrage, Tecopa Hot Springs, California, 2007
Lenticular clouds are stationary lens-shaped clouds that form at high altitudes, often over mountain ranges such as those that flank Death Valley National Park. These clouds appear to be a pile of stacked lenticulars. The more fully formed ones on the bottom of the stack seem to be flying saucers. Their presence turns the evening sky into a surreal barrage. After shooting this image, I noticed ground forms reflecting these very clouds. But they were not visible in my frame. I changed cameras, and made an image six minutes later of the same clouds, yet in a quite different context. It is the next image in this gallery.
18-FEB-2007
Dreamscape, Tecopa Hot Springs, California, 2007
Just six minutes after making the previous image of lenticular clouds with a zoom lens set at 76mm, I made this image of the same clouds with a camera using a 28mm wideangle lens. Within these six minutes, they have changed their form and shape, becoming more diffused and less defined, yet they still hover in the same spot as in the previous image. The previous photograph told its story through the clouds alone. Because of this wideangle perspective, this image can expand on that story, relating the clouds above to a surreal figure etched within the Tecopa wetlands below. The body of that figure echoes the thrust of the huge white cloud overhead, linking sky to ground. The colors of the sky and distant mountains are picked up in the ground “figure” as well. This image is a haunting dreamscape – we become involved in the tensions between the expansive cloud in the sky and an invasive figure on the ground. It is a juxtaposition best left to our imaginations to resolve.
19-FEB-2007
Abandoned borax plant, Death Valley Junction, California, 2007
Borax salts were once gathered and processed in and around Death Valley -- today, the remnants of this old borax plant stand alone under heavy skies. The massive rain cloud dominates the image, yet the shafts of light link it to the ground, while the soft layers of rolling hills, and the dark field of debris in the foreground echo its presence. The power line and water tank also tie the clouds to the earth. The image is rich in threat, yet not without a glimmer of hope. The old industrial world of borax plants seems lost and forlorn in such a setting as this.
18-FEB-2007
Nightfall, Tecopa Hot Springs, California, 2007
Color plays the central role in this image. In the moments after the sun has set, surrounding clouds will often turn pink. That is what is happening in this image. The blue of night has already come to these rugged mountains and the wetlands that surround them. Yet the day still lives in the sky above. I waited for a lone car to pass down the road, so I could add both scale and meaning to the scene. The day is over, and that car seems to be on the way home.
23-FEB-2007
Sierra summit, Lone Pine, California, 2007
The summit of the High Sierra is crowned with clouds, illuminated by the sun setting behind them. The dark sky behind the clouds provides ample contrast. The shadow of the peak at center is clearly seen upon the cloud behind it, adding a touch of depth to an otherwise single layer image. Are the clouds we see here are real clouds that cling to mountain peaks? Or are we seeing clouds of blowing snow, or perhaps some of both? In any event, it seems as if the Sierra Nevada Mountains are on fire, with the sun as the flame.
22-FEB-2007
Squall over the Grapevine Mountains, Death Valley National Park, California, 2007
These billowing storm clouds appear to reaching out towards us. I’ve intensified this effect by using a camera with a 28mm wideangle lens, and structuring the image so that the shapes on the ground echo the shapes of the clouds. The wideangle lens expands the forward thrust of the clouds, while also embracing the circular clumps of sage in the foreground. The colors work well here, particularly the pink range of hills that pull the eye into the center of the image.
19-FEB-2007
Storm at dawn, Death Valley Junction, California, 2007
Low flying clouds bring freezing rain to the outskirts of Death Valley. But it is an illusion. Rain here only lasts for a few moments. The whole area gets only two inches of rain a year, making it the driest spot in the United States. Yet the clouds here are putting on quite a show. They echo the color and bumps of the mountains below them, and mimic the clusters of sage that lie in the shadows. These clouds will soon pass, but those worn badlands and distant mountains will be there forever.