My niece Jessica put up a post challenging her friends to flood FB with beach pictures. So I thought I’d bring on a little arch madness with a post on the sea arches of Mendocino County.
One of the arches you can see from the Mendocino Headlands
Sea arches are one of the most ephemeral of landforms, rarely lasting more than a century, often standing for only a few decades before the constant battering of the relentless surf sends them crashing down.
Stornetta Highlands, California Coastal National Monument
For instance, Natural Bridges State Park in Santa Cruz had 3 bridges in 1904. Today only one remains. If you’d like to see how dramatic these changes can be in such an incredibly short time, check out this article that Gary Griggs wrote for the Santa Aguila Foundation. The before and after pictures are astounding!
View from a tunnel on Seaside Beach
These geologic sculptures can be much more fragile than they look. Even thick, seemingly stable arches are subject to catastrophic collapse. In March 2015 an arch collapsed at Point Reyes National Seashore, killing a woman. If you’re walking the headlands of northern California and see signs warning you to stay back from the edges of the cliffs, heed them. Erosion is on a fast track here.
They call the formation on the left The Whale. No idea why.
Geohazards like these catastrophic collapses will become more and more common in future years, due to sea level rise caused by climate change.
An arch north of Westport
Your children may not see the same arches you did when they visit the Pacific Coast. But the forces that destroy these landforms are constantly carving new ones, exquisite jewels in a dynamic landscape ruled by the sea.
A new arch forming – What will it look like ten years from now?
For this week’s Lens-Artists Photo Challenge, Patti of Pilotfish blog asks us to be a little creative and instead of just shooting what’s right in front of us, use different perspectives to make our photos more interesting.
It’s a good practice, not only in photography, but also in life. When confronted with challenges and unable to solve them, sometimes a change of perspective will help us find solutions or at least a better understanding. When dealing with people that we don’t see eye-to-eye with, looking at issues from their perspective can make it easier to reach a compromise that will work for both parties. It’s a great life skill to develop.
Mendocino County
I’ve only got a few precious days left in Mendocino County, where the landscape leads to many opportunities to use different perspectives. There is a dramatic coastline filled with secluded beaches, steep cliffs, fabulous sea stacks and beautiful arches.
The beaches are decorated with fabulous “sea art”.
Looking down on this arch from the bluff above provides quite a different perspective.
The view from above
Mendo also has some wonderful redwood forests. There are interesting things to find near the forest floor,
Don’t forget to look down, too!
but the trees are so tall you spend a lot of your time looking up.
Navarro Redwoods
Sometimes, if you want to see the very top, you need to lie on your back and shoot straight up!
Montgomery Woods State Park
California Desert
By this time next week, I’ll be in the Mojave, chasing the desert wildflower bloom. That will call for a change of perspective. Although occasionally you may still have to look up for the best photo,
Mescal flowers
more often you’re looking down.
Desert Sand Verbena
For some of the most beautiful desert (and alpine) wildflowers, you have to get right down to the ground and lie on your belly. Because of that, we call these exquisite blooms “belly flowers”.
Lilac Sunbonnets
When photographing flowers, sometimes your best perspective is to come in really close.
Fishhook Cactus
Other times going wide angle, a different perspective, is an interesting way to capture the wide array of colors and shapes, the incredible profusion of blossoms surrounding you.
Joshua Tree National Park
It’s good to walk around a flower to see it from many different perspectives, but please be aware of where you are walking when doing so. Don’t crush a dozen other flowers trying to get that perfect shot of just one! That said, Happy flower hunting!
Challenge Items: Sunrise and/or sunset, Something cold and/or hot, a bird, a dog, a funny sign, a bicycle, a seascape and/or mountain landscape, a rainbow, a church, a musical instrument, a boat, a plane, a waterfall
Mendocino Sunrise
I just shot this sunrise from the porch of the place I’m housesitting this month in Mendocino County.
A waterfall near Mendocino
Extra Credit Items: An expressive portrait of one or more people, a very unusual place, knitting or sewing, a fish, an animal you don’t normally see, a bucket, a hammer, a street performer, a double rainbow, multiple challenge items in a single image.
The view from my front porch
For extra credit I thought I would include this view from my front porch back home in McCarthy. Rainbow, mountain landscape, something cold (glaciers).
Here are a few more –
The wreck of the Peter Iredale
Sunset, seascape and boat (or at least the remains of one!)
Getting ready for the slow bike race McCarthy 4th of July
Bicycles, dog and a very unusual place – at least I think McCarthy qualifies as a very unusual place! McCarthy is where good dogs go to heaven, and sometimes it’s hard to take a picture in town WITHOUT a dog in it!
McCarthy Airstrip
Plane, mountain landscape, and something cold
Stop sign at McCarthy Airstrip
Maybe it’s not really a funny sign, but it is a bit unusual – and it gives you a good idea of just what kind of a place McCarthy is.
Another view from my front porch…
Here are some animals you don’t normally see walking up to your front porch, but one day I did. I was baking date-apple bread for a potluck and I guess it just smelled too good to resist!
My last image is a sunset in someplace hot, far, far away from my home in McCarthy.
For this week’s Lens-Artists Photo Challenge, Ann-Christine asks us to envision the future. It could be near future or far, personal future or universal.
“The future’s uncertain, but the end is always near. ” Jim Morrison
I read Tina’s post, with its warnings about the consequences of climate change. Climate change was already on my mind. I had just spent the morning at an open house held by the Navarro-By-The-Sea Center. They are trying to save the remaining historical buildings still standing at the site of the former town of Navarro-By-The-Sea, but the open house was held more to bring awareness of king tides and the rise of sea level due to climate change.
A king tide was in progress, so to get to the Center those of us without 4-wheel drive had to take a shuttle with high enough clearance to ford the water. The beach parking lot was completely underwater. Sea level is 6 inches higher than it was in 1950. This may not seem like much, but the rate is increasing dramatically, over 66% in the last 5 years. Now it’s rising at the rate of an inch every 5 years, and that rate is still going up. A lot of places are going under, and the king tides are a preview of what will become an everyday occurrence in the near future.
King tides and rising sea level
As I witness ecosystem crashes and see the current administration win one battle after another in its War Against Nature, I despair. When I contemplate the future, I fear we’re already past the tipping point.
I couldn’t go there. I thought of other signs of the consequences of climate change I could write about, but it all made me so sad. I couldn’t write a whole post with no hope, and I was feeling hopeless.
Sea level is rising.
I needed some positivity, so I started playing Michael Franti as I read the post from Soybend, “Someday in the Future”. It was uplifting, positive and poetic, just what I needed. I then learned about new research connecting melting ice in the Arctic to the increasing prevalence of El Nino cycles.
I saw a teeny, tiny silver lining to the dark storm clouds of the future. More El Ninos = more desert wildflowers. Ironic that as so many other places dry up and desiccate, the California desert will get wetter.
More desert wildflowers?
I started thinking about desert wildflowers, and that led me to my personal near future, which is actually pretty exciting.
“The future’s so bright, I’ve gotta wear shades.”
Patrick Lee Mac Donald
I’m currently housesitting on the beautiful Mendocino Coast in northern California. Think redwoods and wild, secluded beaches with an abundance of arches and sea stacks.
Love those Redwoods!
I’ll leave here in early March and go down to see the desert flowers. I’ll head east and travel through the Sierra foothills so I can avoid the urban insanity of San Francisco traffic. Along the way, maybe I’ll stop at Yosemite.
Yosemite Falls
I have four flower destinations in mind. Death Valley received nearly an inch of rain over the winter, which is a decent amount for that place. When I passed through in mid-January, there were a lot of little seedlings coming up. I even saw a Turtleback blooming already. If the winds and heat aren’t too brutal, it might be a nice bloom this year. Since the last 3 years were abysmal there, I’m looking forward to and hoping for a good season this time around.
Notchleaf Phacelia
Joshua Tree has gotten a lot of moisture this winter, both snow and rain. There’s a current winter storm warning there, so the precip is still happening. I think Joshua Tree might be THE place to check out this year, although I doubt if it will be quite as outrageous as it was last spring.
Purple Mat
Anza Borrego has gotten a fair amount of precipitation, too, over an inch in one winter storm. Smaller storms since then have kept the ground moist. Word is flowers are already blooming in Coyote Canyon.
Wild Apricot
Last year I discovered Carrizo Plains. The rough dirt roads are hard on my little truck, but I’ll just have to try to go slow and pray the washboard isn’t TOO bad. I thought it had some of the best wildflowers I’d ever seen, and Carrizo got hit by all the same storms that have inundated Joshua Tree.
Camping at Carrizo Plains
As I head back north to Alaska, those Sierra foothills and southern Oregon should be blooming. I’m not sure if I’ll travel back by the coast or interior yet, but by May I’ll be back home enjoying the incredible view from my front porch.
Happy New Year! Patti of Pilotfish has presented us with a delightful yet difficult challenge this week -Favorite Photos of 2019. How do you choose? It isn’t easy.
I got distracted a lot as I browsed through thousands of photos, with an image catching my eye and sending me into a memory. Focus, Di, focus! Don’t go down that rabbit hole! Is it really one of your 10 best of the year?
In the end, I couldn’t do it. I could narrow it down to 40 or so, but 10? Impossible!
So I took a page from NatGeo’s book. I COULD narrow it down to my favorite 10 unpublished photos of the year, ones that for one reason or another had not made it onto a blog post.
I’ll do this directionally. I’ll start in the northwest and make my way down towards the southeast.
Matanuska Sunrise
Matanuska Valley, Alaska
I had an early morning doctor’s appointment. However, it was a 7-hour drive from my home in remote rural Alaska to the doctor’s office. So I left after work, drove part way, slept in the back of my truck, and continued on my way just before the crack of dawn. My reward was a beautiful sunrise over the Matanuska River, one of the most spectacular sunrises I’ve ever seen. My photos don’t do it justice, but here’s my best shot at it.
Life in the Wrangells
Wrangell-St. Elias National Park
We have some really big mountains in the Wrangells. In fact, Wrangell-St. Elias has more mountains over 14,500 feet than anywhere else in North America. Furthermore, unlike Colorado’s 14-ers, Alaska’s mountains start from a lot closer to sea level! They are REALLY big mountains. I like this image because you get an impression of just how big they really are.
Stone Sheep
Stone Mountain Provincial Park, British Columbia
My favorite day when I drive the Al-Can Highway is the day I drive through Stone Mountain and Muncho Lake Provincial Parks. They are both home to the somewhat rare and beautiful Stone Sheep, and if I’m lucky I might see one. This year I was able to shoot this environmental portrait of a ram doing what Stone Sheep do best, climbing cliffs.
Swallowtail
Electra Road near Jackson, CA
Although I’m usually raving about the wildflowers in the desert, by the time April rolls around you’ll find fantastic wildflowers in the Sierra foothills, too. That’s where I captured this image of a swallowtail butterfly sipping nectar from a flower.
The Mighty Ocean
Point Pinos, California
I think this is my new favorite photo of 2019. I don’t know why I never noticed it before. I was trying to capture the power and fury of a winter storm on the Pacific coast. Big waves. I can watch them all day.
Lovers
Piedras Blancas, California
One of my favorite photographic experiences of 2019 was watching the elephant seals at Piedras Blancas. It was a true wildlife drama, with hundreds of seals birthing, mating and fighting just yards away from their human voyeurs. As I watched, the seals struck me as some of the most ill-tempered animals I’d ever seen, always fighting and arguing – all of them, not just the bulls. Mating, in most cases, seemed exceptionally harsh and brutal. This couple was the exception. They seemed, dare I say it, actually content and peaceful with each other! I tried to capture that feeling.
Pink-Flower Hedgehog Cactus
Joshua Tree National Park
If you follow my blog at all, you know that no roundup of my favorite photos of 2019 would be complete without at least one closeup of a desert wildflower. I love getting up all close and personal with cactus blossoms. They’re exquisite. I found this one in Joshua Tree National Park.
Sunrise in Coachwhip Canyon
Anza Borrego State Park, California
Because my little Toyota truck is only 2 wheel drive, sometimes my dispersed camping options are somewhat limited. I find myself returning to one particular campsite in Anza Borrego again and again. But even though flowers are going crazy in the rest of the park, there are usually very few or no flowers in my favorite canyon. This year was different. This year, my camping canyon was one of the park’s wildflower hotspots. I took this photo from the hill behind my camp.
Arizona Sunset
Tucson, Arizona
There’s a reason Arizona is famous for its sunsets. Just sayin’.
Well, I had a hard time picking my favorite. And I find it hard to be objective. Each image is colored by the experience that accompanied it.
How about you? Which one is your favorite? Let me know in the comments.
