"Somewhere.. in the middle of nowhere..."

This is a diversion of sorts - some thoughts and links accumulated over the past few months.
Darkroom photo enthusiasts, I haven't lost my mind, next couple of posts will *definitely* be darkroom montage!
There's some digital images here, if you follow this all on, to my webpage.

Has this miserable economy affected you? I guess not many people reading this would say 'YES!'.
It hasn't affected me as much as many, but the drop-off in a second passive/inheritance income has reduced my travel budget to Zero! Nada! Zilch!!
So I relive my last trip, to Nevada in late 2008 by looking over, yet again, the digital/color captures frame by frame, all 600+ of them.
("Yum, yum - & don't bogart that joint, puh-leeze!")
Late one night, after looking over a lot of these, & after a few drinks, and a couple of bowls, I used a few Kb's of memory to record these thoughts.
You can 'like 'em...love 'em... or hate them...' but at least, I suggest you think about them -
how many mystics and religious savants have found wisdom or enlightenment of some sort in the desert?

Somewhere.. in the middle of nowhere, in the desert...there is something incredible to be found.
it's called 'yourself'. Just you, and nothing but you.
But the hard part is... you've got to drop 'everything else you think you know' to get there.
NO cell phone, blackberry, none of that crapola. Get out of the car, walk a mile into the landscape.

I like....
the silence, except for an occasional crow.
...the enigmatic qualities of the land - it is very dry now, but if you think about it, and look at it hard, this land has been formed by water (rain), over the passage of probably hundreds of thousands of years.
The land is soooo raw and rough, yet there are many plants and animals that happily call it home.

That's why I like the desert. It has no mercy, cuts you no slack.
Even if you are a casual observer/traveler.. it's hard to miss.
It's severity is stunning. You either 'get it' or you don't.
The people who lived here a thousand years ago...?
They apparently didn't think it was too severe - they survived just fine.
Could you?... or me?... I highly doubt it.
Most of us pass thru in gas-guzzling oil powered vehicles, oblivious to anything but...
our personal comfort, and maybe the next exit, restaurant and motel.
I must admit, that describes me much of the time, but at least I can realize what I am missing/forgoing,
by making the choices I do.
I don't expect to get any medals or gold stars on my forehead for realizing this.
I am more than a bit of a wimp, compared to people who lived here long ago.

Yeah, all 'wild & crazy thoughts', from a rather civilized suburban guy.
...."A rather civilized suburban guy" who will keep going back, to lose and regain his sanity in this crazy-ass world.

A few more images from a Nevada trip in late 2008:
www.bobbennettphoto.net/BeachBlog_2010/Nowhere/index.html

If you want to read about someone who is much sturdier than I am?
(That would be a certain writer, Craig Childs)
http://www.houseofrain.com/rantsandwritings.cfm

'House of rain'
http://www.houseofrain.com/bookdetail.cfm?id=1183863026528

'Secret knowledge of water'
http://www.houseofrain.com/bookdetail.cfm?id=1183863164364)))

No matter how much of the desert just northeast of LA has been consumed by development, it's pace has been greatly slowed not only by economic implosion, but by the reality of the places we attempt to civilize. - they are just too raw for modern living.


California City’s “second community” has miles and miles of mostly unpaved streets -- a ghostly monument to overreach. In the background are a park and country club.
(Photo credit:Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times / August 3, 2010)

A desert city that didn't fan out
Nathan Mendelsohn, a professor turned developer, believed California City would become the state's next metropolis. Instead it's a sleepy outpost that exists largely in the imagination.
The rest of Mendelsohn's eccentric dream unfurls to the east, some 185 square miles of mostly unpaved streets — a ghostly monument to overreach that, from above, looks like a geoglyph left by space aliens. Only Los Angeles and San Diego leave a bigger footprint in the state.

"Nature wants to take it back," said James Hanson, a California City public works employee.
Yeah, nature definitely wants it back, I suspect nature will eventually win.
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-cal-city-20100814,0,2325763.story

I've driven through here, once many years ago - it looked exactly like the outskirts of Phoenix, or Las Vegas. Big plans... come to nothing.



How little we know or understand., especially about people who lived here only a few thousand years ago. They seemed to have do just fine, and had the time to make some 'art' - that's what we call it, I think they would call it 'worship'.
I have found this to be the most interesting petroglyph I have stumbled upon.
The human figure seems to be related to the cracks in the rock.... or maybe not?
If you think petroglyphs are an enigma, geoglyphs are even more so.



This is the story that kicked this particular entry off, it's months old, but the header in this blog reads "no attempt to keep up w/ the frenetic pace of many blogs " - this is a leisurely and I hope well thought-out series of posts.

http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/americas/02/25/peru.crash/index.html?hpt=T2
Plane crashes near Peru geoglyphs
February 25, 2010 4:30 p.m. EST

"There are more than 1,500 geoglyphs extending over 190 square miles, according to the National Geographic Society. They were constructed by the Nazca culture about 2,000 years ago.

Though they're virtually indecipherable from the ground, from the air they are clearly visible as a monkey, a killer whale, a hummingbird, a condor, a pelican among flowers, trees and geometric shapes.

The Nazca Lines are believed to have had ritual astronomical functions, according to UNESCO, which designated them a World Heritage site in 1994."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nazca_Lines


http://channel.nationalgeographic.com/episode/nasca-lines-the-buried-secrets-4477/Overview



Ancient, Giant Images Found Carved Into Peru Desert
Gonzalo Castillero
October 8, 2002
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2002/10/1008_021008_wire_peruglyphs.html

Ridgecrest/China Lake, CA -
"......there may be as many as 100,000 images carved into the dark volcanic canyons above the China Lake basin, some as old as 12,000 to 16,000 years.."
http://travel.nytimes.com/2009/12/18/travel/escapes/18petroglyph.html


Canyon of ancient ones:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IpDeGsOUYZY

YouTube does a really good job of offering similar content to your choice, it shows up in the column on the right.
Here's one:

Zuni Sunrise - Newspaper Rock Canyonlands National Park Utah
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9W08XL39KgU&feature=related


Ancient Aliens and UFO's - Ancient Cave Paintings
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AqBssviYYY8&feature=related

No, I don't beleive much in aliens, or 2012 prophecies, but it's amusing train of thought. Who knows?... maybe, just maybe.....
Hhmmmm...

The Prophecy of Native American Elders
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0TiCBrFQUa0&feature=related
2012 Prophecy

From the 'whatever catches me eye' file, I see the news about the gulf oil spill, who could possibly miss it? It will haunt us for decades, I suspect.
Let's try and look on the bright side, marvel at what still exists.... ( in keeping with the blog title 'the beach blog'....)


Deep-sea discoveries off Canada's coast
By Derrick Ho, Special to CNN
July 22, 2010 8:34 a.m. EDT
Using high-tech robotic cameras, a team of scientists is getting a rare first glimpse of marine life in the North Atlantic that could shed light on the ocean's ecosystem and climate to as far back as 1,000 years.
http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/americas/07/21/canada.marine.life/index.html?hpt=C2
-------------------------

SYDNEY (AFP) – Australian scientists have discovered bizarre prehistoric sea life hundreds of kilometres below the Great Barrier Reef, in an unprecedented mission to document species under threat from ocean warming.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20100715/sc_afp/australiaenvironmentcoralreef
More images:
http://news.blogs.cnn.com/2010/07/15/scientists-discover-bizarre-deep-sea-creatures/?hpt=C2

Say What?! Whales Shout over Noise Pollution
Just like a New Yorker shouting to be heard in a crowded deli, whales must shout to be heard in ever noisier ocean waters, a new study suggests.

Wed Jul 7, 4:10 pm ET
http://news.yahoo.com/s/livescience/20100707/sc_livescience/saywhatwhalesshoutovernoisepollution


Coral find in sanctuaries proves hotbed of life
David Perlman, Chronicle Science Editor
Saturday, June 26, 2010
Thirty-five miles west of the Point Reyes Lighthouse, and 10,000 feet beneath the ocean surface, scientists steering a robot submersible have found beds of cold-water corals that provide a unique habitat for countless sea creatures, from brittle stars to octopus and rockfish.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/06/26/MNNN1E5577.DTL


Tuna’s End
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/27/magazine/27Tuna-t.html?hpw

A few other things worth noting:
America's Strangest Roadside Attractions
These odd and quirky attractions lure in motorists to out-of-the sights.
http://abcnews.go.com/Travel/48HoursIn/slideshow/photos-americas-best-roadside-attractions-10322244

As for things digital???........
The Web Means the End of Forgetting
By JEFFREY ROSEN
Published: July 19, 2010
'The problem she faced is.......... how best to live our lives in a world where the Internet records everything and forgets nothing — where every online photo, status update, Twitter post and blog entry by and about us can be stored forever. With Web sites like LOL Facebook Moments, which collects and shares embarrassing personal revelations from Facebook users, ill-advised photos and online chatter are coming back to haunt people months or years after the fact.'

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/25/magazine/25privacy-t2.html?ref=magazine
----------------------------
Digital Tools for Making Brilliant Mistakes
By ROB WALKER
Published: July 19, 2010 - The New York Times
Progress toward perfection has genuine skeptics, who insist on sticking with marginalized tools. The newer thing may seem less flawed or simply easier, such traditionalists insist, but it sacrifices warmth, soul, depth, personality, chance and the human touch.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/25/magazine/25fob-consumed-t.html?ref=magazine

On to some photography!



A Cryptic Signpost

This is one of those 'don't know where it came from, why I did it, don't have a clue what it means' images.
But I did it anyway. In fact that's the very best reason to definitely do a print.

I love the signpost, at the left, directing one towards...'who the f*** knows where', since the letters are rather illegible, and it points to...nothing? - maybe that's what I liked about it. I found the collection of stuff at the right along a road somewhere in the desert, at an 'L' turn in an otherwise straight as an arrow road.
On one side was the (aptly named) "No Gotta Ranch", on the other side, a place that shoulda been named "No Gotta Ranch #2", but wasn't named or described at all, no 'shingle' hung.
And probably not interested in visitors - that's why people move here.
What there was on display were racks of various old collected things, lanterns, mining equipment, bottles, etc... and also, in a corral by the roadside a couple of friendly donkeys (or burros? I don't know the difference ) ...who heard me stop, and came to the gate to say 'hello'.
I returned the hello (all equines have the most marvelously velvety soft noses(snouts?!), don't they?
& shot a frame of the 'collectibles'.
With a name like 'no gotta ranch' I figured the owners were not much for strangers pointing cameras in their direction, so I worked fast, and moved on.
For whatever reason, this image made sense, to be somewhere in the distance.
The print is, as always, technically easy at first glance, but the subtleties of how things get burned and dodged is where it either succeeds or fails.
There were 3 final prints, all interesting in their own ways, the differences were subtle, to be sure.

This is one those images that whispered 'hand-color me'.
Why do some images 'ask' to be hand-colored, and some not?
Maybe the B&W image is still a bit too ambiguous?... not that I have a problem with that, but perhaps viewers may.
One thing I have learned from years of working w/ images and seeing how people react to them, and what they buy, is that too many people want something that isn't too challenging, and looks good over the couch. No one ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the public, did they?

www.bobbennettphoto.net/BeachBlog_2010/Desert_Directions/index.html