Sometimes you have to be willing to make some 'mistakes'...

...So you can learn from them, and make some progress.

For quite a while now, i have had two (montage) images in mind:

#1.... is based on a shot I took at the north end of Pt. Reyes, at Pierce Ranch - looking out, from inside a barn, at a few other of the farm buildings, a triangular roof peak cropped the image......
on top of it? ......I always 'saw'....... flames!
I have no idea why, not a clue, except maybe the shape of the roof peak, coinciding with the shape of the flames.
So that's exactly why I had to try and print it.
'Not having a clue' can be the best place to start.
But I have to admit, 'flames' and fires of whatever sort don't seem to be very appreciated in CA. right now...
I printed a version that sort of fulfilled my initial vision, but seemed a bit lacking....
so I dug thru my negs, and ended up using a shot of a figure ( it's actually me, in the buff, taken many years ago. for some project I no longer remember).
For whatever wacko reason, this seemed to work, for me.
Maybe now the image is about.... a memory of some sort?
The pose of the figure seems... apprehensive? scared? I guess if it was your barn burning, you'd be a bit apprehensive.

To see both images larger:
http://www.bobbennettphoto.net/Beachblog_12_07

#2 .... The lighthouse at Pt. Bonita, Marin Headlands, is another place that has 'stuck in mind' for a while.
...I went back to it recently, & shot a few more frames.
A lighthouse is supposed to be there to send signals out, to anyone who needs guidance.
What if, for once, it was a 'receiving' device....?
That's what this print/image is about...I think.
I blew in clouds, some dappled wave hi-lites, shot thru a star cross filter ( I rarely use filters other than a yellow one to boost skies)...
and there it was - a 'receptor', not receiver.
The landscape beyond the tower is the view from 'Key's View', a place in Joshua Tree.

I am still thinking about another image, using the lighthouse...
I seem to think of it as a watchtower, as in 'All along the watchtower', written by Bob Dylan, best performed/recorded by Jimi Hendrix.

To see both images larger:
http://www.bobbennettphoto.net/Beachblog_12_07

I made 4 prints of both images, half of them don't work ("mistakes")........ but half of them did (aha! progress!).

Feedback from recent post- "Traveling, photographing, and staying safe"

To read the full text of the comments, please scroll down to the original post, and click on "comments to this post" - I will allow any and all comments, so long as they are 'constructive' in some way.....
and polite! - I've read too many blogs that have comments that descend into insulting the previous comments' author - I'll have none of that, thank you.

Jay River posted links to a film clip excerpted from Edward S. Curtis's observations of Canyon de Chelly in 1911. It's part of a much larger film.

(While we are on the topic of Canyon de Chelly, here's a link to my pages/images:

http://www.bobbennettphoto.net/LscapeDigital/Xmas2004/05CynC.html

I don't feel i did much more than 'scratch the surface'...but that's better than never having been there at all - it's a special place, native americans seem to have figured that out.)

The history of the Native American cultures that thrived in the southwest (for a short time) is very well chronicled (so far as I can tell) by Craig Childs:

http://www.houseofrain.com/thebook.cfm

Anything this guy has written you can lay your hands on? Read it!
I got his book "Secret knowledge of water" from the local library, ended up locking the apt. door, & couldn't put it down, until I was done reading.

Rick Deutsch, author of the only guidebook to Half Dome at Yosemite National Park, called "One Best Hike: Yosemite's Half Dome" published by Wilderness Press, made comments about the relative safety of the Half Dome hike, and concludes by stating:

"....responsibility for SELF is paramount..."
Yep, definitely!
He also provides links to relevant material.......

Thanks to both of the above for their comments!