Have you ever been to Nevada?

A good friend of mine calls it "the land of poker and whores".
i couldn't possibly care less about either of them...
and perhaps his comment is a little off the mark? -
an astounding 86% of Nevada is either BLM land, or US military facilities,
so it couldn't be more than 14% 'poker & whores', could it?
That's still a lot of poker, and enough whores to... well...
let's not even go there at all, OK?
(I like to keep this blog PG rated :-) )

Up until a few weeks ago, I had only been there twice before.
Once in the early 80's, while I was still living in the Wash DC area and was shooting architecture, I was hired by the Brick Institute of America, to go to Sparks (outside Reno) to photograph a fire station (made of brick, of course).
I had built in a 'weather contingency' to the budget, which was a good idea, cause it was rather cloudy for a day or so upon arrival. So I drove out of town, up into the hills, and the land caught my imagination, something fierce.

My second visit to Nevada was 'just barely there' -
I was visiting Death Valley, and cruised up to Rhyolite,
a ghost town that is just barely in Nevada.

I haven't taken a good ol' fashioned 'photo/road trip' in 4 years -
health problems and 'financial adjustments' have kept me close to home.
But this Xmas?.... the aforementioned problems are under control...
or at least, I chose to ignore them - sometimes that's a good plan - "ignore reality!".
I'm sure you've tried it, probably with varying degrees of success.
I was tired of spending my life in front of a computer...
and the economy could use a few more people spending money, couldn't it?
Sooo... What the hell! Let's do it!
I hit the road, destination Las Vegas (people also call it 'Sin City', or 'Lost Wages'), intending to take in Red Rock Canyon,
and Valley of Fire, for as long as my increasingly lame & arthritic hips, legs,
and ankles could take.

How can anyone capsulize and condense all the thoughts and impressions that pass thru the mind during any kind of travel experience?
I won't even try to write about it, let's just cut to the chase, and get to some pictures.
They may not be 'worth a thousand words'... but they say much more than I can.
The first image is some bizarre storm clouds, shot at sunset outside Valley of Fire.
The second one, a petroglyph along the trail to Calico tanks in Red Rock Canyon.
The third is Valley of Fire.





For many more photos & some comments:

http://www.bobbennettphoto.net/LscapeDigital/Nevada2008/index.html

For more info on the places visited:

The state of Nevada:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nevada

Valley of Fire:
http://parks.nv.gov/vf.htm

Red Rock Canyon:
http://www.americansouthwest.net/nevada/red_rock_canyon/nca.html

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

"I'll be back"... soon, with some darkroom from late 2008...

'The best way to do something creative..

..is to ask a question you don't know the answer to...'
Francis Ford Coppola, in an interview I read a while ago, I think it was in Time magazine.
I think this is a REALLY good thought...!



A combination of 'positive' space - the pinnacle of rock on the left..
combined with a jagged opening/negative space, extending from the lower right,
to the left of center at the top.
Both negatives made at the beach in Bandon, Oregon a few years ago.
I figured I would overlay some sky on the top 2/3rd's, and have to find another image to flesh out the bottom right. Guess it was my lucky day, 'cause when I found the right sky for the top, it also had some puffy cumulus clouds that blended right in with the rocks fading in from the bottom left...
and made the 'space' as a whole even more ambiguous.

Where is the horizon here?
At the left, it is defined...
but on the right? ..that's another matter, 'who knows'..

Another thought:
Just because I 'ask a question I don't know the answer to' doesn't mean that when I get an 'answer'
(in the form of an image) that I'll actually understand that, either.
Which is definitely the case, on this one.

As usual, I start w/ 3 or 4 prints, & once I get one that's a keeper of the basic image, I feel free to improvise, and add other elements. In this case, I did 4 - and I got a basic final w/ #2 & 3... so #4 was up in the air....... since this had become such an uncertain place, I decided to add the image of a figure, walking along a narrow strip of rock stretching through ocean waves, and tide pool, that I took at the Sutro Bath House ruins below Cliff House, in S.F.

Once the figure was added, it was no longer just a mysterious space... it was about a 'perilous journey'...


As usual, larger images at:

www.bobbennettphoto.net/BeachBlog_DkRm_11_08/MysteriousSpace.html

This is the last post of the year...
and it's been a wild & crazy year hasn't it?
I am reminded again of a song recorded almost 40 years ago by The Rolling Stones, called 'Gimme Shelter'.
It was scary and all too true then, and I wish it would have become less true as the years roll on,
but it hasn't.
That's even more scary.

"...Oooo, storm is threatening my very life today..."

"War, children, it's just a shot away..
Rape, murder, it's just a shot away..."
(on the other hand)
"Love, sister, it's just a kiss away"

If you haven't heard this track for a while,
here's a reminder:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LJMnES7WoT4
The Stones, the recorded/studio version, w/ a lot of rather generic photos of the band...
but you can hear it again, in one click, without having to reach for the vinyl, the cassette, or the CD :-)

If you don't have it in any of these forms, well...uh... I respectfully suggest you 'refresh' your music collection.

If there is any other thought I might add to your holiday/year-end ruminations, this is it:
www.bobbennettphoto.net/Xmas2k/index.html

Have a great holiday!!!......see you next year...