Tag: Bluesky Art Show

Water transforms our landscapes every day. And the geomorphology nerd in me loves every minute of it.

I have a lot of strong feelings about water being a geology nerd. If you want to get more specific, I go full-dork for geomorphology. It’s the study of surficial processes to oversimplify a bit. And I get fuck-all giddy over it.

And water is huge operator in geomorphology. It transforms our landscape every day. Sometimes in big, sudden events—floods and tsunamis for example. But mostly in little ways every day like freeze-thaw cycles that slowly break down massive monoliths. Or rivers that slowly carve their way through ancient rocks like in the Grand Canyon.

I could go on and on—there are endless examples of how water shapes the world. And I’m trying to rein in my geomorphology dork right now because this is supposed to be a short post, not a ten thousand word love letter to water as a geomorphological agent. The struggle is real.

Anyway, feel free to join me in marveling at what water is doing all around us in our everyday lives. Most of the work it’s doing slow and imperceptible unless you’re paying attention. Water likes to play a long game that way.

So if you see anything cool you’d like to share, drop a comment. I’m here to dork out with you.

As for this week’s image, it’s from the Columbia River Gorge at Multnomah Falls. Talk about a dramatic example of the power of water to shape our world.

Peace out!

Bluesky Art Show

This post is inspired by the Bluesky Art Show, a challenge to share artwork surrounding a weekly theme each Saturday.

Growing isn’t just for young’uns. We adults need to keep growing too.

Now that I have your attention with cute little puppies—and a very tired-looking mama—let’s get down to business.

You probably thought I’d be sharing a plant image this week, huh? To be fair, when I saw the theme for this week’s Bluesky Art Show, my brain immediately swirled through my mental image catalog and called up dozens of shots in my library that would fit the bill. I am a plant nerd after all.

But that going that route would have been the easy thing to do. And this week we’re talking about growing. Which is usually not easy.

So I searched for other kinds of images that evoked the concept of growing. That was a much harder task but I eventually came across these little cuties.

And, per usual when I’m going through this process each week, I ponder the deeper meanings of the topic. The notion that stuck with me this time is that growing isn’t just for young’uns. At least not in the figurative sense.

We humans are naturally curious creatures so seeking out ways to learn and grow even as adults is largely innate. But it can get crushed by the weight of adulthood.

So it seems the growth challenge is often to combat that. And when you hit snags and obstacles, looking for ways to overcome them. Or in some cases, creating the framework to get unstuck.

Easier said than done, I know. But imperative if we want to make the most of our short time on this planet.

As for the story behind this week’s shot, these are sweet puppies we came across at Rancho Meling on one of my birthday rides in Baja. And this is about the only time these curious, energetic pups were still.

The rest of the time they were in full puppy mode—exploring, learning, and growing. And yes, getting into mischief much to mama’s dismay.

Keep moving forward, friends. Embrace your inner puppy.

Peace out!

Bluesky Art Show

This post is inspired by the Bluesky Art Show, a challenge to share artwork surrounding a weekly theme each Saturday.

If you feel like you need to go to a quiet place for a noise vacation, you’re probably right.

It’s a marvel to experience true quiet. Which is a rarity for most of us. Our busy, built worlds are filled with the overwhelming noise of humanity.

Being one who’s done a lot of outdoors-y shit, I’ve had many opportunities to be wrapped in the astonishing quiet of remote natural places.

And unless you’ve had that, it’s hard to remember what true quiet is. In these natural spaces, the quietness amplifies how insanely fucking noisy our world is. And how overstimulated we are because of it.

But the constant noise of humanity has been normalized so, collectively, we’ve largely forgotten what it’s like to not be surrounded by it all. of. the. damn. time.

And I think for many who have never had a quiet outdoor experience to calibrate from, it might be uncomfortable to be in a place like this. I suspect it might feel like a void to be filled instead of a richness to savor.

The reality is that there’s still a lot we don’t know about the impact of noise pollution on our health. But growing evidence suggests it’s way more problematic for our health and quality of life than we currently give it credit for.

Anyway, that’s a massive topic that won’t fit into this little postcard. Maybe I’ll dig deeper into it another time. I just wanted to remind you that if you’re feeling like everything is so damn loud all the time, you’re right. It is. And maybe it’s a sign to get out into the wild and take a noise vacation, even for just a day.

So here’s a shot of a quiet alpine lake in the Seven Devils of Idaho for inspiration. Whether you’ve had the chance to be in a quiet place like this before or not, I hope you can picture yourself there, soaking up the quiet.

Peace out.

Bluesky Art Show

This post is inspired by the Bluesky Art Show, a challenge to share artwork surrounding a weekly theme each Saturday.

Open wide! The Plaza of the Alligators statue in El Paso gave me the opportunity to step out of the obvious landscape shots for this week’s postcard.

Sure, I have lots of “wide” shots of the gorgeous landscapes in our national parks. But I knew I’d be traveling to El Paso this week and I thought it would be fun to capture the wide-open gaping maw of the gator in this statue. You know, just to break away from the predictable interpretation of this week’s theme.

My dear man and I have been exploring El Paso over the last couple of years as part of our Southwest Art Towns efforts. The city and its history are absolutely fucking fascinating. We’re history dorks that way.

Our rhythm is to stay downtown so we can stroll to dinner and other attractions—mainly museums—from our hotel. That means we visit the San Jacinto Plaza at the heart of Downton El Paso a bunch when we’re there.

At the center of the plaza is this statue commemorating the history of alligators there. I have more than a few shots of this statue but most of them are “usies” with our goofy mugs in them. Or they aren’t composed to highlight this particular portion of the statue showing this gator with his mouth open wide.

My first attempt at capturing it was a bust. The light was too harsh and contrast-y. So—damn!—I had to go to dinner and come back afterwards when the sun was lower.

But later, with my belly full of tacos and chicharrones and the light softer on the statue, I grabbed this shot to share with you.

If you’re ever in El Paso, be sure to check out the great restaurants, murals, and museums downtown. And say hi to the gators for me.

Peace out!

Bluesky Art Show

This post is inspired by the Bluesky Art Show, a challenge to share artwork surrounding a weekly theme each Saturday.

Whether we’re aware of it or not, the curve is a compositional element our brains love. And ferns deliver a visual feast of them.

We humans innately love curves. Our brains just like them. Going deep into geometric pscyhology is way more than bit beyond the scope of this post but it is fascinating. I’m a nerd, what can I say?

In art and photography, curves are super appealing to the eye. They can be conspicuous or subtle, but either way, our brains eat them up. And even when they’re not as obvious as a something like a sinuous road or river, they guide us through the image.

Photographers and other artists are trained early on about the importance of these kinds of compositional elements that make a piece “work”. You, the viewer, may not be thinking “That’s a great fucking curve!” but you know the image or piece is appealing.

Anyway, I spent a good bit of time with these two fern fiddleheads during one of my Tremont workshops. They’re a curve bonanza and fun to shoot. The bonus of the spiderweb was exciting, too.

I started began that morning’s shoot doing broader landscapes. But, per usual, I ended up in the dirt, fascinated but the tiny details of the world at my feet.

What can I say? That’s what my brain loves.

Cheers, friends!

Bluesky Art Show

This post is inspired by the Bluesky Art Show, a challenge to share artwork surrounding a weekly theme each Saturday.

You can’t stop being a plant nerd even when you’re at the zoo. And this trifoliate orange at ZooAtlanta always fascinated me. And it turns out there’s a photography lesson for me in this image.

A million lifetimes ago, I used to spend a lot of time at Zoo Atlanta. The kids were young and it was a nice place to hang out. I can’t even begin to fathom how many hours we spent there so let’s simply call it a metric fuck ton.

In all of that time, we obviously got to know the place pretty well. As much as I enjoyed the animals, I’ve always been a plant nerd first and foremost. So I have a lot of plant pictures from all of our visits to the zoo as well as the critters.

And one of the plants that fascinated me the most was this one—the trifoliate orange. The thorns were hella massive—wicked two-inch long spikes. In fact, this shot doesn’t do them justice since this young branch is smaller than its full-grown counter parts.

But the trifoliate orange also had a thick, waxy, chaotic branching structure that wove its way around in disarray. Its bark was unlike anything I’ve seen before or since. Just an all-around cool and bizarre plant. This plant captured my curiosity to say the least.

I made this image very early in my dabblings with photography back in 2009. I have a bunch of other images of this plant—all of them quite awful from a technical and compositional photographic standpoints. This one is the best of the lot.

But I had to laugh in deciding to use it for this week’s theme. Because the composition is quite reminiscent of the image I shared a few weeks ago that I made in 2021 that is well-loved amongst my followers.

So looking at the two images made twelve years apart and at very different stages of my photographic journey, I can’t decide what the lesson is. The circular nature of life. Or to keep practicing. Or maybe that artistic style is somewhat innate. Or a little of everything maybe?

Cheers, friends! Stay sharp and curious.

Bluesky Art Show

This post is inspired by the Bluesky Art Show, a challenge to share artwork surrounding a weekly theme each Saturday.