Quiet moments in California among shadows, contours and silhouettes.
A small growing collection of my time visiting my mom and family in Ohlone & Washoe lands, Northern California recently. Times are changing, life is changing. While a brief trip, I managed moments to dash away for quick nature-time and go into my happy place - with camera and tripod in hand in some places, photography and nature grounds me, even if out for an hour or three. Some of these are from quick drives over the hill to the coast between Pacifica and Half Moon Bay; others random moments looking out for birds - still haven’t found the bald eagle.. next time I’m sure of it.. some are from a two-night stay at my cousin’s in Lake Tahoe. One of my favorite areas, as I knew Tahoe City area from returning every year for summer vacation. My mom, cousin, and one of my best friends, were patient with me as I said on more than one occasion, “this looks like a good place to stop!..”.. on visiting a specific coffeehouse in Truckee, to looking out for very specific trees and lakeside granite formations - kind of a quest, almost obsession of mine to find the old growth ancient trees of the area (my next trip will be more successful with more time allotted). What we found and walked among was lakeside serenity of a blue wintery calm afternoon melting into sunset with contrasty blue-grey tones & shadows. I do enjoy a bit of mood and atmosphere! So here are a few from that trip.
Local coastal images - Aramai territory, tribelet of Ohlone, a culturally significant coastal fishing area, known post-colonialism as Devil’s Slide - the present tunnel next to former devil’s slide highway which is now a coastal promontory where Brandt’s cormorants, peregrine falcons, brown pelicans, nesting Common Mures and more abound. Devil’s Slide was notorious for landslides mainly due to the striated sedimentary rock along the northern end to the granitic rock on the southern end (akin to Yosemite & Tahoe). The sunset gave it an incredible feast for the eyes contrasting the smell wafting from the masses of migratory & local birdlife. Honestly never really stopped here for a proper look around, but now that birding has piqued my interest (well & truly set in actually) it’s a wonderland of awe.
Captions soon and more to come. Keep returning to this page.
