28-SEP-2006
Foggy Sunrise, Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming, 2006
The mood of a foggy sunrise is silence. Except for sporadic cries of the ravens and the shrill birdlike bugling of distant male elk, the fog clings to the ground in utter quiet.
I used the road in this image to carry the eye deep into the abstracting fog. Both forest and road vanish in the center of the image. Your own imagination must pick up the journey from there.
28-SEP-2006
Sounding the bugle, Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming, 2006
It is the rutting season for Yellowstone’s elk herds. This male sending his rutting call. It is called bugling. It is a sharp, distinctive sound that begins deep and resonant, and then becomes a high-pitched bird like squeal. He is proclaiming his dominance, challenging distant bulls and hopefully attracting females to his harem. The fog-shrouded forest greatly enhances the mood of this image. It hides both challengers and prospective mates alike.
22-SEP-2006
Departing storm, Shafer Canyon, Canyonlands National Park, Utah, 2006
Stormy weather offers a turbulent atmosphere all of its own. The surging cloudscape in this image seems right out of a 19th Century Hudson River School oil painting. The craggy butte that characterizes this vast national park seems small in comparison to the towering storm cloud engulfing it. I expose for the cloud, letting the foreground strike a dark, foreboding mood.
28-SEP-2006
Nature’s paintbrush, Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming, 2006
A low hanging fog obscures both the sun and the stand of pine trees just off the road between Old Faithful and Madison Junction. Some of the trees are barren trunks, a reminder of the wildfires that scorched one third of Yellowstone in 1988. The rising sun turns the fog a burnt orange, reminding us of both smoke and fire. The mood is somber yet beautiful. Nature has its own paintbrush, and this image emphasizes that fact.
21-OCT-2006
Dusty road, Bodie State Historic Park, California, 2006
The mood of a dead town is best expressed by its loneliness. Bodie, a ghost town that died when gold mining ended in California’s Sierra Nevada mountains, has almost vanished. Only ten per cent of its buildings are still standing. I isolated this one within a frame of sage and then waited for a car to pass by along the town’s dusty road. The thin white cloud of dust adds a melancholy touch, a sense of desolation that clings to this place like a pall.
20-OCT-2006
Pre-dawn, Mono Lake, California, 2006
Over a million years old, Mono Lake sprawls across 60 square miles. It is lined with ancient calcium carbonate towers that formed on the lake’s bottom and now stand exposed as craggy sentinels, caught in transition from night to day. The soft colors of glowing sky and golden sage add a lush atmosphere, a mood unique to this strange place. I used a long telephoto lens – nearly 400mm – to collapse foreground, middleground, and background layers into a single plane.
07-AUG-2006
Walking the dog, Houston Street, New York City, 2006
The long abused streets of New York are under constant repair. Pedestrians and dog walkers must thread their way through and obstacle course of traffic cones and metal plates just to cross the street. Yet when we photograph such a scene as on an early summer’s eve, the chaos and construction take a golden, nostalgic mood. The shadows mask the ugly construction scars, while the sun paints the oily, dirty street and filthy metal plates a mellow gold. The atmosphere is magically charged – walking your dog becomes an act of friendship instead of a perilous journey.
12-JUN-2006
Abandoned general store, Remote, Oregon, 2006
This building, which once housed a general store and post office serving the aptly named community of Remote, has been shut down since the death of its owner in1993. Of the many photographs I made in its cluttered and crumbling rooms, this one best characterizes the mood of the place. Time is slowly eating away at the work of man here – spiders spin their webs, dust and mold and decay cover the walls, floors, and furnishings. In this image, we can see nature slowly taking over. In a final touch of irony, the pattern on the drape mirrors the leaves pressing on the window.
12-JUN-2006
Sunset landing, Portland, Oregon, 2006
Tiny planes in a great sky always seem to be lonely and vulnerable, even when the sky is aflame with the warm colors of a sunset. I made this image to express just such a mood. It reminds me of when I was very young, and my father used to take me down to the railroad tracks to watch the passenger trains roar past in the evening light. I remember the headlight of the train approaching, then a blur, and finally nothing. Those trains are now part of history, but in a sense, it happening again in this image. The fragile plane hangs here in a golden sky, but only for a moment. In an instant it will merge with the black clouds and become only a pair of distant landing lights.
19-MAR-2006
Echoes of the past, Shanghai, China, 2006
Ceramic figurines of long dead Chinese heroes and heroines vie for attention in an Old Shanghai antique shop. I focused on an old decorative container, which to me symbolized the flamboyant and often shady history of this colorful city. I would like to think of it as something that was once in an opium or gambling den. Behind it marches Chinese history itself. I think I see many Maos, Chou En-lai, maybe even Madame Chiang. They are softly focused and semi obscured – but we certainly feel their presence. Together these items, photographed in soft and warm natural light, create the very nostalgic atmosphere that drives a Shanghai antique shop. This is a mood shot, pure and simple.
29-MAR-2006
Incense, Longshan Temple, Taipei, Taiwan, 2006
This temple is the most colorful in Taipei. Hundreds of worshippers ignite their incense sticks in the huge brass fire pit at right. The air is thick with sacred smoke. A woman grasps her lighted sticks, points them skyward, looks up and begins to pray. Those around her are about to do the same. I photographed here for almost an hour. The beating of drums, chimes, and gongs and the repetitive changes of prayer amidst the clouds of sweet smelling smoke, never stopped. This image characterizes the atmosphere here. It is one of passion, fervid reverence, pungent smells, and hypnotic sounds. The memory of its smell is still with me.
11-FEB-2006
Moonrise, Amboy, California, 2006
Amboy is a ghost town, a reminder of what Route 66 used to be. Roy's Motel and Cafe stands alone along the highway under a rising moon. Its lights are no longer visible from miles away. There is not much else in Amboy -- a gas station, airstrip, garage, school, church and post office. Only the post office is still in business. The owner of a California restaurant chain recently purchased the town. He hopes to someday restore the site to its '50s ambience. Meanwhile, Amboy waits in the gathering darkness, with only a full moon for light, a vintage gas stop frozen in time. I made this image with mood and mood alone in mind. Lonely. Forgotten. Empty. Desolate. It’s all here in Amboy at dusk.