This is the fifth story in this journal about portals. And yes, we have a thing about, in this case, Doors. Doors to where? What waits behind these openings? Who has walked through these? What was their purpose in putting a hole in this place? Why are they in the condition they are in? What changed? Why do you have so many questions?
The small market stall seems to be one of the common features of European cities. Sometimes the stalls are inside a large building and sometimes along streets. The small booth from which a vendor sells to the public can only contain so much. But it often contains so much delicious joy. Want a grocery store like here in the US with 27 kinds of condiments? You can find those too. But the stalls in the markets are much more interesting to us. From flowers to fish, there are many interesting contrasts and lots of interesting colors and textures to be seen in the European Common Market.
Hmmm, Ham it’s what’s for dinner!
Hope you enjoyed this taste of the common market. Come back soon as we are working on another taste of Europe for here on the journal.
Being at 12,000 feet in the French Alps is spectacular. Being there with a clearing fall storm is another level of incredible. Here are 10 of our favorite monochrome or noir et blanc images from the mountain.
Hope you enjoyed the trip to Mont Blanc. We have several more stories planned for the very near future. More Stories from the Dolomites, about food and since it’s Europe there will probably be a church or two. So check back often to see what else we saw on our European adventure.
As usual these images are ‘light boxed’ which means if you click on them they will expand to fill the screen. If you can view these on a pad or large monitor, you’ll be able to appreciate them more. Also you can see a 10 minute slideshow/video of our trip on our YouTube channel at: youtube.com/@BoydandKathyphotos We think you will enjoy the video. The feedback has been really good.
No, we are not referring to the chemical kind but the 4,808-meter geological kind. Specifically, we are referencing Mont Blanc, the fourth tallest mountain in Europe. It would be the tallest, but geographers include the Caucasus mountains and Turkey as parts of Europe when deciding what’s tallest in Europe. Let’s just say Mont Blanc is pretty darn tall at 15,774 feet.
View as we ascended. And yes we are going up that peak ahead.
We had a chance to visit Mont Blanc during our recent European adventure. Being in France visiting the mountain is very civilized. A gondola whisks you to a very nice viewpoint called Aiguille du Midi at 12,600 feet.
The cable station at Aiguille du Midi. An elevator gets you to the upper viewpoints. It’s all very civilized.
The summit station has food, restrooms and curio shops. There is another cable car that can connect you to Italy. The summit station provides a “jumping off” point to climb the Mount Blanc massif or to explore the snowfields and glaciers of the local range. There is even a glass room hung out over an abyss that falls away to Chamonix far below. The main attraction for us though was the views of the massif and into Switzerland and Italy. A clearing early October storm provided fresh snow and clouds for conditions that were spectacular. Altogether, a photographic high point for our trip.
The view down into the valley and Chamonix.
Thanks for stopping by. We have several more stories planned for the very near future. More Mount Blanc, the Dolomites, food and since it’s Europe there will probably be a church or two. So check back often to see what else we saw on our European adventure.
As usual these images are ‘light boxed’ which means if you click on them they will expand to fill the screen. If you can view these on a pad or large monitor, you’ll be able to appreciate them more. Also you can see a 10 minute slideshow/video of our trip on our YouTube channel at: youtube.com/@BoydandKathyphotos
When Boyd was in college he took a class called agrostology. Imagine spending a whole college quarter learning the basics of the study of grasses. The main book in the class weighs in at almost 3-1/4 lbs. Yes, we know this because the book is still on Boyd’s bookshelf and we weighed it. You probably can name more grasses than you think: bamboo, barley, Kentucky bluegrass, cheatgrass just to get you started. Some you probably haven’t heard of: hairgrass, dropseed, bristlegrass. Agrostologists (yes there are such people) and agrostology students learn to tell the 12,000 species of grass (worldwide) apart by the nature of the awn, glumes and panicles, among other features. Don’t worry we won’t make you look up those terms. but we do want to give you a small taste of the world of Poaceae (the grass family). Boyd gathered the following examples here in Central Oregon. We hope this stimulates a desire to look a little more closely at those “weeds” along the trail and road as you get outside and enjoy the summer.
Spring west of the Oregon Cascade crest can be grim. Weeks of cloudy days and frequent spring rains replace the crisp days and snows of winter and precede the sun-dappled forest floor of summer. But it isn’t entirely dreary. There is an elevational belt where the Rhododendron grows under the heavy canopy of Douglas fir. And there is a belt of time when the Rhododendron blossoms splash pink through the deep spring shade. The combination of large pink blooms and persistent rain define the season. It’s spring in glorious, dripping wet, pinkness. Rhododendron spring.
The Sacramento Valley of California is one of those places that lies (mostly) between destinations. Trying to get to Oregon from the Bay Area? Make a speed run up Interstate 5. Need to get to an international airport from anywhere in California north of Sacramento? Time for another speed run down I5. Headed to Disneyland from Seattle? Yep down the Sacramento Valley on I5. It seems as if everyone has somewhere else to be.
But what if you take a little time off the freeway?
At first you may still be in a gray mood.
But the flowers and sky can brighten the day.
A wall of almond flowers fills the air with a sweet scent.
The sound of millions of honeybees hard at work fills the quiet.
Odd birds lurk in the ditch lines.
All of this might leave you a bit frazzled.
But as you merge back onto the industrial artery of I5 even the agroindustrial scenes blend into the darkening sky and the trip is a little brighter.
Someday we need to shoot the Sac Valley in the fog. But for now we have somewhere else to be.
For landscape and nature photographers a trip to Yosemite Valley is filled with longing and dread. We long to stand in the spots made famous by Ansel Adams and so many other incredible photographers. We long to bask in those magnificent views. We dread having our images compared to those famous shots. We fear we will find our work so far short of the mark that we ask ourselves the existential question: “Why am I doing this?”
We visited Yosemite Valley for a few days in late February. We stood at some of the famous places. We stood in some unknown places. We made a lot of images. We hope we made some images that show Yosemite Valley in a way you might not have seen before or in ways that rekindle your own memories. And yes, the Valley smiled on us and we avoided the existential question of why. This trip.
(All these images are lightboxed so if you click on them they will open in a separate window. This should help you to see the whole image for vertical crops and larger images for horizontal crops)
Blue skies over Mirror Lake on a sunny afternoon
Yosemite Falls on a cold winter morning refracting the sun
Detail of Bridalveil Fall
The Captain’s Mirror
Ground fog and a hint of morning color fortell a return of winter
Red sky at night, photographer’s delight
Sunrise of gray
Gathering storm over the Gates of the Valley
Horsetail Fall
The blue sky is a memory as the granite is caressed with gray mist
The clouds release the rain
the gray mists envelope the Valley and force our retreat from the storm.
Robins drop from sky
Snow collects on the branches
Winter in Robin Wood
Yes, it’s almost February. We had a busy year, so it took a while to select some of our current favorites from 2023. We started with a big group of favorites we liked in our own work. In other words Kathy picked from her catalog and Boyd picked from his catalog. Then Boyd picked some of Kathy’s and Kathy picked some of Boyd’s. Then we whittled them down. To get this down to just a few images each requires eliminating some favorites. I’ve read that other photographers compare the last step in this process to “drowning puppies.” That might be harsh but it is undeniably hard to not include some images.
So here are 14 of our favs from 2023. As usual they are “lightboxed” so you can click on an image and see it full screen on which ever device you are using. (Personally we favor a BIG high res monitor.) Enjoy!
Black Canyon of the Gunnison, Colorado
His Majesty’s Royal Cabbage - Balmoral, Scotland
Overwhelmed - Yellowstone National Park
Dance of the Costa - Patagonia State Park, Arizona
Highlands steer - Scotland
Buns of Sand - White Sands National Park, New Mexico
Rings and Bubbles - Yellowstone National Park
Sunset Ribbons - Yellowstone
Beach gold and azure - Cape Blanco, Oregon
Scottish Blues - Tobermory, Isle of Mull, Scotland
Sentinals of the North Sea - Scotland
Castle and birds - Scotland
Cathedral detail - Edinburgh, Scotland
Cape Blanco light - Oregon