In memory of Geroge's Tree by Owen's River (Bishop, CA) here is a poem by ― Maya Angelou When great trees fall, rocks on distant hills shudder, lions hunker down in tall grasses, and even elephants lumber after safety. When great trees fall in forests, small things recoil into silence, their senses eroded beyond fear. When great souls die, the air around us becomes light, rare, sterile. We breathe, briefly. Our eyes, briefly, see with a hurtful clarity. Our memory, suddenly sharpened, examines, gnaws on kind words unsaid, promised walks never taken. Great souls die and our reality, bound to them, takes leave of us. Our souls, dependent upon their nurture, now shrink, wizened. Our minds, formed and informed by their radiance, fall away. We are not so much maddened as reduced to the unutterable ignorance of dark, cold caves. And when great souls die, after a period peace blooms, slowly and always irregularly. Spaces fill with a kind of soothing electric vibration. Our senses, restored, never to be the same, whisper to us. They existed. They existed. We can be. Be and be better. For they existed.”
Still going through my hard drive from 2013 and continuing to find some cool stuff to process. This pano was taken at Patriarch Grove in the White Mountains (Eastern Sierras)
This an early attempt at Milky Way photography while in a remote region of Death Valley National Park. My son and I had some time off during summer several years ago and we had a lot of fun exploring the Eastern Sierras for photo locations. Since then it has become one of my favorite locations to visit.
