Trees Archives ~ Page 2 of 3 ~ Rambling ranger

December 22, 2022

Below the 49th Parallel – My Favorites

Well, I couldn’t do it. This week’s Lens-Artists Photo Challenge is Last Chance, when we’re invited to show off some of our favorite 2022 images that have not been published in a post yet this year. Since I took such a long hiatus from my blog this year, I have plenty! Too many, in fact. I can’t narrow my unpublished favorites down to one post.

Harriman State Park, OR — Oregon beach sunset

I’ve been trying, but I have lots of sweet images I’d love to share. Because I have too many, and since the Lens-Artists are taking a week off for the holidays and won’t be putting out a prompt next week, I’ve decided to divide my favorites into 2 parts. This week will be my favorites from below the 49th parallel, and next week will be my Northland favorites.

Redwood National Park — Tallest trees in the world

Last Winter’s Travels

One suggestion was to include images that would probably never be included in one of our typical posts. I pet sit in the winter but I very, very seldom include photos of my charges in my posts. Here is a favorite shot of a kitty I took care of last January.

Anacortes, WA — This kitty used to chew holes in my clothes!

I spent the month of February on a housesit in Pacific Grove, California. I envisioned this shot and was so excited, especially in post-processing when I realized I’d captured exactly what I’d envisioned!

I love visiting the redwood forest, and I love capturing abstracts. This is my favorite abstract shot for 2022. Charred bark from a previous fire and living green moss and lichens contributed to hues as bright as a peacock’s tail when looked at closely in this image.

Last Chance Photo Challenge — Rainbow Redwood

Check out this cool tree. It’s in Olympic National Park’s coastal forest, and with a burly head, fungus features, and a crown of fern leaves, it’s a people tree! I stop by and say Hello! and give it a hug every time I pass that way.

(Yawn) Another sublime Olympic sunset… The Feature is one, too. I captured this image on Rialto Beach. I love the dreamy feel of this image. The Feature shot is from First Beach. I had so many great shots from First Beach it was hard to pick just one.

This Winter’s Travels

My final image from Olympic is fall colors, maples along the Sol Duc Hot Springs Road. Olympic had by far the best fall colors I found in Washington this year.

Now I’m on Orcas Island, and I have especially enjoyed the waterfalls here. This one is called Rustic Falls.

For my final image, while hiking a local trail I saw this Big Leaf Maple leaf standing, still attached, on a tree branch – perfectly upright and all by itself, beautifully backlit. It’s getting a bit ragged, but mostly green, even though it’s December. It hasn’t let go, just keeps hanging on. This is a great inspiration for those times when I’m feeling a little raggedy! I underexposed the background because it was a bit busy and distracting. Doing this helped me to capture the way this leaf looked to me and made me feel.

Hope you, too, are still hanging in there and I wish you all a Happy Holiday season!

December 15, 2022

Patterns

To understand is to perceive patterns. – Isaiah Berlin

I love photographing patterns. When you practice the Art of Seeing, perceiving patterns is an important skill to have.

Old Man's Beard — This one would have also worked well in last week’s Diagonals post.

Life is a great tapestry. The individual is only an insignificant thread in an immense and miraculous pattern. – Albert Einstein

My all-time favorite pattern image I’ve ever captured are the flowers in the feature shot of this blog, each flower smaller than my little finger. I’ve probably published it in a blog before, but when I think of patterns in photography, this is the image that comes to my mind. We’ve all heard the phrase, “a carpet of wildflowers”. This was such a carpet. Carpets are all about patterns.

The immense and miraculous pattern of life is all around us. Just take a look.

Oregon coast — Everything we see is just a thread in the pattern of nature’s tapestry.

Art is the imposing of a pattern on experience, and our aesthetic enjoyment is recognition of the pattern. – Alfred North Whitehead

Sometimes it’s fun when the pattern transcends the subject. I think this abstract image of a bare-branched tree looks like it could be not a tree, but the pattern in a marble slab.

White Manzanita — Is it a tree or just a pattern in stone?

Find beauty not only in the thing itself but in the pattern of the shadows, the light and dark which that thing provides. –Junichiro Tanizaki

Photography is, of course, all about capturing light in all its variations, and the juxtaposition of light and shadow is one way to perceive and capture patterns. I found a delightful play between my subject and the shadows reflected from it in the water in this image of Bog Bean flowers growing in a pond along the McCarthy Road this summer. Bog Bean looks pretty inconsequential when viewed from a distance, but up close the fringed flowers are exquisite.

Bog Bean flowers — I love the pattern displayed by the flowers and their shadows in this image

Nature uses only the longest threads to weave her patterns, so that each small piece of her fabric reveals the organization of the entire tapestry. – Richard Feynman

Repetition is the only constant that all patterns share, and a major component in why patterns can be so aesthetically pleasing.

Mendocino County, CA — Patterns are aesthetically pleasing, repetition with small variances.

Though at first glance the natural world may appear overwhelming in its diversity and complexity, there are regularities running through it, from the hexagons of a honeycomb to the spirals of a seashell and the branching veins of a leaf. … -Philip Ball

Patterns are universal. Even in the most literal sense of that word. Think of the spirals of galaxies, or the patterns of stars in the sky. Those same patterns can be found in the tiniest things, too, such as the spirals of a snail’s shell or the patterns of wee flowers in a springtime meadow.

Williams, Oregon tree trunk patterns — Patterns in nature can be lines, circles, fractals, spirals…. The possibilities are endless!

“The natural world is built upon common motifs and patterns. Recognizing patterns in nature creates a map for locating yourself in change, and anticipation what is yet to come.” – Sharon Weil

There are patterns in our lives, too, from everyday habits to the grander cycles of the seasons or the progression from birth to death.

Driftwood patterns — The cycle of life, death and rebirth is a pattern.

Finding patterns is the essence of wisdom. – Dennis Prager

The better we are at recognizing and understanding patterns, the more resilient we will be, able to withstand the unexpected changes in our lives.

water patterns Cascade Falls Moran State Park, WA — Understanding patterns helps us go with the flow.

“There are patterns which emerge in one’s life, circling and returning anew, an endless variation of a theme”. ― Jacqueline Carey

People like patterns. They give a sense of order to what otherwise might seem to be chaos.

Abstract patterns — Patterns help us organize our lives.

“Pay attention to the intricate patterns of your existence that you take for granted.” ― Doug Dillon

One of the patterns in my life is seasonal transience, like our hunter/gatherer forbears. I have been living that lifestyle for over 40 years. It is the pattern of life that makes me happy, but it is definitely not for everyone. What are the patterns of your life? Do they still make you happy?

Mesquite Sand Dunes, Death Valley National Park — A seasonally transient lifestyle is one of my patterns, shifting like these sands.

When patterns are broken, new worlds emerge. – Tuli Kupferberg

When our patterns no longer serve us, it’s time to break free and discover new ones. If you answered “No” to that last question, you might want to consider letting go of some of the old patterns in your life.

pattern of Madrone fruit, leaves and sky — Is it time to discover a new pattern?

Thank you so much to Ann-Christine, Leya, for this week’s Lens-Artists Photo Challenge, Perfect Patterns.

What a strange pattern the shuttle of life can weave. – Francis Marion

May your thread in the tapestry of life be beautiful and wonderful. Happy Holidays!

succulent pattern — A little red & green for Christmas – Happy Holidays!

November 30, 2022

My Favorite Places

This week I’d like to share with you all some of my favorite places, ones I will miss this winter as I practice The Middle Way on Orcas Island. This week’s Lens-Artist’s Photo Challenge is Home Sweet Home. Tina Schell of Travels and Trifles asks us, ” If a foreigner were to spend a week or a month traveling your home country with you, where would you take them? What sights would you tell them to be sure to see? Where have you found some of your own favorite images? What is it you truly love about where you live, or places you’ve seen in your home country? ”

Southern Colorado — First snow in the Colorado mountains

Well, they would need at LEAST a month for all MY favorite places. Although I grew up in Colorado and now live in Alaska, I feel at home throughout the West. I’ll start with Colorado. I was raised in Colorado, and lived there for many, many years after I went out on my own. It’s probably where I’ll end up when I get too old to live deep in the wilderness in Alaska. My family is there. Colorado is always close to my heart.

Although I’m at home throughout the West, I do have a few favorite places that I try to visit whenever I have the chance. One is the Colorado Plateau. This region covers big chunks of 4 different states: Colorado, New Mexico, Utah and Arizona. I can’t narrow my favorite down to just one or two places in this area, it’s all so amazing. My advice to a foreign visitor might be to check out a few places that are not as well-known as iconic parks like Arches and Zion. Although I love them, too, they ARE getting loved to death and it might be good to try to spread that impact out a little. Lesser-known places such as Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument and Petrified Forest National Park contain wonders, too.

Another favorite place is Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge in central New Mexico. This is the best place I’ve ever been for birds. It is the winter home for vast flocks of Snow Geese and Sandhill Cranes. Over 340 different species of birds live there. It is an incredible place to observe wildlife.

Sandhill Cranes — Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge

I spent 8 winters working as a ranger in Death Valley National Park. It is another desert that has captured my heart. The great thing about Death Valley is that because the altitude on the valley floor is so low (the lowest elevation in North America), the nights are seldom cold, even during the deepest darkest months of winter. Makes for great camping, and the rattlesnakes sleep in the winter! It’s an incredibly diverse park, with elevations ranging from below sea level to over 11,000 feet.

I did a little playing with LightRoom on this image. It was a daytime image and the background of bare dirt desert ground was a bit meh so I darkened it until it resembled the night sky, and tried to give a nighttime feel to the dunes, too. Since Death Valley is famed as a night sky park, and since one of my favorite things to do is to walk through the sand dunes under the full moon, I wanted to capture the feel of that experience in this image.

Mesquite Sand Dunes — I love to hike the sand dunes in the moonlight.

And then there’s the bloom. If there is rain in the desert, and if it is timed right, the wildflowers will rock your world. If it seems like it might be a good year for the flowers, I try to make a circuit that starts near the Mexican border in Anza-Borrego State Park, moving through Joshua Tree and Mojave National Preserve until I end up in Death Valley.

Anza-Borrego State Park — Love those desert wildflowers!

Further west on the California coast you will find another great wildlife phenomenon, the elephant seals at Piedras Blancas near San Simeon. Although you can find a few seals there at any time of year, December through February are the best months. Thousands of seals converge on the beaches, with the big strange-looking bulls battling it out for the right to own a piece of the beach, and all the females on it. The cows are birthing and raising their babies then, too. It’s an extraordinary spot to witness wildlife drama, so close you don’t even need binoculars to see it.

Piedras Blancas Elephant Seal Rookery — Sex on the Beach

From the campground at San Simeon I can walk to the beach and see some fantastic bird action on the sea stack that looms just offshore there. It’s an awesome place to catch the sunset.

Farther north along the California coast is Mendocino County. It’s my favorite part of the California Coast. I think the scenery is even more dramatic than Big Sur, and without the crowds. It’s got big trees, too.

Greenwood Beach — The beaches in Mendo are wild and uncrowded.

Speaking of big trees, I’ve really fallen in love with the tallest trees in the world, the redwoods, over the last few years.

Sometimes I go straight up the coast into Oregon. Other times I head for the Siskiyou country near Grants Pass and Williams. The trees there are incredibly graceful and beautiful and it’s my last chance to see wildflowers as I head north.

Pacifica — Oregon has some incredible trees!

But no matter which way I go, I try to hit the coast at Bandon. It is so much fun to shoot the sea stacks there!

The Olympic Peninsula is my next favorite place. The old-growth forests redefine green and the wild beaches are phenomenal.

And then there’s Alaska. It’s where my heart is, my community, my job, my life. My first love in Alaska was Denali National Park and I try to go there whenever I get a chance.

But home is McCarthy, in Wrangell-St. Elias National Park. I truly believe it’s the most spectacular place in North America. Case in point – check out my daily commute! And the feature image was taken while I was standing on my front porch! It doesn’t get much better than this.

I hope you’ve enjoyed some of my favorite places. As Jim Morrison of the Doors said, the West is the best!

November 25, 2022

The Middle Way

Moran State Park, Orcas Island, Washington

I should never say never, because I always end up eating my words. Last year I spent the month of January in Anacortes, Washington, and found I really didn’t care much for that town. It was pretty, but the hills were too rounded. The sea was too mellow. No ragged jagged crags, no crashing surf. I could see why some people really loved it, but it was too tame. It just wasn’t wild enough for me. I felt stifled.

I’m a fan of in-your-face dramatic landscapes. Landscapes that smack you down and leave you awestruck. As a park ranger I’ve worked in parks that contain the highest and the lowest spots in North America. I live in a park that has more high mountains and more glaciers than anywhere else in the country. You might say I’m addicted to the extremes.

When I left Anacortes, I told myself I would never do another winter housesit in northern Washington. But when an opportunity came this year for a long-term housesit, in an oceanfront property on Orcas Island, I jumped on it.

I occasionally had second thoughts. I love the winters I’ve spent traveling throughout the West, checking out many different fabulous locations along the way. Will I miss my travels? Absolutely!

I will miss the colors and textures of the deserts. I will miss the wild winter waves along the open Pacific coast. I will miss the wildlife extravaganzas I’ve been so lucky to witness in New Mexico’s Bosque del Apache and California’s Piedras Blancas National Wildlife Refuges. I will especially miss following the bloom, enjoying the spring wildflowers as I travel north from the Mexican border to Oregon.

But spending the winter on Orcas has its benefits. I attended one of the best performances I’ve ever witnessed last week, Rafe Pearlman’s Kanu. It was like nothing else I’ve ever seen before. Being in one place for the whole winter will give me the space and time to finish the book I’ve been working on. I can immerse myself in, and get to know, two entirely new ecosystems, both the Salish Sea island environment and the intertidal zone. I’m really excited about that opportunity. One big benefit is that staying here is much kinder to the planet, keeping my carbon levels low. I’ve gone through less than a tank of gas in the entire month of November!

Most importantly, I can try to resolve a lot of chronic pain issues I’ve been struggling with the last few years. That’s something I’ve been unable to do, home in McCarthy, where it’s a 500-mile round trip to see a health professional. On Orcas, I have access to so many wellness practitioners; massage therapists, chiropractors, acupuncture, physical therapy and more. They call Orcas the healing island. There’s a vibe here.

I’ll still be challenged by the lack of those extremes that I love. I’m not alone. A fellow Alaskan I met here said, “I feel too big for this place somehow. I talk too loud, I move too suddenly. I love it here, but I’m too…big.” I understand what she means.

Driftwood textures — It’s a subtle beauty.

Orcas Island has its own beauty. There are lovely waterfalls and noble trees. But it’s subtle. It’s not one of the extremes. You might say it’s the Middle Way.

Following the Middle Way is following the Tao. It’s a righteous way to live. So perhaps for me, for this winter, the Middle Way is the place to be. It’s time to leave the outer journey behind for a time and work on the inner journey. It’s a journey I look forward to. Peace to all from Orcas.

Thanks to Jude of Cornwall in Colors for this week’s Lens-Artists Photo Challenge, Textures.

March 23, 2022March 23, 2022

Curves

In life, as in art, the beautiful moves in curves.
Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton

I love curves. They’re far more interesting than straight lines. Nature abhors a square, after all. Think about it. A path through the woods or canyon is so much more intriguing when you can’t see what is coming around the next bend. It’s tantalizing. The anticipation and curiosity build, drawing you irresistibly onwards, like iron to a magnet.

Don’t you wonder what’s around the next bend?

There’s something feminine about curves. They exemplify cooperation, going with the flow instead of forging straight ahead. They teach us that compromise is not losing, that sharing space and allowing for a little give and take can help everything thrive and grow.

Curves are strong. There’s strength in flexibility. That’s another lesson they teach us, how to bend and not to break.

Cultivate your curves – they may be dangerous but they won’t be avoided.
Mae West

Often life throws us curves. If we’re not ready for them, they can be dangerous. We can’t see what’s coming for us around the next bend and we approach it way too quickly. The curves of life can send us spinning out of control, sometimes sending us crashing and burning.

Magic lives in curves, not angles.
Mason Cooley

But if we’ve learned those lessons, about flexibility and cooperation, about going with the flow and being open about what we might find around the next bend, the curves life throws us can be opportunities, chances for us to grow. Embrace your curves! Bend, don’t break.

Many thanks to Ann-Christine aka Leya for this week’s Lens-Artists Photography Challenge, Curves.

“May your trails be crooked, winding, lonesome, dangerous, leading to the most amazing view.”
― Edward Abbey

January 7, 2022

My Favorite Photos of 2021

I tried to keep it down to 12, but I couldn’t. Here is a baker’s dozen of my favorite photos of 2021.

It was really hard to cut it down to just a baker’s dozen. Reviewing the images I’ve captured over the last year, I realized that what I had were favorite photographic moments, not individual photos.

Alaska alpenglow in the Chugach Mountains — Purple Mountain’s Majesty, a favorite photographic moment.

You know, when you’re really in the zone, actively practicing the Art of Seeing? You might take a whole series of shots and not be able to choose one in the series as the best. That’s how I felt about a lot of these images.

I tried to disqualify images I’d already published in this blog (mostly!) So if you read my last few blog posts, you’ll find a few more favorites I wish I could include.

Alaska alpenglow Chugach Mountains — Knik Glacier

Despite all the darkness and cold, there are some things about winter in Alaska that are really special and that I miss when I’m not there, kind of a reward for those who tough it out. One is the aurora, of course. Another is the special pink sunset/twilight glow in the sky on certain cold, clear nights. Although I got lots of great alpenglow, I didn’t see as many pink light evenings as I have in past winters. But I did get it one evening when I photographed the Knik Glacier.

I went to Homer to see a few birds this spring. The migration was a bit disappointing, but I did get some wonderful eagle shots!

This is my favorite flower shot for 2021. I didn’t shoot nearly as many flowers as in years past, since I stayed in Alaska and didn’t follow the bloom. But I saw two brand new flowers I’d never noticed before in a few ponds along the McCarthy Road, White Water Lilies and Wild Calla.

Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge, New Mexico — Sunrise on the Bosque

It was October. It was not yet prime time for birds at Bosque del Apache. Due to the drought, the ponds on the edge of the refuge that are usually the go-to spots for bird photographers trying to catch the spectacle of the Bosque were dry. I wasn’t expecting much. I only had one day to spare. But the Bosque is a magical place and doesn’t disappoint. Having fewer sources of water concentrated the birds that were there. I was surprised to realize that three of my favorite photos for the entire year were taken on that day.

Even though I published the sunrise photo in a prior post, I had to include it since it was probably my second-most favorite photo for the year. Also, I processed it a little differently this time and think it does a better job of capturing the feel of sunrise on the Bosque.

Vesper Sparrows — Every leaf on this tree is a bird.

As I slowly drove by, I realized that all those “dead leaves” on that tree were birds. Then they took off and I was swept up by a cloud of birds. The Bosque is bird heaven!

California Coastal National Monument — Sunset on the beach at San Simeon

This might be my favorite photo of 2021. Except it’s one of those photographic moments, one of a series… I like the vertical images I captured of this scene a lot, too! Both this image and the feature image were taken on the beach at San Simeon in California. The island the cormorants are roosting on is part of the California Coastal National Monument. It is usually just offshore except during a very low tide, like this one.

I absolutely fell in love with the manzanitas and madrones of southern Oregon in November and December. I can’t choose my very favorite madrone/manzanita photo. I have about 20 favorites. But they were my favorite thing to photograph all year. So here’s one I haven’t published.

Cathedral Hills, Oregon — Manzanita Bark

I couldn’t choose a favorite detail shot of that forest, either. I have about a dozen favorites of bark, lichens, mushrooms… But this is definitely one of those favorites.

This is definitely my favorite abstract of the year, though. Can you guess what it is?

Williams, Oregon — Wishing you all a great 2022!

This final shot conveys my thoughts and hopes for 2022, that the light burns through the fog of the last couple of crazy years and brings us all many happy blessings. Welcome 2022!

Thank you to Tina Schell of Travels and Trifles for hosting this week’s Lens Artists Challenge, Favorite Photos of 2021.

Category: Trees

Below the 49th Parallel – My Favorites

Last Winter’s Travels

This Winter’s Travels

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Patterns

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My Favorite Places

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The Middle Way

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Curves

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My Favorite Photos of 2021

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Last Winter’s Travels

This Winter’s Travels

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