© 2009-2015 Ivan Rabak. All rights reserved.

Monday, January 10, 2011

where northern california abides


i had a very good time in northern california. it was so good that i almost didn't take any photos. i started to suspect that the saying about unmet desires as a prerequisite for good art must apply to my photography as well. luckily, i don't make good art so it doesn't, right off the bat.
but i did end up creating a photo folder. i do have some. and i have to thank tina for dragging me out to take the some.
thank you tina.

i open the northern cali photo series with a photo quite inappropriate for what i have seen and what this gorgeous land&sea offers. such is the enjoyment of a playful photo-blogger. do you see how happy you can be if you only photo-blogged?

i also thank hrvoje, currently from Oz, for getting people together during agu.
hvala hrc.



trees looking at an onlooking group on the other side of the fence,
a late afternoon on top of the ridge in paradise, butte county

the photo was taken as an afterthought. i'd had my photo of the day just several steps in the frame, towards the fence and the trees. walking back to the car i looked over my shoulder and framed the shot, not quite sure why. it's just silly and perhaps off-beat for what i usually chip off for my landscape photography. i wish i had more thoughts.

there aren't* any photos from sanFran this time around. as it's usually the case, as in my case, photo amateurs leave their better cameras in the hotel room due to their weight and bulk and so the cellphone camera brings home the bacon, as in the rule that the best camera/bacon is the one you have on you. the photo i had wanted to take in sanFran is embodied in a photo tina took with her cellphone on our return from fisherman's wharf. i'll look into posting it later with author's permission.

the best way to pretty up a photo of a building during a tourist stroll is to have a pretty person in front of it. what better person than tina. and here's my only* photo of sanFran.

*



the randomness of the post narrative continues with a photo of the honey run covered bridge of butte county, chico, ca.

green winter grass on a boulder bathing in the late afternoon northern cali sun



if you were a mosquito this is what a neighboring house would look to you from the omg-blood-is-so-sweet side of the window screen:

a detail of a chico house from inside of another chico house



back in sanFran, tina is making her final preparations the night before her agu talk. she's thankful i am there to record this historic moment.




a late afternoon chico light allows me to see the beauty in a posteriori black and white.

obliquely lit valley of the butte creek canyon



once you go up ca-32 the black and white tones of rivers and rocks turn tree-green and snow-white in just half hour. such is northern cali. washington, you've got nothing to be ashamed of!

snow-capped tree tops



tina is unfazed by the generous size of the 77mm UV filter on my wide angle




northern california showed me this frame and i think she wanted to ask me if i had ever wondered how it would look like if it snowed slightly in the summer but let's make it a winter season so that it looks as if it were summer.
you think i am silly and convoluted in my style? take another look at the photo, please!
don't cha wish your lens was sharp as mine. almost a 100% crop.



a visiting native jumps off a chico boulder




when i was leaving e-burg for sanFran it had snowed buckets the day before. they must have much bigger buckets over here at lassen volcanic national park. that big ball of fire that clipped my highlights and ruined unapologetically and unavoidably my always-perfect exposure is not capable of melting a fistful of snow at midday. such is the volcano country.

my dear reader, i have not yet exhausted my supply of northern california snaps with this post. i still have unpublished photo stuff from my earlier visit, and an earlier one, and so it goes...

No comments:

Post a Comment