Wednesday, February 11, 2015

Mississippi Crossing



I have crossed the Mississippi River numerous times and always find it an exciting place to stop and spend a few days to photograph.  This bridge is located at the river crossing between the towns of Vidalia, La. and Natchez. Ms., and straddles the state line.  I made this image with a Canon 5D11 at around 9 p.m.  I was on the western side of the river in the town a Vidalia and found a nice public walk way that goes down under the bridge.  On the other side of the river is the old historic beautiful town of Natchez.  It is fill with old civil war era homes and plenty of history to explore.  The Mississippi River is a fascinating place to just sit and watch the barges go up and down the river.


http://www.johnweeks.com/river_mississippi/pages/lmiss10.html
http://www.yelp.com/biz/mississippi-river-bridge-natchez
http://visitnatchez.org/

Saturday, January 31, 2015

Monarch Canyon


In the Colorado Plateau area of the American Southwest there are numerous old structures and cliff dwellings from an ancient civilization.  The people that inhabited this area were know as the Anasazi Indians.  Most every canyon in the region hold some form of markings (petroglyph) or structure left behind by these early Indian tribes.  It is a fascinating place to hike and explore the remains of an ancient civilization.  It is important to use extreme caution when hiking into these locations not to disturb or alter any of these old sites.  I have found over the years that most people that have the desire to explore such regions do so with great respect and try to avoid impacting the area as much as possible.

http://cpluhna.nau.edu/Places/places.htm
http://pages.towson.edu/brenda/newmexico/anasazi.htm
http://www.indians.org/articles/anasazi-indians.html


Sunday, January 25, 2015

Goodhue Hill


I made this image on January 1st 1978 on a cold but sunny day in upstate N.Y.  I used my view camera and can remember it was a quiet day without any wind.  I use to enjoy those calm days in winter when the sun was out and the temperature was around 15*.   The air was crisp and dry, and I can remember the sound of the snow crunching under my boots as I made my way onto the ice in the swamp up on Goodhue Hill.  The only sounds that day were a few crows flying over head that broke the silence with their calls.  The wintertime offered many opportunities for making photographs.  After a few hours with cold fingers and toes I would head back home to the darkroom and start my processing with a warm cup of coffee.  They were fun days that helped to break up what was usually a long and dreary winter.

Monday, January 12, 2015

Ricketts Glen


When I lived in the Northeast I would spend a lot of time hiking and photographing the numerous waterfalls in the region.  I enjoyed the quiet times wandering along the trail and wading through the water working my way up to the next waterfalls in the stream.  One place that I liked to go was Ricketts Glen in Pennsylvania.  It is a state park that has a 7 mile hiking trail with 22 waterfalls, with the highest being 94'.   The park is in a remote section of Pa. without any major cities around.  The area offers camping and plenty of hiking trails to explore.  I made this image with a 4x5 view camera on a early fall afternoon.


http://www.dcnr.state.pa.us/stateparks/findapark/rickettsglen/
http://www.virtualtourist.com/travel/North_America/United_States_of_America/Pennsylvania/Ricketts_Glen_State_Park-861209/Things_To_Do-Ricketts_Glen_State_Park-TG-C-1.html

Thursday, January 8, 2015

Mexico in the mountains


We have made a couple of trips into Mexico the past few years to spend three or four months photographing and traveling around.  We particularly enjoyed the mountain region in central Mexico.  It is an area of mountain streams,waterfalls and wonderful vistas.   The little villages we stopped in gave us the chance to try the local foods from the area.  These were often poor little town where life has remained the same for many years.  We found the people friendly and somewhat curious about us being in their community.  Many of these small towns on the backroads rarely see a foreigners past through.  We would spend a few hours walking the streets and experiencing the everyday life that was going on around us. 

Sunday, December 28, 2014

Blue Cypress Lake





I was extremely happy to discover recently that we live just a few miles from Blue Cypress Lake here in central Fl.  I was unaware that a beautiful natural wildlife preserve was in our backyard.  We have been in our new location for a year and much of that time has been spent setting up a home and finding our way around the community we live in.  Blue Cypress lake is part of the head waters that form the St. Johns River which flows north to Jacksonville.  It is Florida's largest river and originates in St. Johns Marsh in Indian County.  We plan on spending many days out on the lake exploring the cypress trees and the abundant wildlife that live there.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_Cypress_Lake
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Johns_River

Thursday, December 25, 2014

Flame House


 I made this image of an Anasazi cliff dwelling in Utah back in the mid 90's.  At the time I worked with a large format camera using Tmax 100 film.  I have made many trips to these locations over the years and always enjoy the hiking and the discovery of ancient sites of the Anasazi Indians.