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February 20, 2012

Rock Candy Mountain









Nature never designed more fascinating country to ride over than these plains and mesas lying up and back from the desert basin. You may be alone without necessarily being lonesome. And everyone rides here with the feeling that he is the first one that ever broke into this unknown land, that he is the original discover; and that this new world belongs to him by right of original exploration and conquest. Life becomes simplified by necessity. It begins all over again, starting at the primitive stage. There is a reversion to the savage. Civilization, the race, history, philosophy, art - how very far away and how very useless, even contemptible, they seem. What have they to do with the air and the sunlight and the vastness of the plateau! Nature and her gift of buoyant life are overpowering. The joy of mere animal existence, the feeling that it is good to be alive and face to face with Nature's self, drives everything else into the background.

~ John Van Dyke


19 comments:

  1. I LIKE THAT IDEA OF ALONE, BUT NOT LONELY. IT IS SOMETHING SPECIAL TO STARE AT SUCH LANDSCAPES AS THESE YOU HAVE PHOTOGRAPHED SO WONDERFULLY. TO BE THERE.
    NATIVE AMERICANS, REGARDLESS OF TRIBES OR NATIONS HAD THEIR SACRED PLACES. THE CLIFFS AND STONE EDIFICES SURGING UP FROM THE GROUND WERE OF THIS ORDER. PETROGYPHS IN SUCH PLACES SPOKE TO THEIR SENSE OF REVERENCE FOR FORCES LARGER THAN THEM. AND OF ORIGINS. THEY HAD A PERSPECTIVE WE SENSE A SMALL PART OF WHEN VISITING SUCH PLACES. THEY TRACED THEIR HANDS ON SUCH WALLS. OR THEY TOLD STORIES OF THEIR OWN LIVES IN TERMS OF THEIR FAMILY MEMBERS, OR DEPICTED HOW MANY GOATS THEY OWNED IN PRIMITIVE AND HUMBLE IMAGES. THEY WERE HERE A LONG TIME BEFORE US, AND WE FUCKED THEM OVER. IT IS STILL A BIG GRIEVANCE I FEEL WHEN I WANDER OUT INTO THE COUNTRY THEY ONCE OWNED. BEAUTIFUL AND PAINFUL.

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  2. These photographs are simply stunning! They practically feel like 3-D. The blue of the sky is amazing; the details of all the plants and grasses is hyper-real; the lines and tones of the mountains create gorgeous compostions within the frame you put them in. Being able to visit such a spectacular landscape via your lens is a real gift that you give us here. Thank you so much!

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  3. Great photos! As always the composition, the arrangement of the natural visual elements without the scars of human intrusion is brilliant. Once again, I would love to observe the artist at work. I also would have love to have seen (as you have captured them) these magnificent formations before man defiled them with rail lines, pipelines, and highways.

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  4. The last sentence in the quote is inspiration for me.
    The photos are calming and loving. How can we not know about our part with nature when this is right there for all to see and experience.

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  5. I love this place sooo much. John C. Van Dyke is right. You do feel like the first person who ever met these rocks. I'm so grateful that they're not marred by tagging (or maybe I didn't see the tags). And of course you caught the rocks right before they turn the color of cotton candy. Ah pretty pretty

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  6. Louciao brought it up - the hyper-real aspect of the plants in foregrounds and rock formation behind them. All with equal focus....Thats why your the professional and I'm a point and shoot envyist <--- I made up that word, but it works

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  7. Beautiful! I also love to be alone in these places. I also, love being with my wife in them. Having someone to share with is great.
    When I'm in a serious photography mode, alone is usually better, because I tend to forget that anyone else is there.

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  8. With splayed tripod, the photographer, blinding an eye and eagerly awaiting finical nirvana, finally steals one of nature's castaway scenes (just wait, I have a better one!) and returns home spent, while the desert, merely beginning its daily calisthenics of light, shade, shrub, and rock, cavorts effortlessly in sky-blue solitude.

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  9. What an amazing place! Your photos are truly beautiful. The lighting is perfect and the colors are too.

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  10. first, i was silent... then a single question flickered in me: what would be like to actually walk there, alone, for a while?
    then i read the words you had chosen for the photos (actually for us, because the photos don't need them) - and there was what i wondered about, as if a silent prayer had been answered.

    the warm, but subdued colours make me so warm inside... warm silence, and gratitude for being...

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  11. Great quote but its the photos that I really like, the color especially.

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  12. Absolutely beautiful Stick Up... pure pleasure for the eyes, eye candy of the sweetest sort...

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  13. Fabulous series! Love the colours and textures of these beautifully shaped rocks.

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  14. Your portraits of the place along with Van Dyke's words have made everyone eloquent! That's quite a tribute to you and the place.

    I haven't been in a desert in ages, but I surely understand the age-old distinction between solitude and loneliness. It's an absolutely valid, important point--and of course it works for the woods, the hills, etc., in addition to deserts.

    Having just done some walking in Florida state parks--"jungle" seems the right word--I wonder if there is sometimes such a disconnect between the landscape and what the human visitor is used to that the comfort level is shaken. I don't know that loneliness was so much the factor for me as creepiness, though I found it all appealing and fascinating in its way.

    As I wonder about the native peoples' comfort level there, as well as, say, second- and third-generation Europeans, I suspect that what one is born into matters a lot, though that may seem overly simple.

    Sorry to be so windy--I'm blaming your inspiration. But seriously, it's a good topic. Thanks.

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  15. Sensational shots with a sharpness and some shades impresionanrtes. The rocks always saved the secrets of the history of the place.A strong hug!

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  16. I don't know why I ever write anything other than "wow" in my comments here, because it's the only word there's room for in my head when I'm looking at your photographs.

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  17. Oh, how marvelous! These are glorious images and I am so grateful to have read the quote.

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  18. We humans are so tiny to compare these gigantic stones...
    Beautiful shots as always.
    How are you? I've been too busy in real life, not so much time for blogging anymore.
    This morning I bought new watercolors...and more paper.
    Tomorrow is my 'paint at home' day :)

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  19. I specially love these photos...they are wonderful colorful..a suberb place ,nature is strong in your country and it's really beatiful...thanks to give us these gifts..it's great..:))

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