Posts Tagged ‘rocks’
Three views of lichens on granitic rock
One of the pleasures of visiting the area near Inks Lake in Burnet County is the visibility of granitic rock.
Here are various types of lichens I saw along Park Road 4 on April 27th.
UPDATE: After this posted, I found an article that explains lichens in a way I hadn’t heard before.
© 2020 Steven Schwartzman
New Zealand: Crossing the Cook Strait again
The Cook Strait, named after the adventurous Captain James Cook, separates New Zealand’s two main islands. Three years ago today we rode the Interislander ferry from Picton on the South Island to Wellington on the North Island. The first photograph shows the last rocks the ferry passes as it leaves the South Island and enters the Cook Strait. I took the second photograph out in the strait 12.5 minutes later.
© 2020 Steven Schwartzman
New Zealand: another look at Little Manly Beach
Five years ago today I spent some morning time—in fact the last morning in New Zealand on that first trip—at what turned out to be one of my favorite places for abstract photographs, Little Manly Beach on the Whangaparaoa Peninsula north of Auckland.
You’re looking at some of the beach details that fascinated me.
© 2020 Steven Schwartzman
New Zealand: up and down at Tunnel Beach
Three years ago today we visited Tunnel Beach about five miles southwest of Dunedin.
I took the first picture from the edge of a cliff looking down at some bull kelp in the surf below.
Doesn’t it remind you of the long, flowing hair in a Botticelli painting?
The next two photographs, taken from the beach, show natural designs on the walls of a cul-de-sac.
And here’s the view looking back up at the adjacent sculpted rocks:
Living in Texas, I can’t help but be reminded of a pair of outsized cowboy boots.
© 2020 Steven Schwartzman
New Zealand: February 21, 2017
On this date in 2017, during our second visit to New Zealand, the day began in Wanaka, where we looked out from our apartment and saw this morning mountain clad with a cloud:
Later that day we reached what ended up being one of my favorite places in New Zealand: Lake Wakatipu.
The shore between Queenstown and Glenorchy had me turning this way and that, looking for pleasing compositions both vertical and horizontal. The first shoreline view looks southwest, the second northwest.
Even without the lake and the mountains, the patterns and textures of the rocks intrigued me.
I made various abstract portraits of them, including these three.
© 2020 Steven Schwartzman
New Zealand: more views of the Pancake Rocks
Five years ago today we visited the famous Pancake Rocks at Punakaiki on New Zealand’s South Island.
You can read a little about the geology of this site in an article at Te Ara.
This renewal of pictures from New Zealand reminds me that we can renew something but we can never new something. Likewise we can reveal but we can’t veal; reproach but not proach; retract but not tract; we can replenish but we can’t plenish; etc.
© 2020 Steven Schwartzman
Bojo River
On our trip to the Philippines we visited the Bojo [pronounced Boho] River Nature Reserve in Aloguinsan on the west side of Cebu. Local residents of what was (and still is) a fishing village have been recruited to guide eco-tours of the Bojo River, and that’s how Eve and I found ourselves on December 17th in a slender outrigger being paddled down the quiet river on a leisurely ride. What botanical purpose the “partially overlapping pancakes” serve in the second picture, I have no idea.
We approached the farthest point on the tour as we neared the place where the Bojo River empties into the Tañon Strait. The rocks on the river banks get steeper there, as the next three pictures confirm.
The “bathtub rings” in the final two photos show how much the river rises and falls with the incoming tide.
Eventually the water got choppy, and it probably wouldn’t have been safe to go farther in such a small boat.
In the distance we could see the island of Negros.
Upcoming posts will bring you more pictures from the Bojo River Nature Reserve.
©2020 Steven Schwartzman
Kawasan Falls
On December 16th we crossed over to the west side of Cebu and went down to Kawasan Falls. It swarmed with tourists, the people who run it charge for every little thing, and the water has been partially diverted from the falls. Nevertheless, here are two views of the place, one vertical and the other horizontal, one full-length and the other truncated, one at a slow shutter speed and the other at a high shutter speed.
Here’s the area adjacent to the falls:
On the walk back I couldn’t help noticing a decaying palm frond in the river that flows out from the falls.
© 2020 Steven Schwartzman
Still more from Coron’s island-hopping tour on December 13
© 2020 Steven Schwartzman
More from our Coron island-hopping tour
As you’ve heard, on December 13 we went on what’s known as a Coron island-hopping tour.
It showed off the area’s rock formations, cliffs, trees, and colorful tropical water.
© 2020 Steven Schwartzman
