Monday, May 14, 2007

Ludington State Park, Michigan

I spent a very windy afternoon at this Michigan State Park, about halfway up the western coast on Lake Michigan.  The experience I had was about sound.  The constant sound of the wind in my ears, gusting again and again.  And the surf, pounding and pounding on the beach, a dull roar constantly in the background.  But also the more subtle sounds, like the grass blowing around, and the leaves on the trees.  And the sites in front of me were puzzling.  It is before the season and there aren’t many people around and nothing was really open.  The beach was deserted and the wind was helping the sand retake its property.  The occasional bench was half buried in sand, as if it had been abandoned and nature was reclaiming it.  The playground was the same, half buried in a sand dune.  I imagine that workers will come along any week now and reclaim the territory, but that hasn’t happened yet, for now it belongs to the beach.

Sunday, May 06, 2007

Mendocino Headlands, California

I spent two days in the Mendocino area taking pictures of the wonderful interactions between the lush landscape and the relentless ocean.  Luckily, the weather was absolutely gorgeous, just a very thin layer of haze and extremely sunny (as I write this the part in my hair is bright red and very painful!).  There was a group of eight of us taking pictures and we visited several locations including the town of Mendocino, Russian Gulch State Park, Jug Handle Point, and then the Mendocino Headlands State Park.  It was a challenging weekend from a number of points.

First of all, the town of Mendocino was a challenge because this is a new type of photography to me.  We spent almost four hours wandering around the town, which was nice because I feel like I really know the town now.  It is a quaint little town right on the headlands looking over the ocean and it was very peaceful.  It has a feeling of yuppy vs. hippy that a lot of fancy fringe towns around the country have, and I’m not sure who’s winning.  The town dates back to the mid 1800’s and there are some wonderfully preserved older houses.  But there is also a lot of tie dye and dreadlocks, a very northern California feel.

The headlands and parks were challenging because of the total chaos of nature abounding in each.  This part of California gets a lot of rain and the vegetation is thick.  It is hard to find order out of all the different things going on, but we wandered up a defunct trail and found all sorts of interesting ferns, trees, and mushrooms.  It was fun just taking it all in without looking through the viewfinder.  The headlands are a combination of geology and ocean fauna.  The picture included with this entry shows some moss growing on the shady side of a inlet and the sharp contrast of colors caught my eye.  The rock was incredibly diverse, from wonderful quartzite veins running through dark gray substrate to a rusty looking fractured rock remiscent of cubist paintings.  Everywhere I turned there was someting new to compose, what fun.