Good read:

Earlier this month I read Abide with Me. I wanted to love this. The 1st book I'd ever read by Elizabeth Strout was Olive Kitteridge and I LOVED, LOVED it, so I had high expectations. Really high expectations, in fact. Maybe this was unrealistic, might even have been unfair, but how could I not? I found the prose itself elegant and flawless. The characters, though, were less engaging for me. Same with the storyline. It was slow going and I had to invoke my daughter's you-must-give-a-book-50-pages rule and then again. At about the halfway mark, I felt like I was finally engaged. More of a struggle than I wanted it to be.

Lunar Eclipse

Did you get out and see the lunar eclipse this morning? I did and it was something to see. It was also brutal weather-wise, at 10 degrees with a slight wind. I learned my lessons well after my recent trip to Lone Pine and Death Valley, so I was prepared, dressing in multiple layers with one of the layers being wool. I've yet to find a way to keep my fingers from freezing though.

So when I say the eclipse was something to see, there is a caveat, of course. It seems that the real event was happening west of the Mississippi River. And if you happen to live on the west coast, well, then, you were in for a real treat. But here in Wisconsin, the whole thing lasted less than 30 minutes, and the totality phase - the phase when the moon takes on vivid reds and oranges - began nearly an hour after moonset around here. I did manage to capture a shot where the moon is pinkish, and I think this is because the sun was coming up as the moon was setting.

This was taken shortly after the eclipse began as evidenced by the moon's disk beginning to disappear:





This one, taken about 8 minutes later, shows the progressing eclipse and the brightening sky. About 3 minutes later, the moon was below the horizon.

Star Trails!

So here's the result from my 1st night at my star trails workshop last month. It was a terrific learning experience and I'm pleased as punch with the result.

This was taken in a place called Alabama Hills near the eastern Sierra Nevada Mountains, west of Lone Pine, CA. These hills are full of rock formations and are a popular location for TV and movie productions (in fact, they were shooting a car/truck commercial while we were there...). Some classic movies have been filmed here, like Bad Day at Black Rock and How the West Was Won and Gunga Din, as well as more modern films, like Tremors and Gladiator and Iron Man.

We were in a little spot called Gunga Din, though I don't know if the movie was actually shot IN this little area or if the area was given this name because the movie was shot nearby. It was VERY cold and VERY windy (elevation is approx. 4600 feet) and I froze! But I ended up with a really cool shot, so I'm not complaining. On subsequent nights I put on everything I'd brought with me to keep warm!

The trails form a circle because I was facing due north. The white dot in the center is Polaris. I didn't realize at the time that I WAS facing due north - I was hoping I'd get some circles (as opposed to lines) but didn't know where the center point would be.

I'm amazed all over again every time I look at this.

Keeler, CA

Here are a couple of pictures from my recent adventure through Death Valley. These shots were taken in Keeler, CA, in between Lone Pine, CA and Death Valley. Population in Keeler is 50. No kidding. It's semi-abandoned with things left to die where they sit. We found an old International truck (pink, no less) with 4 rotted tires and the keys rusted in the ignition.

The light was fantastic. And I LOVED the colors on display in this almost forgotten place. Simply gorgeous.






Sierra Nevada Mountains in the background





A lone lamp over a cracked, grass-covered inground pool




Gas at .48 per gallon! Almost 40 years ago...

Night Sky

I'm back from my fabulous trip to Lone Pine, CA via Death Valley. It was so awesomely wonderful that I'm not sure I can find the right adjectives... the scenery in Death Valley was beyond anything I had imagined. The terrain and geological makeup changed every 15 miles or so, and at times it looked like I was on a different planet - truly spectacular and jaw-dropping.

Getting up for sunrise photos and then staying out at night for hours on end in the cold makes for an exhausting experience - exhilarating but exhausting. I took the red eye home from Las Vegas (arrived in Milwaukee at 5:15 a.m.) - it was brutal and exacerbated the whole sleep deprivation situation. Slept 14 hours Wednesday night, 12 hours Thursday night. I'm hoping that a nap today will get me all caught up.

I haven't yet had the time to examine the photos I took (over 1000 of them!) and will post some eventually. But, in the mean time, here's a shot I took one night in Death Valley. I was able to stand in the middle of the road because we didn't see a single car during the entire 6 hours we were out there! On the left side of the picture you can detect the beginnings of star trails. I was actually going for a still shot (read: no star trails), and the exposure seems correct for this for the stars in the right half of the shot, anyway, as they appear as distinct points. But the stars on the left are closer to true north and so, as they move (or, more accurately, as the earth rotates), the trails they leave are much closer together, more concentric.


Scotty's Castle Road, just south
of Mesquite Spring.

Musings

I saw a quote last week and really liked it: The earth without art is just eh.

The last few weeks have been crazy busy and extraordinarily stressful. Normally as I go through the busyness of living -- work, grocery shopping, vacuuming, paying bills -- I have characters and plot points playing in the background of my mind. I've come to realize that this background symphony is what keeps me tethered to the world; it's what allows me to get through the daily minutia, it's the light that beckons when the stress threatens to overwhelm me. But, as I discovered, this light can grow dim. When this happens, the world, for me, becomes quiet, muted, dull. The magic disappears. I know that my detail oriented tendencies exacerbated the level of stress I experienced over the past few weeks: I find it hard to let go. But this same tenacity is what keeps me drawn to the magic of creating characters and plots, of creating my own art.

And speaking of creating art: I'm headed next week to a star trails workshop in California. What are star trails, you ask? They are the captured movement of the stars in the night sky. And they're captured by leaving a camera's shutter open for long periods of time away from all ambient light. I'm making my way to Lone Pine, CA by way of Death Valley. I'm really jazzed about the trip - the scenery in Death Valley is breathtaking and I hope to come back with the best pictures of my life. The caveat, of course, is that I'm still a novice in the picture-taking department, but I'll be with my sister-in-law who's just awesomely talented. I got my first in-depth, on-the-fly, deep in the trenches training with her during our trip to Ireland last year. She's amazingly patient and enthusiastic.

Find your art -- create it, live it.

Great read:

I've just finished Clifford Garstang's In an Uncharted Country and very much enjoyed it. This is a collection of short stories, filled with warm, honest characters, some of whom make repeat appearances. I took my time with it, reading one story at a time, then setting it aside for a day or a week in order to allow the story/characters time to sit with me. I found that each story was like a small universe unto itself, full of rich details and tremendous depth.

If you haven't already read this collection, put it on your to-read list.