Rocks tell stories

When i first started writing this one, i thought it would be a short post. But it swiftly turned very, very long.

Rocks tell stories...but you have to know how to read them, which I don't know how to do, not really, i know i am illiterate in this way, better to admit it, and go from there, stumble on, and try to understand just by looking at these things. I am no geologist.
There are others who know much better than me, like John McPhee, who has written many books on the formation of this place we call 'America'.

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

John McPhee - a reporter's reporter

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5508293

Here's some rocks I collected along many California beaches:

There are of course many layers deposited. MANY layers. Of silt, sand, mud and shells. All then compressed and turned into 'rock'. Without the '...n'roll' part.
Then somehow, those layers get broken up, and washed in by the waves, and sanded by sand and waves... and then become what i have collected here, a melange of detritus.

When i was growing up in a small town in Maine, my mom was the director of us three kids upbringing. She took us to i don't remember how many places, usually north of our town, and on the way back we passed by a place, just a trailer on a gravel parking lot, called 'the rock shop'. It had many many examples of various minerals, and semi precious stones, also including hunks of mica, which i found fascinating, all shiny, in many thin layers.

Mica is a fascinating rock.. or should i say mineral?
When broken off, the thin layers were translucent - how can rock be translucent, i thought? Ah, but it can.

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

http://www.rocksandminerals4u.com/mica.html

http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/379747/mica

There was always a tumbler at work on something, a soothing sound.

http://www.geology.com/rock-tumbler/

What we soak up when we are young remains w/ us, always, it is our foundation, it becomes our core.
And now I live near the Pacific Ocean, and if you think calling it 'pacific' means it's calm or pacified? ..forget about it.

The beach is always a-tumblin' whatever is on it, over and over and over again.
here's how it goes:

And then the pebbles get tossed around, another story, sand, storms, waves, wind.

I found this on Agate Beach, at Patricks Point SP, it's agate, of course.

This most resembles a specimen "Turritella agate" found in Wyoming, of all places:

From Wikipedia:

"Turritella agate is formed from silicified fossil Elimia tenera (erroneously considered Turritella) shells. E. tenera are spiral freshwater gastropods having elongated, spiral shells composed of many whorls. Similarly, coral, petrified wood and other organic remains or porous rocks can also become agatized. Agatized coral is often referred to as Petoskey stone or agate."

That's the beach - how 'bout the desert?
Many stories here too, all of them millennia long, about accumulation, tectonic plate motion, and rain, much rain.

The Grand Canyon, Horse Shoe overlook.

I have a severe fear of heights, 

this is as close to the edge as i will go, 

there are better pictures to be had elsewhere.

 

Joshua Tree NP

Above, Canyon De Chelly - if you ever get the chance,
visit this one. 

You'll be glad you did.

Above, the White House ruins, Cyn De Chelly. There are *definitely* stories here.

It was abandoned due to drought, the canyon land no longer suported the tribe.

Will we be in the same boat, hundreds of years later, in California?

What do I do with the rocks I shoot? I make up new stories.

In conclusion, one interesting link:

 http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/05/opinion/why-sand-is-disappearing.html
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In a couple of weeks, a darkroom montage post,
another couple of  'sandwiches'.

Hope you have enjoyed the above, please stop in again. :-)

 ..........................

Darkroom again: A place for thinking - sit down, stay for a while.

'A seat for thought'

 

Most of the image is a sandwich of two negs taken somewhere along the CA. North Coast many years ago.
First one: I've used the driftwood 'hut' a few times. It was taken at Patrick's Pt. S.P. along a beach that also has agate:

 

...and many other driftwood 'sculptures' of some kind.

 

 

One of the things about many Ca. beaches? There's not much control of any kind, people can do whatever they will, and leave it for others. It's a nice thing to do, and a most pleasant sight to see...most of the time.
Here's something else i found on the same beach:

 

Here's the second neg of the sandwich, a long view, taken from a state sponsored overlook parking lot, at the coastline at sunset:

I remember this one for one big reason. It was a large parking lot, i was the only one there, for a while. Then an old school bus pulled in, parked at the far end of the lot. I could see lights go on inside, and then some human legs, and dog legs, on the far side of the bus, and then those disappeared, the lights in the bus dimmed.
I did *not* go introduce myself, but i got the drift.
There are people here who live totally off the grid, away from you, me, and anyone else.
I don't know what else there is to say about them, i don't know them much, except to say... they live in our world literally, but in another way they live in their own world.

I shot about a roll of each situation, the driftwood, and the sunset coastline, glad I did - i had enough variations to come up w/ one sandwich that clicked.

Here's the sandwich:

And a lonely chair that gets added at the bottom:

Here's a second final print, i added a bit of clouds to the center:

Technically? this one is easy, the sandwich gets dodged some at the bottom, and the chair gets dodged a lot at the top a whole lot, about like this.

 

One thing I've said over and over and yet over again in this blog is: It's not about fancy tricks, it's about shooting the right negs, and linking them together = composition. Without that, you just don't have two sticks to rub together do you?
It may be a little hard to see at web resolution, but the way the sandwich works is rather interesting, things line up. The seastack in the center blends right into the vertical driftwood in the center, the coast line on the right blends in and out of the wood hut in an interesting way.

One thing i noticed after i made this print was that the chair and the driftwood come from very different worlds.
The chair is a cheapo 'the caterer brought it to your wedding or event' kinda thing.
The driftwood? ...Carefully made by someone who knew something about design, sculpture...*balance* - and had another way of looking at the world.
I managed to put them together, juxtaposed, in the same image. So what does that say, if anything?

Can we sit down casually, and stay a while... and take in greater thoughts and talk 'secrets'?

Not likely in this day and age, turn yer *bleepin* cell phone off.....why not give it a try?

Larger images at:
www.bobbennettphoto.net/BeachBlog_2015/SeatForThought/index.html

In the 'whatever catches my eye' file this month:

Arizona city finds out what happens when Internet goes out

By Associated Press Recent Columns
February 26, 2015, 4:20 p.m.

http://touch.latimes.com/#section/1780/article/p2p-82928182/
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http://news.sciencemag.org/environment/2015/02/new-map-shows-americas-quietest-places
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http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/22/books/review/helen-macdonalds-h-is-for-hawk.html?ref=review
"...grace resides in the most unlikely places — and that moving forward means leaving some things behind."

As the Terminator said most famously:

"Ah'll be back"

:-) The Bobster