You Just Never Know

Tony & Jane ©David Gardner 2010

The results are in for the PhotoSpiva juried competition I entered a few weeks ago and my photo, Tony & Jane, was accepted into the show. The juror was Deborah Klochko, Director of the Museum of Photographic Arts in San Diego. There were 908 images entered, and 84 selected. Last year’s competition saw 578 images entered by 116 photographers, with 78 images chosen. The show will run from March 6 – April 25, 2010, with the opening March 5. So if you happen to be in Joplin, MO., be sure to check it out. I won’t know if my work earned an award until the show opens, but usually, the awards go to photographers that get multiple images accepted. Last year, I had two images accepted and was awarded 3rd place. So we will have to wait and see.

I was a bit surprised at Deborah’s choice of Tony & Jane. I like the image a lot – it fits well in my Marking Our Place project – but I thought the other 4 images I entered were stronger. I added this one at the last minute because I thought it went well the others and was hoping to make a strong case for multiple selections. But you just never know what people will like or what will get chosen. Even though only one print was selected, I am quite happy. Part of my goal for this year is to get my project seen and understood by more institutions and jurist such as Museum of Photographic Arts and Deborah Klochko. The fact an image was actually chosen means that in this case, I’ve achieved more than my goal.

Getting Goosed in Merced

White-faced Ibis. ©David Gardner 2010

We were invited by our friends Jeff and Betty to Merced in the central valley to view the Snow Geese in the last few days before their mass departure. They have over wintered here for many years and every day, around sunrise and around sunset, they have a mass takeoff – moving from their feeding grounds to the water. It is usually from one part of the Merced Wildlife Refuge to another. But on this day, they had flown out of the reserve and had been feeding on private land adjacent to the reserve. There were probably 2-3 thousand birds still in the flock. We got there around 4:00 in the evening and this gave us time to drive through the rest of the reserve viewing the bird life. It was plentiful. We quickly saw White-faced Ibis, Common Snipe, two varieties of Egret, many hawks, a heron or two, Black-necked Stilts, and ducks of several varieties. The biggest surprise were the Sandhill Cranes still in the area.

After the trip through the reserve, we found a nice vantage point to watch the impending mass take-off. Experience had told our friends which way the geese would fly once aloft and we were able to plant ourself directly in their flight path. We broke out the wine and cheese and waited. It wasn’t long before it started. It began with a decided uptick in the noise level, followed by various parts of the flock rising and falling. Suddenly, they became airborne. They circled just a bit then headed in our direction. As they approached, the noise level from their call increased, and we began to hear the whooshing sound of their beating wings. Eventually they passed directly overhead and it was an otherworldly experience. It sounded of high winds in a rain storm. The weather was overcast with high fog, and the light was dimming quickly. My photographs are not great, especially since I just had to put down the camera and experience the moment.

Snow Geese taking flight #1. ©David Gardner 2010

Taking Flight #2. ©David Gardner 2010

Taking Flight #3. ©David Gardner 2010

Overhead flight #1. ©David Gardner 2010

Overhead flight #2. ©David Gardner 2010

The next morning Mary and I returned to to refuge on the way home. We could find the geese nowhere, and I wondered if they had left for the year. After we left the refuge, we spotted 73 Sandhill Cranes about 50 yards off the road. We had been seeing and hearing them as they flew overhead the evening before, but this was a much closer vantage. Still too far to photograph effectively, so we just watched for a while before leaving for home.

New Year Begins

Ancient Handprint. ©David Gardner 2010

I am starting this new year off with an entry into PhotoSpivia. PhotoSpiva is the longest continuously running juried competition in the country. It was started in 1977 as an adjunct to the Spiva Arts Center in Joplin MO, and the list of jurors has ranged from Jim Alinder to Mary Virginia Swanson to Elizabeth Opalenik. I’ve entered the last three years, getting accepted 2 out of the 3. Last year’s entry earned a third place award. I am entering this one because I am allowed at least five pieces – more if I want to pay extra.  Five is probably the minimum number for me to feel I can get the project across. I will be selecting from the Marking project, but I cannot choose either Labyrinth or Balance #2 because these images were part of last year’s entry. In the past couple of years, the jurors have chosen several from each winner – not just a single piece. If selected, this gives me a little more exposure and seems more worth while. Below are the five I will be entering.

Number Hill ©David Gardner 2010

Kisses for Oscar ©David Gardner 2010

Standing Stones of Carnac, France ©David Gardner 2010

Fish Tremble. Conway Summit, CA ©David Gardner2008

Tony & Jane ©David Gardner 2010

Juried Exhibitions Continued…

This brings me to 2009. This year I entered about 25 competitions and, so far, have gotten into 6. I’ve continued selecting competitions based on who the juror was, but this year, I also specifically chose not to enter certain competitions because of who the juror was. Now don’t get me wrong, it wasn’t so much I didn’t want them to see my work. I just felt they would not be likely to respond in a winning way to what I was entering. For instance, over the past 3 years, I have entered Jen Bekman’s “Hey Hot Shot” competition 4 times. I’ve never gotten so much as a mention in the blog let alone being selected. That’s fine. My work doesn’t fit with the vision Jen has set out. But when I saw she was also the juror at the Photographic Center Northwest this year, I decided not to enter. Why waste the entry fee on a competition I didn’t think I had a chance to succeed in? So even though I’d like to show work there, I’ll wait till someone more receptive is in the position.

It can be difficult to know what a juror will respond to. That is another reason portfolio reviews are helpful. I attended Review Santa Fe this year and was able to pick most of the people I wanted to see my work, based on the research I’d done. One reviewer I didn’t choose was Andy Adams from Flak Photo. Though I didn’t choose him (he was high on my list, but not the top 10), I thought he’d respond well to my work. I subscribe to Flak’s Photo A Day email, and visit the site from time to time. Based on what I’ve seen there, I was sure he would like my work. Early on in the review, it was pretty clear he wasn’t loving it. He wanted to talk about the stories behind the image more than the images themselves. A bad sign. I still don’t really get why he didn’t like it, but at least I got the chance to experience his reaction personally. Knowing how he reacted to my work will probably cause me to avoid other competitions he juries as well. What’s the point.

Now that’s not to say I will always avoid a competition because a juror didn’t choose me in the past. These things can get so many entries, it’s almost impossible to get in. The most recent success I had at Center for Fine Art Photography’s “Elements of Water” exhibit, selected 50 pieces our of 2,300 entries! Of course, this was a case where I entered because of the juror. John Paul Capinigro also chose one of my images for an exhibit at the PhotoSpiva competition a couple of years ago, so I knew he at least responds well to what I shoot. My point is, that it is best to really research the people who will be looking at your work. If they don’t seem receptive to what you are doing, maybe think twice about submitting. These things are expensive, not only to enter, but if selected, you have to prepare and ship both ways. It always feels good to get work in shows, but at a certain point you must ask yourself what it is getting you.

One last experience I want to relate. A good number (but certainly not all) of the organizations who sponsor juried shows vet the entries they get before passing them along to the juror. They don’t tell you this. This is done for several different reasons, some of which took me a bit by surprise. I can understand work of low quality getting culled early, especially when thousands of images are submitted. But one reason sort of caught me off guard this year. I entered The Photography Center at Woodstock’s “Photography Now” competition earlier this year. It was juried by Charlotte Cotton, the curator and head of the Wallis Annenberg Photography Department at Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA). I didn’t really know what she might like, but knew she was smart and highly regarded. This would probably be the only way for me to get work in front of her. Whether I made the show or not wasn’t as important as her just seeing the work. Well I didn’t get in but I accomplished my goal – I thought.

As it turned out, I was able to get her as a reviewer at Santa Fe which was held well after the Woodstock competition. We had a very nice conversation, but it was clear she had some problems with my project. Well, that’s what I was there to hear – the bad as well as the good. But afterwards, on the way to the airport, we happened to sit near each other on the shuttle and were talking about busy schedules. She mentioned she was to jury the upcoming “Art of Photography” show in San Diego – a show I enter every year. She lamented that the organizers didn’t vet the entries (or that they didn’t heavily do it) and that she was facing the daunting task of reviewing thousands of images. I questioned her a bit more about this and she said it is quite common in most of the competitions. The organizations (like Ctn for Photography at Woodstock, PRC, Griffin Museum, etc), have an idea of what they want, and remove work they deem not right for them. She doesn’t even see a lot of it. She did not remember seeing my entry. Mind you, we had just had a 20 minute review with some of the very work I had entered at Woodstock. I’ve met and talked with Ariel Shanberg, the director of the Woodstock Center, and he is a quality person whose opinion I respect, but this was not what I signed up for when I entered.

So the idea of getting work in front of particular people doesn’t always pan out. And this is why, for 2010, I will be drastically cutting back how many competitions I enter. At this point I think I have proven to myself that most are just not worth the time and expense, compared to the pay off. I will be looking more towards venues that seek to show bodies of work and at this point, I will probably be submitting my project portfolio directly to the places I am interested in showing work instead of trying to get in through juried exhibits.

More on Entering Juried Exhibitions

Liberty Island, September 10, 2001. New York, NY ©David Gardner

I wanted to write a bit more about the value of entering juried exhibits and how it is changing for me these days. While I have been photographing for a good thirty years or so, it has only been about the past 5 years that I have been really trying to get work seen more by the general public. I think it was around 1984 when I first got a piece into a show. It was at the San Jose Art League and Henry Hopkins, then director of SFMOMA, was the juror. It felt pretty good of course, but it was a difficult process to submit and prepare the work, especially back then. So much so in fact, that I would usually only enter a couple competitions per year. I always seemed to get in at least one show a year, and that was enough to sustain my interest for quite a long time. This was because, for me, leading a photographic life was confined to more of an avocation. I had to work full-time in a job that had nothing to do with photography, and it gave me little continuous time to practice it. I felt in order to be taken seriously, I needed to be more of a full time photographer. That wasn’t going to happen – at least not then.

Well, now it has. I am able to pretty much spend all my time pursuing my creative photographic interests. And because of that, my desire to get the work out has also increased. To that end, I have really been hitting the juried exhibit circuit. I started locally with a number of regional venues. Living in San Francisco bay area, the art opportunities are vast. But I wasn’t really sure how good my work was, or wether anyone was interested. In 2005 I entered four competitions, all at various local art centers. I got work in 3. These shows were all mixed media and relatively few photos were included. But I chose my submissions carefully with regard to theme, and was successful. For my submission for an exhibit called, “A Moment in Time” (pictured above), I chose to create a diptych of my trip to NY in September of 2001. I titled it Liberty Island, September 10, 2001. Because that is where I was. I felt the image captured a certain moment before the moment when everything changed.

In 2006, I entered several more competitions, this time state and national venue’s. I entered an image in a show at the Art Center of Estes Park, CO. The print was one of only about 6 photos accepted, and on the last day of the show, it sold. I also entered work in the Toledo Friends of Photography’s National Juried Exhibit and in the California State Fair’s Fine Art Competition. I got work in both. A couple of other competitions, I did not get into, but I was still feeling encouraged. The work was being well received.

I decided to really hit the circuit hard in 2007 and entered 30 competitions. By this time, I had also joined a number of different photography organizations. Several because the competitions either came with memberships or required memberships in order to enter. 10 of the competitions I entered were at The Center for Fine Art Photography in Fort Collins CO. Of those 10, I got into 2. Not bad considering how many images get submitted to these shows. Also got work in the International Color Awards and International Photography Awards. These two competitions are online only, and draw thousands of entries in many different categories from all over the world. I got honorable mentions in one and nominations for best in category in the other. Other competitions in Texas and New Orleans and one local one rounded out my successes for the year. In all I was in 8 of the 30 I entered.

For most of these competitions, I would not only look at what the theme might be, but also who the juror was. I began to taylor my image selections and competition choice to who I wanted to see my work. So the PhotoSpiva competition for instance, I chose because I wanted John Paul Caponigro to see my work.

2008 brought another change in approach. I decided to enter competitions that showcased more work by fewer photographers. Places like Center’s Project Competition and Photographic Resource Center, Griffin Museum, Houston Center for Photography, Newspace and others, all are interested more in bodies of work rather than just individual images. I didn’t do very well though. I only got into 3 exhibits that year and only one with images from my new project. The other exhibits were “greatest hits” type images. But considering my project was only a year along, I wasn’t too disappointed. I knew I still had a lot of work to do on it. I wanted mainly to get the work in front of jurors like Lesley A. Martain from Aperture, Katherine Ware from Philadelphia Museum of Art, Alison Nordstrom from George Eastman House and Carol McCusker from Museum of Photographic Arts.

Also in 2008 I attended my first portfolio reviews. Center held their first in California in Santa Monica Called Review LA, and later that year, San Francisco Photo Alliance held a review called Our World. What I like about portfolio reviews is that I can actually talk with the people I want to see my work, and know they have seen it. I can really get a feel as to how they are viewing my work – what they like and not like. I have the opportunity to champion my ideas and help them to understand my thinking. At the Photo Alliance review, this paid off nicely with an exhibit at the SFO Museum and a feature in The Society for Photographic Education’s print journal, Exposure. In juried shows, if you don’t get in, you get absolutely no feedback. Actually, even if you get in, you still get no feedback other than knowing your work was selected.

My next post will speak to developments this past year and how I’ve evolved my approach further.

Juried in Again

Frozen Plains, SD. ©David Gardner2009

Today I was notified of being included in another of the Center for Fine Art Photography’s juried exhibits. This one titled, “Elements of Water”, and juried by John Paul Caponigro. This on the heels of the opening of “Art in Nature” just a few days ago. The image above is the one chosen. It is one of my favorites from my last trip through the western states. I shot it on a day we were dashing south in a desperate attempt to outrun the frigid cold that had been dogging us the previous two weeks. We had been stuck in Rapid City, South Dakota for the past 4 days and were going a little stir crazy. The waste tanks in the RV had frozen and we were feeling if we didn’t take advantage of a brief window of somewhat clearer weather, we might be stuck for a much longer period. So we got moving south down I 25. The day was just spectacular. It was mostly cloudy to start with, but later as we progressed, the sun began to peek out. I had never been in this kind of cold weather before. Temps had warmed to around the 20’s and everywhere for as far as I could see stretched the frozen plains. I could have stopped in a hundred different places alone the highway, but didn’t feel it was a safe thing to do in the RV towing the Rav. It probably wasn’t legal either. But I did manage to pull over at the various offramps to get a few shots off. The way the light changed minute buy minute was simply amazing. It killed me not to be able to stop more. I felt this was a missed opportunity for some special work, but putting myself and Mary at risk for the sake of some images just didn’t seem worth it. I still think about some of the views I was forced to drive past.

Back in the City

Rockers. San Francisco ©David Gardner 2009

I’ve been back in San Francisco now for about a month and all the chores are nearly caught up. So much piles up when I’m gone for months at a time. Trying to address everything is almost impossible, so things get done in dribs and drabs, until one day I look around and see most everything up to date. Yard work done, home repair done, business stuff caught up, image processing well under way. It feels good to be at this point.

One of the major developments while on the road was an email I got from WIN-Initiative. WIN stands for Worldwide Image Navigation. They are now a subsidy of Getty Images and was founded in 2007 by Hans Neleman. Considered a “boutique” agency, they tend to contract with a more creative and artistic group, and what results are images that are a bit more unusual. I entered a photo contest back in August call 10 Best 10. It was judged by an interesting group that included David Carson, Roberto De Luna, Dan Deacon, Cat Jimenez, Andrea Kaye and Stella Kramer. While I wasn’t included in the top ten, apparently I impressed enough to get an offer to join WIN as one of their 700 and climbing photographers.

I had to think about it for a while, but ultimately this has to be a good move for me. I shoot hundreds of images on any given trip and not everything I shoot is natural landscape. Only a relative few ever make it to one of my projects. So what do I do with all the rest? In addition to all my natural work, I can submit these other images to WIN and let them find a market. I’ve usually avoided pursuing a stock agency in the past. Most require a steady stream of hundreds of images submitted on a regular basis. They need to be thoroughly key worded, and model released. WIN requires this too, but they do the key wording and don’t seem to require as many submissions as others. I don’t see much of a down side to this arrangement. So I’m signed up and just waiting to have my space set-up on their servers before I begin to upload.

Worlds Largest Pistachio. New Mexico. ©David Gardner

Also, now up and running at the Center For Fine Art Photography in Fort Collins, Colorado, in the “Art in Nature” show. Kathy Moran was the juror for this show and she selected one of my White Sands images. The Show opens tonight, December 4 and runs through January 9, 2010. Take a look at the entire show here. Some really terrific work.

White Dunes #18. White Sands National Monument, NM. ©David Gardner 2009

Zion National Park

Along Highway 9. Zion National Park, UT ©David Gardner

After Coral Pink, we moved on a short distance to Zion National Park. We had pretty much stopped coming to this park in the last 15 years or so because of how crowed the place gets. I hoped that coming this late in the fall, things would be quieter. and in fact it was. Still lots of people and cars, but the campgrounds were not impossible to get into, and the scenic drive road was also open to cars and not restricted to shuttles only. Shuttles or OK for just getting around, but if you want to be able to stop and go, and move around where and when you want, and do it quickly, driving is really the only way. When photographing, this is what I need to do. We spent three days here hiking and doing a drive or two.

Sandstone Layers. Zion National Park, UT ©David Gardner 2009

Because we were driving the motorhome and towing the Rav4, we couldn’t really stop along the road on the way into the park. It’s steep and fairly narrow windy road which, due to it’s small proportions, actually requires special permission to travel through one of the two tunnels. So the next day, we retraced our route back up the hill in order to hike and photograph the red rock cliffs.

Canyon Color. Zion National Park, UT ©David Gardner

I had forgotten how wonderful this place is. There was still quite a lot of fall color in the valley areas, and with the weather in the mid 70’s, it was a pleasure just strolling around. I didn’t really have an agenda for photographing here, so it was just a look and see kind of experience. Sort of getting reacquainted with what there was to experience. Again my “going home” mindset got in the way here and even though I could have easily stayed longer, my urge to get going was strong.

Sandstone Benches. Zion National Park, UT ©David Gardner 2009

Checkerboard Mesa. Zion National Park, UT ©David Gardner 2009

Pine and Sandstone. Zion National Park, UT ©David Gardner 2009

We finished up our stay with a brief hike on the narrows trail. This paved trail is actually quite nice – to a point. It is very easy to hike and slowly meanders up the canyon of the Virgin River. The canyon narrows as it progresses, eventually to where wading is the only way to negotiate beyond a certain point. This requires specialized equipment and hiking skill, so we decided to only hike to the take off point. We were a little late in getting started and the sun was already out of the canyon. A little disappointing because with light bouncing off the steep canyon walls, some really wonderful photographs can be made. Next stop is San Francisco.

Virgin River. Zion National Park, UT ©David Gardner 2009

Coral Pink Sand Dunes

Evening on the Dunes. Coral Pink Sand Dunes, UT ©David Gardner 2009

After leaving Monument Valley, we made our way to Coral Pink Sand Dunes Sate Park in Utah. Our first visit here in the early 80’s was kind of magical. It was a completely unknown place to us at the time. Just a little green square on the map. A place to hang out after the long dash across Nevada. Are the dunes really pink? Well it kind of depends on the time of day you are viewing them. The sand consists of eroded Navajo sandstone blown to this location through a notch between the Moquith and Moccasin Mountains. The actual color of the sand tends to be orange reddish color, but depending on how the light is hitting it, it can vary quite a bit.

Coral Pink Dunes. UT ©David Gardner

The campground is pleasantly tree covered and to our utter amazement offered free hot showers. This was very welcome news to us as tent only campers at the time. I believe it was early fall and the place was virtually deserted. I don’t remember it being so at the time, but the dunes are now a recreation area for OHV’s (off road vehicles). The are separate areas for OHV’s and people, so we felt safe trekking around. Just as then, it was deserted this time as well. In fact, I don’t think it has ever been busy when we were here. We do tend to hit it during early spring and fall though.

Patterns in the Sand. Coral Dunes, UT ©David Gardner 2009

Our first visits here, the weather was very warm. During mid day, we would just sit on a dune and watch puffy clouds marching through the valley. The clouds would actually reflect the red of the dunes. Mornings and evenings we would walk the dunes photographing. On this visit, it was VERY cold. Highs were 20’s, lows were teens. We didn’t even venture out one day since there was no sun and high winds. We did get out a couple of times when the winds died down and though it was still cold, had a good experience photographing. I’m sure we will visit here again. Preferably when it is a bit warmer. I never get tired of dune photographing and I think I can add a few more to my dune series which will soon be up on my website.

Coral Pink Sand Dunes State Park, UT ©David Gardner

Shadows. Coral Pink Dunes, UT ©David Gardner 2009

The Journey Home

Cowboy in the Sunset. Monument Valley, UT ©David Gardner

I am back in San Francisco now. These next few posts will bring me up to date as far as finishing the trip goes. Beyond that, I’ve decided to continue to post about what I am up to while home. In the past, I’ve put the blog on hiatus while home, but I think it will be worthwhile to write about what goes on in the interim. It might be interesting to hear about what juried exhibits I’m entering and why. Also what images I choose to enter and how I choose them.

After we left Canyonlands, we had only brief periods of time with an internet connection and this made blogging a bit of a problem. I did manage to get the Canyonlands entry posted, but time and connections were slim after that. The other thing was that I sort of got into a “Going Home” mode where I started thinking about what I wanted to do when I got home, and less about what was left to do while on the road. I don’t really like when this happens. It pulls me out of being in the moment and I have a harder time thinking about photographing. It is so tough to get out of this mind set. We still had more than a week on the road, with several more stops I wanted to make before making the decision to head home, but I couldn’t get it out of my mind.

In Ansel's Footsteps. Monument Valley, UT ©David Gardner 2009

What did help however, were the places we still had left to visit. First up after Canyonlands was a visit to Monument Valley, via Mexican Hat and Valley of the Gods. This is another place we have been coming to for years, though we haven’t been here for quite some time. There were big changes this time around. A large hotel has been built at the main overlook. They did take care to place it so it is not terribly obtrusive, but it hurts to see the place more developed. They also eliminated the campground that previously existed near the hotel. The campground had a similar spectacular view. It was bare bones, but offered fairly level sites with covered picnic tables, and water and dump station available. All now gone. In it’s place, they designated a nearby area as a primitive campground. Basically nothing but a rough clearing where you can park and stay. The view is still nice, but not at the level as before.

Overlook. Monument Valley, UT ©David Gardner 2009

Monument Valley is not a national park. It is owned and operated by the Navajo nation – It’s full name being Monument Valley Tribal Park. It was – and is – nothing short of one of the most spectacular locations in the U.S. Nothing defines the west, in my view, as well as this place. John Wayne made movies here – you can even visit the cabin he stayed in while filming. You can stand where Ansel stood to photograph the Mittens. But the Navajo’s put their own spin on it’s operation. For a fee, you can still drive the designated road through the park unaccompanied in your car. Much is off limits however. For an additional fee, you can take one of the many open air truck tours or horse caravans that venture deeper into the landscape. You can even (for still another fee) hire a personal guide to take you through to places not available to others. Along the way at numerous turnouts, you can buy the trinkets sold by indian artisans. It was a one such turnout I found the scene that opens this post. The cutout cowboy riding out of the sunset. This could be a defining image for a new project I have talked about in earlier posts. “Myths of the West” is how I am thinking of it. Those images in our mind that are conjured up when we think of what the west is and how this might differ from reality.

Canyonlands

October 22

We have been without internet access for about a week, so I have gotten a bit behind on my posts. This may be the last post before we return home. We are currently in Zion National Park and will be leaving for San Francisco tomorrow. We expect to be home by mid-week or so.

Pothole Point. Canyonlands, UT ©David Gardner

We arrived in the Needles district of Canyonlands National Park a bit too late to find an available campground so we ended up at the Canyonlands Outpost, a privately owned campground just outside the park itself. It is actually quite nice here, but it is still outside the place I really want to be. The owners are a quirky couple of middle aged hippy types whom we really enjoy visiting. Fortunately the next morning, we did manage to find a great camp site inside the park. We drove in at 9 am and trolled the grounds until we found a couple packing up. We put out our chairs and returned to the Outpost to retrieve the motorhome. It’s a shame really, that we have to resort to these kinds of shenanigans to get a space. There was a time we could be nearly the only campers in the campground. Over the thirty years or so we have been coming here, the park has grown immensely in popularity. When we first came here, the road was a thirty mile gravel trek, the visitor center was a trailer and the biggest luxury were the pit toilets. Water was gotten from a tanker truck. Today, the road is paved, there is a very nice visitor center and water and flush toilets are available. The campgrounds seem always full and encounters with noisy hikers on the various trails are much more common. My personal enjoyment of this place stems from it’s remoteness and especially it’s quietness. Sound carries miles here so that one group of loud talking people can be heard for long distances. To the park’s credit though, they have managed to keep the expansion of the facilities to a minimum. Mountain bikes are not allowed on any of the trails, except the 4 wheel drive roads, and they have not expanded the campgrounds, which keeps the visitation to a somewhat limited number. It’s the best I can hope for and I am grateful for this at least.

Needles View from Slickrock Trail. Canyonlands, UT. ©David Gardner

We timed our arrival just right. The snowstorm we had in Durango the day before, was a heavy rainstorm here in Canyonlands. The Outpost, where we stayed, was partially flooded in fact. It was the largest rainfall in this, another drought year, according to Tracy, one of the owners of the place. The rain served to clean up the air and, we hoped, to thin out the crowd in the park. We ventured out to Pothole Point to investigate the many replenished bowls of water in the sandstone slickrock. Afterwards, we hiked the 2.5 mile slickrock trail in preparation of our planed 11.5 mile hike to Peekaboo springs.

Grasses. Slickrock Trail. Canyonlands, UT. ©David Gardner

Sunset. Slickrock Trail. Canyonlands, UT ©David Gardner

There are some very appealing pictographs out at the end of the Peekaboo Springs hike that I really wanted to see again. Our friends, Don and Janet first brought us here in their jeep, but I wanted to return and really focus on the indian art. There are turtle glyphs, strange figures, and handprints in one area, and across the valley nearby, are more handprints, snakes and a few other pictographs of unidentifiable figures or objects. I think this is the allure of rock art to me. It just leaves the mind to conjure up so many possibilities. The images are at least a thousand years old. Some are layered upon others, where one group painted or pecked over an earlier groups markings.

Sandstone knobs. Canyonlands, UT ©David Gardner

Pine Tree. Peekaboo Springs Trail. Canyonlands, UT ©David Gardner

Turtle Pictographs. Peekaboo Springs Trail. Canyonlands, UT. ©David Gardner

Large Hand Prints. Canyonlands, UT. ©David Gardner

Hand Prints. Canyonlands, UT. ©David Gardner

I thought the hike wouldn’t be too strenuous, but I was wrong. The combination of hiking up and over 5 slickrock traverses and 4 canyons, took a toll on both of us. Slickrock is layered sandstone, and gets it name for how slippery it can be when wet or with just a bit of grit on it. It is also very uneven and when walking on it, one’s feet and ankles are almost never flat. This is hard on the knees and feet. There were stretches of soft flat sandy areas to recoup a bit, but overall, it was harder than hoped for. By mile 8 we were both pretty spent. But we had all day. We started at dawn and got back a bit before sunset. We were tired, but happy. A beer and a sitdown was now in order.

Cottonwood Leaves. Canyonlands, UT. ©David Gardner

Sandstone Slickrock. Canyonlands, UT. ©David Gardner

Oak Leaves. Canyonlands, UT. ©David Gardner

Silverton, Colorado

October 20

Cow Mural, Kampground of America. Alamosa, CO. ©David Gardner

From the Great Dunes, we overnighted in a Kampground of America (KOA) RV Park. I just had to shoot the above image. I love the way the trees in the background become the extension on the painted trees o the mural. The KOA’s are good for usually reliable WiFi and laundry and we try to catch up on email while here.

Town Hall. Silverton, CO. ©David Gardner

We spent a couple of days in the Durango area. A new storm was coming in and we thought we’d wait to see how it played out before moving on. Durango is a growing mountain town that we first visited in the early 80’s. It was much smaller then. There are many more skiing areas now and lots more housing developments. It has gotten quite busy and less attractive to us. While here, we decided to visit the town of Silverton. When we first visited the area, Silverton was virtually a ghost town. People lived here and there were businesses  – but not many – and the town pretty much closed down in winter. There is a famous narrow gauge train that runs from Durango to Silverton that is huge with the tourists and which we have taken a couple of times. In the fall, when trees are turning color, it is a spectacular 4 hour ride through the outskirts of Durango and up to Silverton several thousand feet higher in the mountains. Since most of the leaves have now dropped, we decided to just drive up to the town.

Narrow Gauge Train. Silverton, CO. ©David Gardner

This is also a pretty great way to get there and offers the added benefit of being able to stop where we like to photograph or just look around. We get there much quicker as well – this a good thing since the storm was coming in as we got started. By the time we got there, the snow was falling lightly and Silverton, being at the bottom of a mountain bowl surrounded by mountains, was beginning to turn white. We watched several waves of weather come in and the blow out. The snow really wasn’t sticking to the ground at this point, so we were able to move around freely.

Graveyard #1. Silverton, CO. ©David Gardner

We visited the graveyard just outside and above the town. The graves go back to the early 1800’s and it’s always interesting to walk around to see how the stones are decorated and maintained. Afterwards, we came back into town to warm up and take lunch at a place called “The Pickle Jar”. Their motto, “Get Pickled at the Pickle Jar”. We didn’t, but did have a nice lunch and awesome chocolate cake dessert.

Gravestone. Silverton, CO. ©David Gardner

Gravestone #2. Silverton, CO. ©David Gardner

Hillside. Silverton, CO. ©David Gardner

We then hiked around town and noticed how much the town had also grown. It no longer seems to be a ghost town. Many new homes, full time by the look of them now exist. Most all the really old places have been refurbished and/or cleaned up to the point where the town now seems to have less a unique character. The old city hall and a few other buildings are still there, but the place has much more of a tourist feel to it. But really, more power to them for making a go of the venture in such a difficult location. We photographed here for a while and finished by watching the train leave for the afternoon trip back to Durango. We are headed out to Canyonlands tomorrow for a few days of hiking in our favorite Park.

Silverton Home. Silverton, CO. ©David Gardner

Shead. Silverton, CO. ©David Gardner

 

Great Sand Dunes National Park

Great Sand Dunes National Park, CO. ©David Gardner

What a difference a couple of days and a few hundred miles can make. We arrived in Great Sand Dunes National Park today, October 15, in southeastern Colorado. As is often the case in sand dune areas, it was windy. It was quite warm though, so it is just a matter of waiting for the winds to calm down in order to walk and photograph the dunes. Indeed, the next morning, we made a predawn trek out to the dunes. It was quite cold, but also very calm and clear. We were able to get into the dunes pretty far. Unfortunately, I chose the wrong dune to climb in order to reach the top and found myself at the top of a dune that left me stranded far short of the high vantage point I initially planned on reaching. But from this vantage point, I was still able to get some really nice abstracts.

Dawn. Great Sand Dunes National Park, CO. ©David Gardner

Great Sand Dunes National Park, CO. ©David Gardner

Great Sand Dunes National Park, CO ©David Gardner

In my second attempt on the dunes later this afternoon, I did manage to get to the top of a 700 ft. dune, the second highest dune in the park. The view was quite nice of course, but I was a bit disappointed because I was looking for rim-lit dunes, and from my vantage point, it was difficult to compose. I got a couple, but not what I really wanted. I did a lot of lung busting “wind sucking” for not much pay-off today. Still, I found a couple of other nice compositions.

Rim-lit Dune. Great Sand Dunes National Park, CO. ©David Gardner

Evening Dune. Great Sand Dunes National Park, CO ©David Gardner

Great Sand Dunes National Park, CO ©David Gardner

After I retuned after dark from the dunes, the wind came up. I mean it really came up. The gusts were rocking the motorhome around and having been there before, I felt sympathy for the tent campers in the campground. Based on how windy it was that evening, I decided to sleep in and not to walk the dunes the next morning. But, surprise, the morning brought calm conditions. A missed opportunity. We went for a hike during the day on a trail to Mosca Pass in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains. It was a nice hike and a pleasant change from dune walking. I found a nice aspen trunk with some old carving on it. The process of aging of the bark on the tree resulted in the carving taking on a much more organic sort of look. It was almost as if the carving was a naturally occurring formation, blurring the line between man-made and the natural environment.

Tree Carving. Great Sand Dunes, CO. ©David Gardner

It was also nice to see the changing colors of the autumn trees in the canyon.

Cottonwoods. Great Sand Dunes, CO. ©David Gardner

In the morning, we hit the dunes one last time. I was more carful about my path to the top this time and was rewarded with some really nice views.. The early morning cold temps formed frost on some of the dune tops creating some unusual conditions. I also got a few more really nice compositions.

Hoar Frost on Dunes. Great Dunes, CO. ©David Gardner

Great Dunes, CO. ©David Gardner

Great Dunes, CO. ©David Gardner

Great Dunes, CO. ©David Gardner

Getting Out of Town

Wind Barriers, I 25, SD. ©David Gardner

We did manage to get out of Rapid City today (October 14th). I was a bit worried about the cold temperatures which were topping out around 25º. We left around mid-day in hopes of the sun warming the roads enough to melt the black ice that tends to form on wet pavement. The first part of the day was a little dicy, with some icy/slushy roads in the higher elevations, but by the time we hit I 25, the roads were dry and clear.

One of the disadvantages of traveling in the motorhome manifested itself on this part of the road. The last several days of snow had covered many miles of the plains with a few inches of snow and driving down the highway, we wanted to stop in many places to photograph the spectacular countryside. But in the motorhome, this is nearly and impossible thing to do safely. There is a fairly wide shoulder on I 25, and in an emergency I would have no qualms of stopping. In the Rav4 that we tow with us, I would also not have a problem doing this. I could still get well off the road and feel safe. But in the motorhome, I just could just not get off the road enough to feel safe. This meant we could only shoot when I could pull off at periodic exits and/or turnouts. I did manage a few stops and it was well worth it.

Wind Barrier and Fences, SD. ©David Gardner

Side Road, I 25, SD. ©David Gardner

Traveling through a snowy landscape like this was a rather unique experience for us. As native San Franciscans, when we are in snow, it’s usually in the Sierra’s where we drive on either dry or wet roads until we hit the snow. It’s usually not that many miles till we get to our destination. Here in Wyoming, the snowy plains go on for miles and mile and as far as the eye can see. This results  in a landscape we have just never experienced before. I could have photographed along the highway all day if not in the motorhome. The snow really changed the entire feel of the plains. Now, forms that were hidden, are revealed, creating a whole new viewpoint. If not for wanting to get to warmer weather, we would have lingered here longer.

We eventually arrived in Fort Collins Colorado for the night. While here, we made time to visit The Center For Fine Art Photography. I am a member there and I recently got one of my prints accepted into the Art of Nature group show slated for exhibit later this year.

Because of the severe weather the past couple of weeks, we’ve had to change some of our plans. We had to cut out most of our time in the Black Hills and Badlands of South Dakota. Instead, we’ve decided to head south to warmer climes. Our next main stop will be Great Sand Dunes National Park in southeastern Colorado. From there, we plan to pass through Durango CO, on to Canyonlands, perhaps Navajo National Monument, Zion and Coral Pink Sand Dunes Sate Park in Utah.

Rushmore

Mt. Rushmore, SD 2006. David Gardner 2008

October 11

Cold and snow are increasing here in Rapid City, South Dakota, and we are stuck. Daytime temps are in the 20’s with snow expected – lots of it. We had hoped to stay here only a day, but it has turned into four. The roads are very icy and while we might be OK driving, I just don’t want to chance running into problems in these kinds of conditions. The water in the exit pipe of the grey tank has frozen and I cannot dump it until we get to warmer clines. Unfortunately, it is full and we are rationing our usage. Fortunately, the black and water tank are OK. We will have to hang here until the roads dry. Looks like tomorrow will be the day.

We have come here to visit Mt. Rushmore once again. It is close to the Spearfish area and I wanted to come here again to revisit the monument. I’ve had an image of this place in my Marking project since the beginning, but it was never shot for the project. Instead, I pulled the image out of my files when I began thinking about what should and should not be included. It never really fit the way it was originally shot. As is, it is just too iconic. This is the way we always see this place. It is difficult to differentiate between the icon and how it relates to marking.

George 1. Mt. Rushmore, SD ©David Gardner

Rushmore detail. Mt. Rushmore, WY ©David Gardner

So I have returned to attempt to take it out of context a bit; to emphasize the marking aspects and show what lengths we go to in order to convey meaning. I don’t mind if the place is still recognizable – in fact, I think it should be. But I want the first thought to be about surface texture and how it changes as a result of man’s touch. It will be interesting to see how quickly – or at all, whether people are still able to pick out where it is. I really love how, in these close-up shots, how the mineral veins and textures of the rock show up. It is an interesting contrast with the man-made workings of the stone. We really don’t see these aspects when viewing from afar and I think it adds new dimension to our perception.

George's Chin. Mt. Rushmore, SD. ©David Gardner

Spearfish Canyon, South Dakota

Bridal Veil Falls. Spearfish Canyon, SD ©David Gardner

October 7

Every time we go through South Dakota, we make a point of visiting Spearfish Canyon. The road is a National Scenic Byway and so beautiful this time of year. The last time we came through in 2006, we caught the weather and color perfectly. We were there on a weekend that year and because it was so nice, the road was very crowded with folks taking advantage of one of the last warm days of the year. When this road is busy, it is difficult to photograph. All the turn-outs are occupied, cars are zipping by and there is simply no peace.

For us today, it was nearly deserted. Of course, the temperature is in the 30’s and it is cloudy with the promise of snow soon. But there is nothing better than having an area all to yourself and this was the case for us. We had heard the color here was past peak, but on arrival, we discovered quite the opposite was true. This would have been a perfect day if it wasn’t for the overcast conditions. While it does allow for much more even lighting, everything was a bit dull. I’ll take it however.

Bridal Veil Falls and Birch. ©David Gardnr

Spearfish Creek, SD. ©David Gardner

The canyon is a challenge to photograph in. The walls are steep and getting to the creek is a slippery endeavor. I am happy with what I shot today. Not the greatest work ever – but nice. The waterfall there, Bridal Veil, was flowing nicely, but it is difficult to get a good angle from both the road and at the base of it. I think my best shot was of a birch branch in front of the falls. Flowing water like this is one of the biggest cliches imaginable, but it is one that still compels me emotionally enough to continue making these kinds of images. True, they often don’t make it into my portfolio, but for me, nothing conveys motion in water better than this technique.

Hillside. Spearfish Canyon, SD. ©David Gardner

Birch Trees in Snow ©David Gardner

Near the top of the canyon, the tress had passed peak and snow remained on the ground. I liked the tangled, layered look of the bare branches and trunks in the snow. Not sure the photographs I made here really captured the feel of what I experienced, but the white on white appeals to me.

Devil’s Tower

Devil's Tower National Monument, WY ©David Gardner

October 5

We arrived today at Devil’s Tower National Monument in Wyoming. It’s hard to describe what it is about this place. I’ve not seen anything that quite compares to this landscape. For miles around it is fairly flat with only rolling hills and grasslands.  But suddenly, this tower juts from the ground. It is thought to be the clogged core of an ancient volcano: the surrounding rock of the volcano having worn away centuries ago. For the indians of the area, it is a sacred power place, and I can believe this. We hiked an icy trail around the tower and discovered many prayer bundles and flags placed by indians in the trees along the way. One needs to show respect for their efforts and I tried to photograph with this in mind. I was careful not to disturb each site and tried to convey a sense of each location. Sometimes, the bundles just look like rags thrown into the trees. Those of us who don’t have the knowledge could easily make that mistake. This is the essence of my Marking project. It is easy to see how sacred places can be desecrated unknowingly. And even knowingly by those who just don’t care.

Prayer Bundle. Devil's Tower National Monument. ©David Gardner

Prayer Bundles. Devil's Tower National Monument. ©David Gardner

Detail of Prayer Bundle. Devil's Tower National Monument. ©David Gardner

The cold weather and snow has  followed us here. It is getting unusually cold for October. Today’s hi was around 38º and later in the week the low’s are supposed to go well below freezing. But this weather is giving me a fresh perspective on each of the places we visit. It is a challenge keeping warm, but well worth the experience of making photographs in this kind of weather. Using snow as a design element is fairly unusual for me and I am enjoying the experience. I will be staying here for another day in hopes of seeing the tower in sunlight, but we need to be moving on to the Spearfish Canyon area near Rapid City, South Dakota soon.

Shrouded Tower. ©David Gardner

Snow-blown Trees. Devil's Tower National Monument. ©David Gardner

Morning Tower. Devil's Tower National Monument. ©David Gardner

First Snow in Yellowstone

Undine Falls. Yellowstone National Park, WY ©David Gardner

October 1

We woke this morning to the predicted 2-5 inches. The storm has effectively put out the fire that was burning in the park and left everything with a nice dusting of white. We got out early this morning to drive the Mt. Washburn road again, but were very disappointed to discover the road closed near the top. 2-5 inches isn’t much but it is enough to shut down the road. We had to console ourselves with the views from near the top. I really wanted to get to the top of Washburn again to see how the huge swatches of burn area trees looked in the snow. It would probably open again tomorrow, but we are pushing on to Devil’s Tower in Wyoming. We did manage a trip around the upper loop of roads yesterday and visited the Mammoth Hot Springs area, Norris Geyser Basin and a drive over Mt. Washburn. We always look for black bear, moose, bison and elk over this area, but today we saw only bison.

October 2

Little Bighorn Battlefield, MT ©David Gardner

Where They Fell. Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument, MT ©David Gardner

Custer's Marker. Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument, MT ©David Gardner

We moved on to Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument today. This of course is where General George Custer made his last stand against combined forces of several indian tribes. As in any location where many lost their lives, I found the monument to be a quite sad place. The way the monument is laid out, visitors arrive at the very point where Custer, surrounded by his men, fell. The spot on the hillside is dotted with stones marking the approximate spot where each lost his life. The rest of the monument is a drive along the spine of the hills with stops in various places for viewpoints of the battlefield and explanations of how the whole thing went down. More markers along the way are placed to mark where other troops and indian fighters fell.

Fallen Soldier Markers. Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument, MT ©David Gardner

Cankuhanska Long Road's marker. Little Bighorn National Monument. ©David Gardner

The monument also has a national veterans cemetery near the visitors center. Veterans from the Indian Wars to present day are buried here, including Marcus Reno, Custer’s 2nd in command, who survived the battle.

Marcus Reno Grave. Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument. ©David Gardner

Upon leaving the monument, we headed back to camp, but not before stopping briefly at the Little Bighone Casino. We didn’t enter, but I could not resist making a photograph. It is simply amazing how many casinos are now spread throughout the west. While this one seemed to have seen better days, in general, they are the biggest and newest buildings in town. Unlike in California, not all of the casinos are indian owned. It does seem to be the preferred way to generate revenue these days. In thinking about how to portray myths of the west, I’m thinking this image will have a place.

Little Bighorn Casino, MT ©David Gardner

On “Not Camping”

Hot Springs at Mammoth. Yellowstone National Park. ©David Gardner

We arrived at Yellowstone on the 28th (my birthday). Well before we got to the park, we could see the valley was thick with smoke. Yet another fire was burning and the smoke was blowing north. Because of road closures, only the northern driving loop is open for travel. There is a bridge out on one side and the fire on the other. This actually works out well for us because this is our favorite part of the park and we only planned on visiting this part on our way to South Dakota.

Our first day here we had temps in the 90’s. Today a storm moved in and the high is expected to be 32 with 2 – 5 inches of snow. Just a slight change. It is days like this that justify travel in a motorhome for me. On all our previous travel prior to getting the motorhome, we have tent camped. Crammed everything we needed into the 4Runner and hit the road. For almost thirty years this was the way we did it. About five years ago, while tent camping in Chaco Canyon in New Mexico, we endured a fairly severe wind storm. We sat in the 4Runner watching our new dome tent bending and eventually breaking in the wind. Sand got into the zipper mechanism and rendered it useless. All this time, it was still 80º and we were sweltering in the car. I rescued other people’s tents as they were uprooted by the wind and blew through our campground.

Mary decided for us that this was the end of tent camping. There were a number of other similar experiences previous to this, but this one was the capper. The other deciding factor was that, now we are traveling for months at a time instead of a few weeks. We also found we needed to bring more and more equipment to keep up a tolerable comfort level; more air mattresses, more heating and cooking equipment, better lighting arrangements, etc. This is in addition to all the camera equipment.

Old Burn. Mt. Washburn. Yellowstone National Park. ©David Gardner

What brings all this up is that right now I am sitting, warm and comfortable, in the back of the motorhome watching the snowstorm. Inside, it is 72º. Outside, 32º. I am writing on my laptop, plugged into the internet, listening to Sirius Satellite radio. I also have the option of watching TV because I brought along my Direct TV receiver to use with the satellite dish that came with the RV. Oh yes, since we are in a RV park, I also have cable I can hook to my TV. This morning, I took a hot shower in our full bathroom. The RV holds 50 gallons of water that we use for drinking, cooking and washing. It also has holding tanks for waste water, both black and gray. For power, we have two solar panels that charge our batteries and gives us light and power for powering computers and cameras and whatnot.

This is so far from camping that I have come to call it “NOT CAMPING”. This differs from what is know as dry camping; staying in places where no hookup (water, electric, cable, etc.) are available. Staying in national parks or places with no hookups for me is still borderline NOTCAMPING, but since we are technically untethered, I let it slip.

All of this comes at a price of course. Instead of being 15 feet long in the 4Runner, we are 27 feet long, plus we tow the Rav4 which adds another 10 feet or so. All of the costs are higher. Camping in RV parks is more, fuel is way more, and plenty of things can and do go wrong in the RV(see earlier posts). But days like today make it all worth it. We may move into the park tomorrow, but if it stays cold and gray, we may stay here.

Moving On

Gallatin City Hotel. Missouri Headwaters State Park, MT. ©David Gardner

On our way down to Yellowstone National Park, we overnighted at a small state park called Missouri Headwaters. This is the place that marks the beginning of the Missouri River. Here, the Gallatin, Jefferson and Madison Rivers converge to become the Missouri. Lewis and Clark camped here and hoped to find a passage to the pacific. It was not to be. No through passage exists. Back then, it must have been quite beautiful. Today, it is still quite nice, but power lines crisscross the entire area. There is some sort of power generation plant nearby and semi’s travel through the park at 60 mph’s making deliveries to the plant. We did an early morning walk around here and were rewarded with a nice ground fog covering the area. I did manage a few nice images. A nice morning.

Morning Fog. Missouri Headwaters State Park, MT. ©David Gardner

Grasses. Missouri Headwaters State Park, MT. ©David Gardner

A Couple More from Glacier

Two more from Glacier I kinda like:

Double Rainbow, Going to the Sun Rd. Glacier National Park. ©David Gardner

Dawn. Sun Point, Glacier National Park. ©David Gardner

Juried In

White Dunes #18. White Sands National Monument, NM. ©David Gardner

I just got word from Azarie Furlong, the Exhibitions Manager at The Center for Fine Art Photography in Colorado, that one of my submissions for their Art in Nature show was selected for exhibit. The image selected is from a group of images I shot at White Sands National Monument in New Mexico during a visit last May. I showed a number of the images at a portfolio review in Santa Fe a little later in June and they were well received.

It can be pretty difficult to get work into one of their shows. This one had over 1700 submissions, from which only 50 were selected for exhibit by Juror Kathy Moran of National Geographic Magazine. Nature/Landscape work is one of the most competitive there is. SO many people work in this area and it becomes a real challenge to stand out from the pack. I am thrilled to be part of this show.

It runs from December 4 to January 9 at the Center’s gallery space in Fort Collins, Colorado. So if you happen to find yourself in Colorado in December, check it out.

Off The Grid

Eagle over Glacier ©David Gardner

Finally able to post after a week with no internet access. We arrived in Glacier National Park and have been here for the last several days. This was our first main destination on this trip and it took a little doing to get here. Traveling in a motorhome is like taking your house on the road. Think about all the things that go wrong around your home and then add rumbling down the highway to it. All that rattling has a way of vibrating things loose or causing other problems. Soon after leaving Arco, I noticed some uneven wear in the driver side front tire. This indicated an alignment problem of some sort. When we arrived in Missoula, MT on September 13, I got the motorhome to a tire shop for an estimate and repair. Turned out to be much more than an alignment problem. Both the ball joints and bushings were seriously worn and could not be adjusted to fall within specs. This required a major outlay of cash and an extra couple of days to wait for parts and installation. Once that was done, it was recommended I move the front worn tires to the rear and put two of the rear tires on the front. When the tech guy removed the rear tires, he discovered the dreaded tire rot (spider web like cracking on the sidewalls). He felt it would be too dangerous to put these tires on the front and I ended up buying two new tires at a cost of $500.00. I’ll replace the other four tires soon, but we needed to move on to Glacier.

In Glacier National Park

Going to the Sun ©David Gardner

The weather here is unseasonably hot. Highs have been in the 80’s all week. We had one day of slightly cooler weather – Yesterday, smoke from a forest fire in Idaho blew into Glacier causing really poor visibility and generally messing up the air. Our friends, Rick and Mary flew in from San Francisco for a week of vacation and we got a chance to hang out together in the park for several days. We walked a 11 mile hike to Grinnell glacier on Wednesday. The park is named Glacier for the several of them that still exist here. They are quickly disappearing however. The five mile hike up to it was through a valley that at one time was covered with deep ice. Today, what is left is a few large hunks of ice that cling to the mountain side and some floating icebergs in the glacial lake that results. The glacier is not expected to exist in the near future.

Josephine Lake, Glacier National Park. ©David Gardner

The photography has been a bit difficult. I haven’t really tried to do much serious imaging. Doing serious work requires pre-planning, though, willingness to wait for the right light, and quite often just being in the landscape with no distractions. With friends along, I decided to just have some fun and take what was there. We did run into some nice opportunities however. On our hike to the glacier, we bumped into a number of moose, mountain goats on ledges, and on the way back to the campground, a grizzly and black bear. I got a few nice shots of the moose and mountain goats, but the bears I just decided to watch.

Grinnell Glacier, Glacier National Park. ©David Gardner

After our friends left, Mary and I did some sunrise photography at Sun Point and more drives looking for wildlife. I’m not really setup for wildlife photography, but it is on of the great attractions of this park. I don’t have the mega lenses required to pull in distant animals, but sometimes one just needs to experience wildlife in the wild. So we mostly just look and enjoy. This day we saw a couple more bears and more mountain goats. We have another day here before we head off the Yellowstone for a few days.

And here are a few more images of the wildlife we saw while in Glacier:

Female moose. ©David Gardner

Moose calf. ©David Gardner

Mountain Goats, Glacier National Park. ©David Gardner

Lone Bison, Waterton National Park. ©David Gardner

Lazy Bison, Waterton National Park. ©David Gardner

Wet Moose. Cameron Lake, Waterton National Park. ©David Gardner

Viewing the wildlife. Cameron Lake, Waterton National Park. ©David Gardner

On Moving Forward

Charles Waters State Park, MT ©David Gardner

This trip through the upper western states is a bit different than most of the trips I’ve done durning the past 3 years. I have no special agenda for photographing this time around, although I am continuing to work on “Marking Our Place”. All of my  previous excursions have been with the “Marking” project in mind; looking for those places where people have interacted with the landscape in some way. When I began this project, I felt there should  be an end to it at some point. I feel differently now. The longer I look and find places that I think work well for the project, the more I see that it just doesn’t need to end. In fact, I see it getting stronger as I find places that convey my ideas more clearly. I can see how some of the themes I covered could be spun off as a sort of new stanza or canto (thanks RM). I am scaling back how much I shoot for it however. It will continue to be in my mind as I move through the landscape, but not be the main objective.

But that leaves me with the quandary of what to do next. I want to use this trip as a vacation of sorts. I want to just react to the landscape and keep open about how to to engage with it. In these past few years, I have become much more sensitive to how I (and we) relate and interact with the landscape. So I want to trs to portray the landscape that could reflect this in a new way.

National Bison Range, MT ©David Gardner

Traveling up I15 in Montana the other day, we drove past a certain spot on the highway that got me thinking about how the west is perceived today. What I saw off to the side of the road was a rather moving view of a bison at the crest of a hill. In my mind, I saw a deep red sunset with the animal silhouetted against the sky. Such a cliched notion I know, but moving none-the-less. As we approached, it was clear this was a buffalo cut-out stuck into the ground at just the right spot.

It was an advert for a dude ranch of some sort. But it started me thinking more about perceptions. I was born and raised in the west. I got my first exposure to the outdoors here in the west. I have been lost in the wilderness of the west. I have strong ideas of what this place is and where I fit in it. But when I see things like the bison cut-out I think, “It’s a myth”. It is not what this place is anymore. The only bison you will see is on preserves or in national parks. It feels like we hang on to these myths instead of acknowledging  the consequences of our actions.

Peak of Church, Bannack Ghost Town, MT ©David Gardner

So I want to explore the notion of myths of the the west. If I can find images that convey this idea in ways that perhaps haven’t been seen before, maybe there is something to say here.

Arco, Idaho

September 9

Number Hill. Arco, Idaho. ©David Gardner

Another uneventful day of driving has brought us to Arco, Idaho. This is the home of the first functioning commercial nuclear reactor in the world. Also, the home of Number Hill as pictured above. It is a quirky little town. We overnighted in a pleasant little KOA (Kampground of America) where we enjoyed an ice cream social in the evening. Eariler in the day, we explored the HIll. I wanted to see if it might fit in my Marking Place project, and so made a number of images at various locations around the base of the mountain.

I’m not going to say how it has come to be covered in numbers. People always want to know where and what the images are about. That is normal I guess, but it tends to shift the conversation away from what I want it to be. To me, it’s not so important what the markings mean. The value in experiencing these places is to help gain an understanding of how we are using symbols to communicate. That we don’t always understand what is being communicated emphasizes the flaws in this system. This place only has meaning to those privy to the translations. The rest of us are left to wonder. I think I have some good images of the place and it will probably make its way into the project.

Jackpot!

September8

Tumbleweed. Jackpot, Nevada ©David Gardner

These first few days of driving tend to be a bit of a drag. After leaving California, the terrain of highway 80 through Nevada gets pretty mundane. Having the distraction of the Burning Man parade as we drove yesterday helped pass the time, but today, only a few remaining dust covered cars passed us by. Toward the end of the day, we arrived in Jackpot. Here, the town consists of about 5 casino’s, a couple of liquor stores, a post office and an air strip. There is a bit more to it – but not much. Jackpot is about mid-way to Arco Idaho, and eight hours of driving is about all I tend to want to do in a day. There is no big rush. But what is in Arco you may ask? I’ve recently heard about a place called number hill. It is what it says. Actually, it’s a small mountain covered in numbers. Why? Well I’m not saying – at least for now.

While driving today, I got a call from Carol Buchanan, the exhibits coordinator for the California State Fair. I entered my “Balance #1″ image this year in the Fine Arts competition and won an Award of Excellence for my efforts. Todays call was a surprise. She called to tell me my print had sold. I love doing the competition every year. It’s for California artists only, and the level of work is quite high. I don’t get in every year, so when I do it is pretty gratifying. We go up to Sacramento for the preview and stay for the opening of the fair the next day. It was a really nice bit of info to start off our trip.

No Love lost in Lovelock

Rest Stop. Jackpot, Nevada ©David Gardner

September 7

This marks the start of a new photo trip. Over the next two months, Mary and I will be traveling through parts of Idaho, Montana, South Dakota an Utah. I kind of lost interest in blogging toward the end of my last road trip, and I have been spending time trying to figure out my reasons for wanting to blog in the first place. What I am thinking now is that it can serve to help me digest what I have done on a particular day of shooting. Often I will shoot a new subject or area, and after downloading, not really go over the work for some time. If I don’t write about the images quickly, I may forget some of the impressions that drew me to the place to begin with.

The start of our trip was delayed about a week because of a leak in the black tank of our motorhome. It wasn’t a big leak, but it had to be dealt with before leaving. I had to scramble around to find someone to fix this problem and it resulted in our having to cut out a visit to Mt. Lassen in Oregon and a few days in Idaho visiting my cousins.

So we left San Francisco around 9 am this morning and headed north over the Golden Gate Bridge. Not only was the Bay Bridge closed for several days for earthquake work, the north route is visually a much nicer way to drive. Getting back on highway 80 for the trek through the sierra’s, we soon began to notice some strange vehicles being towed behind trucks going west. The trucks, and quite a few cars going that way, were also covered in what looked like white dust. I realized these were returnee’s from Burning Man that wrapped up Sunday night. The white stuff the result of the alkali wind storms that are common on the plya at Black Rock. We saw a giant propane powered snail, some really odd looking rocket cars and even a giant Groucho type mustache, nose and glasses atop a jeep, complete with bald head. We knew we had reached the junction where returning attendee’s hit 80, because now instead of seeing the vehicles going west, they began passing us as we drove east through Nevada, each and every one of them covered in alkali dust. On the backs of many cars was the Burning Man symbol to further clue us in.

Just past the town of Lovelock, we pulled into Rye Patch Reservoir state recreation area. As soon as I opened the motorhome door, I was enveloped with the desert dry perfumed scent of sage. I always forget how wonderful an aroma it is. The only other experience that comes close is that of smelling the smells of a redwood forest for the first time. Rye Patch is a nice little camping area. The reservoir of course was quite low, as is every water pocket in the west, but being the day after Labor Day, the place was only sparsely occupied. There were a few egrets, a smattering of herons and a selection of other waterfowl I couldn’t get close enough to identify to keep us company. We chose a campground in an overflow area above the real campground because of it’s higher location which gave us a nice evening view of the lowering light over the desert.

New Honors

Low Tide. Vancouver Island, Canada. ©David Gardner

March 24

Just learned that my image, “Low Tide, Vancouver Island”, above, was nominated for “Abstract of the Year” in the 3rd annual Photography Masters Cup, aka, The International Color Awards. Although I did not win, getting the nomination is an accomplishment by itself. There are hundreds of entries, and thousands of images in many categories, so I am quite pleased to get this.

I was also notified by Center in Santa Fe, that my Marking project, entered into the Project Competition and Review Santa Fe portfolio review, made the top 24% of those entered. Again, I did not win any of the top awards, but placing in the top quarter within a group of such highly considered photographers is something positive to take away.

I am number 12 on the waiting list to go to the review, held in June, and I’m hopeful to be eventually included. I think the project is quite close to completion, and being able to show it to the group of reviewers who will be there is a step I want to take at this point. They take around 100 of the top entries. I am on the 50 person wait list, hoping someone has a change of heart.

Petroglyphs at V-V

March 20

Petroglyphs at V-V. ©David Gardner 2009

We had been wanting to see the petroglyphs at the V BAR V Ranch Heritage Site in the Coconino National Forest, located not far from Sedona. This is the largest known petroglyph site in the Verde Valley and one of the best preserved. As it happened, we arrived on the 20th – which just happens to be the vernal equinox. We didn’t know this was also a newly re-discovered calendar site. That is, at certain times of the year, the sun will line up with certain of the carvings indicating significant events. The Sinagua, who created the petroglyphs maybe as early as 850 A.D. used this calendar (it is thought) to let them know when to plant their corn, when to harvest, and a number of other events.

Light ray striking double circle. ©David Gardner 2009

So this site has been known to exist for nearly 100 years, but it was only recently that the calendar was re-discovered. As we are a species that uses signs and symbols to communicate with one another as really our only form of communication, I think it really points out what a flawed system we have. In order for things to be recognized as signs or symbols, it requires large groups of people to accept them as such. This works fine as long as there is someone around to pass along the information. It breaks apart when the link is lost and the meanings disappear. Even more, different groups can assign different meanings to the same sign or symbol further complicating matters.

Sea Turtles. ©David Gardner 2009

I find it astounding that mankind relies on such a system. We have seen throughout time and history how much is lost when different cultures become extinct. In many cases, we never fully understand how lost cultures worked or what their body of knowledge consisted of. In the case of petroglyphs and pictographs, archaeoastronomers can only theorize as to meaning. They are theories based on educated guesses, but the bottom line is that we still just don’t know for sure. I try to imagine what a system of communication would look like that would not relay on the sign/symbol model, but it is almost inconceivable to me. How would we do it?

Arcosanti

Arcosanti today ©David Gardner 2009

March 19

Mary was interested in seeing Arcosanti, an “urban habitat” created by Paolo Soleri in the Arizona desert near Phoenix. Soleri was invited to Taliesan West by Frank Lloyd Wright in the late 50’s. He had the idea that communities could be created in a compact urban structure that would utilize land in a much more efficient way than traditional urban sprawl. In 1969 he began designing and building Arcosanti, a prototype “arcology”. It was to eventually house 5,000 people by “combining compact urban structure with large-scale solar greenhouses”. After 40 years of work, it currently houses around 80 or so people. They conduct teaching workshops and rely primarily on volunteers to forward the progress. The final plans are impressive, but the reality falls pretty short at this point. Still, the work goes on and there is a foundation formed to continue the work once Soleri (now 90) passes.

Ceramic wind chime and bell examples. ©David Gardner 2009

The primary source of income is bronze or ceramic windbells that are created onsite. They basically press bell molds into bins of “silt”, then pour molten bronze into the forms to create many of the bells. The designs on the bells are sculpted into the silt forms before pouring and the resulting bells exhibit the designs. I thought this was an interesting turn-around of making marks in the land. The resulting marks are visible only on the bell. They use the land to create the designs. This is also evident in the structural design of Arcosanti. They created designs in large scale land molds, then poured concrete into the molds. When the concrete was lifted, the resulting surface took on the sculpted design and color of the land it was poured over.

Bell foundry dome detail. ©David Gardner 2009