Sep 24
Today, I visited the Gettysburg National Military Park and Gettysburg National Cemetery, the site of a bloody American Civil War battle in July of 1863. As with most of the Civil War battlefields, the park is filled with hundreds of monuments memorializing the dead and wounded soldiers.
Here’s an infrared photograph of the State of North Carolina Monument, sculpted by Gutzon Borglum (who also sculpted the heads on Mt. Rushmore and the carving on Stone Mountain).
I’ve spent the past week in Pittsburgh, at a conference and visiting some professors at Carnegie Mellon University and the University of Pittsburgh. Today, I escaped the city—Pittsburgh’s a great city, by the way—and did a little sightseeing in southwestern Pennsylvania.
I visited the Flight 93 National Memorial and the Johnstown Flood Museum. But most of my time was spent at Frank Lloyd Wright’s masterpiece, Fallingwater. There’s a hint of fall color just beginning to appear—this part of the country is beautiful.
A year or so ago, I visited Taliesin West. Both it and Fallingwater have an enormous sense of fitting exactly into their surrounding environments. Taliesin West sitting perfectly in the desert of Arizona, and Fallingwater belonging no other place than along the stream called Bear Run in Pennsylvania.
I spent my last full day on this Idaho trip in the Sawtooth National Recreation Area. Near the town of Stanley, Idaho, is a tiny village/trading post called Sunbeam. From there, I drove up the Yankee Fork of the Salmon River, past piles and piles of tailings and cobbles, and then reached the Yankee Fork Gold Dredge.
The dredge was operated during parts of the 1940’s and early 1950’s, gnawing its way for several miles up the Yankee Fork and leaving the waste rock in its wake.
I recommend the tour. You’ll be able to go inside and learn more about how the dredge operated and what it was like to work there.
I am in Boise, Idaho, for a conference, and had a spare afternoon. I drove up Hells Canyon, on the Oregon/Idaho border, and did some hiking just below Hells Canyon Dam.
Here’s an infrared photo, taken with my infrared Nikon D200, converted to infrared by Life Pixel. It’s interesting how the infrared highlights the different textures of the water.
I took this photo just upriver of the Hells Canyon dam, looking downriver along the Hells Canyon Reservoir…
I’ll be back. I’d like to take one of the boat tours that heads deeper into the canyon.
Sunset Over Kalalau Valley, Kaua’i
I had a great time in Hawaii, and made it back home safely. I very much appreciated the words my friends suggested for this series of articles. I want to talk about one more word… “inspiration”.
Hawaii is a pretty inspiring place, especially for a visual artist. Remote islands with beautiful scenery and amazing wildlife. Grab your camera and just head out for the day to see what you’re given.
But as I’ve said before, the most important inspiration comes to me from the people around me in my life. Family and friends. Really amazing family and friends. Amazing. And imperfect. And courageous. And especially, inspiring.
Thank you all for being here, for gathering here, in my life.
The word that was suggested most often for this blog by friends was the word “peace”. I’ve chosen a couple of images to try to represent that.
Earlier this week, at the Kilauea Lighthouse on Kaua’i, I took this photo of a Red-tailed Tropicbird (Phaethon rebricauda). There were scores of these birds along the nearby cliffs. Graceful. Peaceful.
And today at Punalu’u Beach Park near the southern end of the Big Island, I saw this Green Sea Turtle (Chelonia mydas) sleeping on the black sand beach.
This is my last Hawaii blog post until I get back and write a wrap-up. I hope you’ve enjoyed this series. See you soon.
It’s hard to believe that tomorrow, I’ll have been here a week already. On the day after tomorrow, I will start home.
I have several images I want to show you, and I was also struggling with which inspiring word to use for today’s post. I finally chose two images to fit with the word “power”.
This morning, we went on a boat tour with Lava Ocean Adventures along the southern coast of the Big Island. There’s no lava flowing into the ocean right now, so I don’t have any dramatic photos of that.
I did manage to get this photo of a dolphin who swam near our boat for a few minutes. Seeing this image, I am reminded of the word “power”.
Most of the rest of our day was spent in Hawaii Volcanoes National Park. We ended the day at the Jaggar Museum overlook, photographing the inner caldera and the glow of the hot lava in the steam clouds. This image also reminds me of “power”. The lava here stays in the caldera, and does not flow out to the ocean.
More adventures tomorrow. See you then.
A reminder that I asked a few friends to suggest words to inspire topics in this blog.
Today’s word is “strength”.
I found out this afternoon that one my best friend’s dog passed away. Those of you who know me know that I’m a dog person, and I was deeply affected by this news. My heart goes out to Shelley, Cory, Sierra, and Lyla for the loss of their family member.
I also learned today that two people were killed Tuesday in an ultralight plane crash along the Na Pali coast of Kaua’i. I didn’t know them, but I saw the police and ambulance crews rushing to the north side of the island.
We get through times like these with strength—our own inner strength, but more importantly, the strength of our friends and family. People who love us and care for us, and make us feel better when we lose loved ones and we hurt.
Today’s images are from the Na Pali coast. These photos are taken with my Nikon D200, which I had converted to an infrared camera by LifePixel. These daunting cliffs, especially rendered in infrared, say “strength” to me—Nature’s strength, the strength of the Hawaiian people who lived there, and the strength of the people who visit the coast today on foot, on the water, and in the air. This is a challenging place.
I hope tomorrow’s better. See you then.
Today’s word is “patience”, for two reasons.
First, I didn’t have time to edit any photos today, so I hope you’ll have patience with me and this blog, and wait for more photos tomorrow.
Second, our afternoon ended with a patient wait for a beautiful sunset that didn’t happen. We were at Ke’e beach, a beautiful spot on the north shore to watch the sunset, but some clouds moved in on the horizon, blocking the sun. Still, we waited patiently, hoping that the clouds might light up in brilliant colors. But, the clouds and sky just turned to gray, and we packed up and drove to Hanalei for dinner.
Tomorrow, we are fly over to the Big Island of Hawaii to continue our adventure. See you then.
Today’s word is “mystery”.
Thanks to the Na Pali Riders, we enjoyed a Zodiac tour of the Na Pali coast. The Na Pali coast is gorgeous. Because of the rugged mountains and the highland swamps, Kaua’i is the only major Hawaiian island that doesn’t have a road that goes all the way around. They tried, but abandoned the road machinery in the swamps. Don’t forget that Kaua’i is one of the wettest places on earth, with the Wai’ale’ale crater receiving an average of about 450” of rain a year.
Much of the land is sacred to the native Hawaiians. It’s rough topography, it’s inaccessibility, and it’s incredible beauty combine to make the Na Pali coast mysterious and alluring.
One of the highlights was to get to see the sunbeam near the waterfall of the Waiahuakua Sea Cave.
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