SALAMANCA, SPAIN'S CITY OF GOLDEN STONE, A gallery in progress (1 image)

Click on any image to enlarge.

"9 13 CALLE SAN GREGORIO SEES THE RESULTS OF 2016 ELECTION," 

SALAMANCA, SPAIN

Right after the 2016 presidential election, Pam and I visited Salamanca, Spain. I am a narrative visualist. This means I make art from the stories that my experience of this world evokes. It's an ancient tradition and in some way colors the way I look at things. I was on a walk with a fellow tourist along the Douro river road outskirts of this exquisite sand stone city, when this unusual building got my attention. I walked up to its imperessive gate and this scene perfectly captured my deepest angst.

The unusual building turned out to be Salamanca's museum of Art Nouveau and Art Deco.

When I learned that I wondered if the curators of this benchmark of beautiy might have been pleasantly amused at my geopolitical use of their facade.

AERIAL MOMENTS OVER THE SEA CLIFFS AND SOUTH REEF OF MOLOKA'I AND THE NORTH COAST OF LANAII, HAWAII (8 IMAGES)

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"THE WATER COLUMN ROSE," PAPALAUA FALLS 1250', 

MOLOKI'I, HAWAII

At around 3,000 ft, the north coast of Molokai'i has the highest sea cliffs in the world and as such the also the highest tide waterfalls. The highest of these falls Oloupena falls at 2953 " is only visible when it is raining hard on Kamakou, the great volcano or the highlands above the north coast. This image is of Papalua falls, its shorter but more consistent sibling.

"THE GREAT SOUTH SHORE REEF RISES, EVER SO GRACEFULLY, INTO THE FAMILIAR," 

MOLOKA’I, MAUI COUNTY, HAWAII

"MOLOKA'I FROM THE REEF INTO THE SKY," 

MAUI COUNTY, HAWAII

"AS IF FROM SOME PRIMORDIAL COLOR CALDREN, KAMAKOU BREACHED THE SURFACE AND SOARED INTO THE CLOUDS," 

MOLOKI'I, HAWAII

"ABOVE THE SUBMARINE GARDENS OF NEON LIGHT," 

MOLOKA'I, MAUI COUNTY, HAWAII

"A CHILL OF WAVES SWEEPS THE FRINGE OF MOLOKA'I'S GREAT SOUTH REEF," 

MAUI COUNTY, HAWAII

"THE PEVAILING NORTHEASTERLYS, THE DERELICT, AND THE CEASELESS UNDERTOW SPIRITING THE NORTH COAST OF LANA'I INTO THE DEEP,” 

HAWAII

"LONG AFTER IT HAD LOST ITS RAISON D' ETRE, THE DERELICT AGROUND ON THE REEF CONTINUED TO MOVE AS IF IN DREAMS OF ITS PAST THROUGH WIND, WAVES AND TIME," 

NORTH SHORE OF LANA'I, HAWAII

THE FORTH RAIL BRIDGE, WEST LOTHIAN AND FIFE, SCOTLAND. A gallery in progress (2 images)

Click on any image to enlarge.

"NECESSITY AND THE BIRTH OF A NINETEENTH CENTURY ENGINEERING ICON," 

THE FORTH RAIL BRIDGE, 

FIRTH OF FORTH, SOUTH QUEENS FERRY, WEST LOTHIAN, SCOTLAND

"A WEE COTTAGE FOR HOT COFFEE 

AND A DRAM AGAINST THE COLD, 

NESTLED IN THE STEEL FORREST," 

FORTH OF FIRTH RAIL BRIDGE, WEST LOTHIAN, SCOTLAND 

CIRCUMGRAPHING THE SCOTTISH COAST: Following the piper into the mysts. (A gallery in progress, 15 images)

Click on any image to enlarge.

These images are in the order they were taken to provide a journalistic flow to the viewer's experience.

"THE PASTORAL REFUGE OF BALGONIE CASTLE," 
FIFE, SCOTLAND

"IN GRIM STAINED DEFIANCE THE SCARRED BATTLE FRAGMENT STOOD OUT AGAINST ITS MOST ELEMENTAL AND FROMIDABLE ENEMY," 
RED CASTLE, ANGUS, SCOTLAND 

"WITHIN THE SANCTUM OF NOBLE WEALTH 
LONG AFTER THE PRIDE HAS VANISHED," 
CASTLE SLAIN, ABERDEENSHIRE, SCOTLAND

"THE NORTH SEA POURED OVER THE DETAILS LIKE A NEWS JUNKY LOOKING FOR A JUICY SCANDAL ON THE PAGES OF THE PRESS AND JOURNAL," 
BULLERS OF BUCHAN, ABERDEENSHIRE, SCOTLAND

"A CEASELESS BORDER FRAY BETWEEN THE SANDSTONE COAST AND THE NORTH SEA," 
BULLERS OF BUCHAN, ABERDEENSHIRE, SCOTLAND

"ASCENT INTO THE ANCIENT FORTRESS 
OF PSYCOMAGNETIC POWERS," 
CASTLE DUNNOTTAR, "ABERDEENSHIRE, SCOTLAND 

"THE EMERALD BOUDOIR," 
CASTLE DUNNOTTAR, ABERDEENSHIRE, SCOTLAND

"A SPIRIT OF FREEDOM CIRCLES ABOVE 
THE QUARTERS OF THE LADIES IN WAITING 
WHO COULD WAIT NO LONGER." 
CASTLE DUNNOTTAR, ABERDEENSHIRE, SCOTLAND

"AFTER SEEING THE DUNGEON WHERE HENRY VIII HELD PRESBYTERIANS WITHOUT SANITATION, 
MANY GUESTS FIND OUR UPPER OPEN AIR SPA 
A RELAXING PLUS 
TO THEIR CASTLE DUNNOTTAR EXPERIENCE,"
 ABERDEENSHIRE, SCOTLAND

"THE UPPER EAST ROOMS SEEMED BEST SUITED TO AFICIONADOS OF SKY, WIND, SURF, 
AND OF COURSE, NUDE SUNBATHING," 
CASTLE DUNNOTTAR, ABERDEENSHIRE, SCOTLAND

"PRISONER TO THE SWEEP OF AGES," 
CASTLE SINCLARE GIRNIGOE," 
CAITHNESS, SCOTLAND

"SEAGATE FOR TRADE OF TIDES," 
CASTLE SINCLARE GIRNIGOE.  
CAITHNESS, SCOTLAND

"STAIRCASE BEYOND THE WARRANTY OF STEPS," 
CASTLE SINCLARE GIRNIGOE, 
CAITHNESS, SCOTLAND

"ONE RESIDENT DREAM OF 
THE FIRST PROVINCIAL LORDS, 
SEEMED TO HAVE GROWN UP, 
OUT OF THE CLIFF ROCK 
LIKE BONE SPURS 
OF ANCIENT WILL," 
CASTLE SINCLARE GIRNIGOE, 
CAITHNESS, SCOTLAND

"ABOVE THE CACOPHONY 
OF THE ORCHY RIVER CASCADE," 
ARGYLE AND BUTE, SCOTLAND

AN AFTERNOON ON THE CAMINITO DEL REY ANDALUSIA, SPAIN: a gallery (9 images).

Click on any image to enlarge.

I ARRANGED THESE IMAGES IN CHRONOLOGICAL ORDER TO GIVE YOU A SENSE OF HOW IT FELT TO WALK THROUGH THIS ICONOIC HISTORICAL ENVELOPMENT.

"AS IF FROM A DREAM OF WINGS IN FLIGHT," 

DESFILADERO DE LOS GAITANES 

(CANYON OF THE BIRDS), ANDALUSIA, SPAIN

   

"AS A DREAM MOVES," 

DESFILADERO DE LOS GAITANES 

(CANYON OF THE BIRDS), ANDALUSIA, SPAIN

"WITHIN THE HEARING OF A CANYON MAKER'S THOUGHTS," 

DESFILADERO DE LOS GAITANES 

(CANYON OF THE BIRDS), ANDALUSIA, SPAIN

Moving deeper into the first slot canyon on the Caminito Del Rey. Desfiladero de Los Gaitanes (Canyon of the birds is a good name for this place. If I were a pigeon sized bird this would be like heaven. Cool, plenty of water and food, and to narrow for a larger predator bird to maneuver.

“ABANDONED STEPS TO THE OLD WATERWORKS TUNNEL," 

DESFILADERO DE LOS GAITANES 

(CANYON OF THE BIRDS), ANDALUSIA, SPAIN

The first slot canyon on the Caminito del Rey gradually widens into a small valley. Just at the mouth of that opening you can see the steps that the early waterworks workmen made to get into the tunnel they bored through the many thousands of feet of limestone you have been walking above without even knowing it. 

"AN EARLY STAIRCASE TOWARD THE QUEST FOR PERMANENT WATER," 

DESFILADERO DE LOS GAITANES 

(CANYON OF THE BIRDS), ANDALUSIA, SPAIN

"A BUTTRESS FOR THOSE WHO FLY THROUGH OUR LADY DESFILADERO DE LOS GAITANES UNAWARE THEY HAVE PASSED THROUGH MILLIONS OF YEARS OF MEDITERRANEAN SEA FLOOR." 

DESFILADERO DE LOS GAITANES 

(CANYON OF THE BIRDS), ANDALUSIA, SPAIN

"DESFILADERO DE LOS GAITANES 
(CANYON OF THE BIRDS), 
JOURNEYWORK OF 
THE EMBLASE TAJO DE LA ENCANTADA," 

 ANDALUSIA, SPAIN

"WHAT BIRDS COULD SEE, 
LONG BEFORE THE TIME OF MEN,"
DESFILADERO DE LOS GAITANES, ANDALUSIA, SPAIN

The Caminito del Rey borders a small valley after it leaves the first slot canyon. All the images you have seen so far in this Malaga water works series are from the first slot canyon. The second slot canyon, in these next images, is not only graphically stunning, it is a revelation of enormous magnitude. This picture was taken about half way up from the river. The gorge could be somewhere between 600 to 800 feet deep from the the highest point down. What makes this place astounding is that the limestone, from which it was made, was laid down flat and horizontal over eons in the Mediterranean Sea. Here are those same rock layers tilted straight up vertical. The unmistakable evidence that these rocks were once on the floor of the Mediterranean are found in the perfectly preserved Ammonite fossils now appearing vertically on the upturned stratum like some prehistoric rock art. Ammonites are an extinct species that flourished 240 million years ago. If the seafloor were tilted up quickly, as the result of some cataclysm, the rock would have fractured and eroded away. This is a signal monument to the age of life on earth.

"THE SCULPTING HANDS OF THE EMBLASE TAJO DE LA ENCANTADA FLOW THROUGH THE CANYON OF THE BIRDS AND OUT, INTO THE PEACE OF AN ANDELUSIAN AFTERNOON," 
 MALAGA, SPAIN

The Caminito del Rey (the trail) and the Desfiladero de Los Gitanes (the slot canyon) ends abruptly at a sheer cliff face.  In this picture you can see the river flow out into a turquoise valley lake in the upper right corner.

To finish the walk, however, the walkway ascends up the sheer face, crosses a railroad and goes another half mile where you can chill out in the shade of trees and try to get your head around Iconically memorable space you have just seen.

COUNTY KERRY, IRELAND, Wanderings in the Emerald World. (a gallery in progress, 9 images)

  Click on either image to enlarge.

"SOUTH FROM THE FAR WEST OF COUNTY KERRY," IRELAND

"A LIVING CONVERSATION BETWEEN 
A FARMER AND HIS WILD," 
DINGLE PENINSULA, COUNTY KERRY, IRELAND

"THE GREAT NORTH ATLANTIC STORM WEDGE I," 
COUNTY KERRY, IRELAND

"CASCADE FALLS OF THE SHEEN NEAR KENMARE"
COUNTY KERRY, IRELAND

"AN AFTERNOON INTERLUDE ON LOCH LEANE I"
COUNTY KERRY, IRELAND

"AN AFTERNOON INTERLUDE ON LOCH LEANE IV" 
COUNTY KERRY, IRELAND

"A PORTENT OF WEATHER IN THE GAP OF DUNLOE"
COUNTY KERRY, IRELAND

REMAINS OF AN EIGHTEENTH CENTURY NOTION"
 COUNTY KERRY, IRELAND

THE WAY OF MORNING IN THE GAP OF DUNLOE”
 COUNTY KERRY, IRELAND 

PORTUGAL AND THE DOURO RIVER, a gallery in progress (22 images)

Click on any image to enlarge.

"PORTICO FOR THE EYES OF GOD," 

PORTO CATHEDRAL, PORTUGAL

"STREETLIGHTS, TILES, AND IRON LACE," 

PORTO, PORTUGAL

"THE 'APPROACH WITH RESPECT OR DIE,' 
ENTRANCE TO CASTELO DE KING ALFONSO HENRIQUES, 
GUIMARAES, PORTUGAL

"YOUR FAT, BLOND APOTHECARY IS AT THE BACK DOOR SIRE. 
HE SAYS HE HAS SOMETHING THAT WILL CURE YOUR SORROW
 AND MAKE YOU FEEL LIKE A BIRD IN FLIGHT 
EVEN AS YOU SIT ON YOUR THRONE." 
CASTELO DE GUIMARES, PORTUGAL

"THE GRACE OF A PORTUGUESE COMMUNAL INTERFACE
 COMPLETE WITH AGGRESSIVE PIGEON DETERRANCE, 
GUIMARAES, PORTUGAL

"ECLESIASTICAL PEEPHOLE," OUR LADY OF REMEDIES," 
LAMEGO, PORTUGAL 

"HOSANNAS TO THE ASCENT OF TEXTURAL PATTERN," 
LAMEGO, PORTUGAL

Having trained my eyes to notice visual order and narrative intersections I composed this image on the stairway up to Lamego's beautiful hill cathedral and hospital, Sanutario de Nossa. The image has both a nexus between texture and pattern but also a kind of biblical waving of palm fronds at the entrance of Jesus into Jerusalem.

"NOVEMBER TREE, SANTUARIO DE NOSSA," LAMEGO, PORTUGAL

While walking around the hill church sanitarium I noticed this graceful contrast that, in the isolation of my viewfinder, revealed an attitude to nature that is just below the surface of our psyche. Humans want order and precision but if that is all they have, it leaves them spiritually impoverished. Our souls crave a little wildness just a s long as it fits neatly into the constants of our aesthetic.

"LOCAL RESTURANT PORTICO COMPLETE WITH HANGING LAUNDRY 
TO INDICATE FRESHNESS," LAMEGO, VISEU, PORTUGAL

I was taken with the rye humor of this restaurant to make a living as much from passing tourists as from regulars. You might have to enlarge this image to appreciate their effort.

"AS THE SUN WORE THROUGH THE OVERCAST, 
THE DOURO DREAMED ITSELF IN A LAZY ARC BELOW PINHOU," 

VISEU DISTRICT, PORTUGAL

"REFLECTIONS ON AN UNREQUITED GRACE, 
PONTE DE PEDRA" DOURO VISEU DISTRICT, PORTUGAL

This is my counter to all of those who think that looking at the world through a camera, stunts your experience of a place.

I was Initially attracted to the elegant reflection of the Ponte De Pedra from the back of our riverboat. As it so often happens the real eduction and realization of a local gravity happened when I put the panorama together in my studio and was able to see far more than I would have been able to take in in the very brief time I had to photograph the bridge.

On the south shore, the span had been dismantled before it could completed its mandate. On one side of the deconstruction site there was restaurant whose sign was my clue to what happened. Ponte De Pedra means walking bridge.

Here was a massive stone bridge designed for heavy traffic downgraded to a sidewalk across the Douro. Why?

Because I love high resolution images, I could look very close at my image and figure out why the Portuguese could no longer drive trucks across the river.

Cracks in the mortar in several places reminded me that Portugal is a seismically active country. One of their bigger quakes destroyed a sizable portion of Lisbon. The threat of earthquakes are also why this little country has become so adept at seismic proofing all of their newer bridges.

"IN A SWEEP OF SUBLIME STILLNESS, 
THE DOURO DRIFTED FROM THE SUR INTO THE REAL," 
VISEU DISTRICT, PORTUGAL

There are 5 dams on the Douro River. Each one backs up the river into beautiful lakes sometimes for miles. If there is nothing to disturb the surface the lakes mirror the shore. This mirror was captured in the early morning just after the fog had risen.

"AUTUMN BURNING GLYMPSED FROM A BUS IN THE VALE DE MENDIZ," 

ALIJO NORTE, VILA REAL, PORTUGAL

Although I find touring very educational and would probably never gain entrance to places you get to see I am not a tourist.

I make this distinction because tourists get bussed everywhere and a bus is probably one the worst platforms from which to make a photograph. You can't just say STOP, I want to take a picture. That said, we diehards make the best of what we get. Favaios is famous for its Muscatel wines. The small but fascinating town sits high in the hills north of the Douro River and the Villa Real was the steep road, winding through beautiful vineyard country back to Pinhou where our boat was docked. The best we could get was to get the driver to slow down a little bit and that was the 5 second window that saved me from total frustration.

"CASTELO RODRIGO, LONG AFTER THE REIGNS HAVE PASSED," 

GUARDA, PORTUGAL

"A POLTERGIEST QUIETLY TRYS THE DOOR ON OLD #8," 
CASTELO RODRIGO, GUARDA DISTRICT, PORTUGAL

"LATE FOG LIFTS ON THE RIO DOURO 

AS IT DRIFTS PAST THE RUINS OF ESTACIO CASTELO MEHLOR," 

GUARDA, PORTUGAL

West of Barca da Alva the towns in the Guarda District along the river are farther between until you to get below the Pinhou.

The towns to the south of the river that can't be seen from the gorge, still have a ghosty presence on its shore, in the form of abandoned depots along the old CP railroad grade which once was the fastest way in the east to get to Porto.

Estacio Castelo Mehlor became just such a presence in this river mirror image as the last hint of fog lifted from the water's surface.

"STRONGBOX FOR THE MEMORY OF WIND, SUN, THE EVER-CHANGING RIO DOURO, AND THE SOUND OF TRAINS THAT NEVER COME," 
GUARDA, PORTUGAL

"NIGHT CROSSING," 

BARCA DA ALVA, GUARDA, PORTUGAL

We were docked at Barca Da Alva, the farthest upriver our riverboat could go. The evening just before our return trip back down to Porto, I got up from a loud and lively party and went up on deck to find a bridge that had gone almost unnoticed to me in daytime, ablaze in resplendent light like some noble making an entrance to a fan fare of brass. I went back to our room and got my camera.

Back up on deck, I leaned hard against the flagpole and took a series of very slow shutter exposures not expecting that any of them would be other than blurry junk. Well, nothing ventured. noting gained. This is the result of handheld photography at night with exposures of over 5 seconds each.

"DEPOT WITHOUT A TOWN 

FOR A FOR A TRAIN THAT NEVER COMES," 

ESTACIO DO COA, GUARDA, PORTUGAL

As we moved farther down river the one of most ghosty of the abandoned railroad depots slipped past. The road to town was hidden as was any visible reason for its existence except the railroad grade itself. The haunting was somehow heightened by nicely tiled outside restrooms.

"ESTACIO DO COA, WHERE THE RISING 
AND SETTING OF THE SUN,
 COLOR OF THE SEASON,
 AND THE ENDLESS SPEECH OF MOVING WATER
 ARE ALWAYS RIGHT ON TIME."
 GUARDA DISTRICT, PORTUGAL

"THE ACCUMULATED GRACE OF BEING THERE FOR A LONG TIME," 

DOURO VALLEY, PORTUGAL

"THE RIO DOURO DREAMS AN IMPRESSIONIST VIEW OF ITSELF." 
VISEU DISTRICT, PORTUGAL

Every once in a long while I come upon an image that has an internal conundrum. This is one of them. It is, at once, as sharp as a razor and as soft as down. These visual spectrum extremes are caused buy the fact that the vineyard owners usually burn their dead vines and leaf litter in the fall. We passed through one of the steeper sided valleys where the smoke had begun to settle creating this marriage of visual opposites.