59 people died in Vegas over the weekend. 59 people enjoying a concert on the strip. Over 500 were wounded, many seriously. Many lives were changed forever. And once again we have to face the questions. What happened? Why did this man go so wrong? What drove him to commit such a heinous act? I don't know but I wish I did.
I'm not going to go on a rant about gun control so you can relax. America has gone so far around the bend on guns that it is literally impossible to talk about them in a coherent and rational manner. For too many Americans, guns are such an integral part of their family that they get all discombobulated when anyone brings up the idea that they might want to curtail their ownership. There's something almost orgasmic about an AR-15 with a "Bump Stock" firing several hundred rounds a minute that just cannot, it would seem, be denied. Better than sex? For some it would seem so. And it is almost ... almost except for the dead and wounded ... almost comical to see a congressman wind himself up into knots trying to justify why guns are so sacred that nothing can be done to stop them. In fact, the NRA and other gun clubs would like to force everyone to have a gun for "protection". Imagine for just a minute what would have happened if all those concert attendees, all 22K of them, had started shooting at the Mandalay Bay hotel in a really stupid attempt to stop this one shooter from continuing his rampage. You think one window in that building would have survived the onslaught? So everyone, according to one Republican congressman, should have had a similarly equipped AR-15 with a bump stock so they all could have spent several 100 round clips trying to hit a guy firing from a blacked out window somewhere on the building. They could have easily put a million rounds into the facade and still not stopped him. But they would have probably killed a lot of people in the building. But hey, it's all about freedom, don't you know? But, as I said at the onset of this column, I'm not getting into this with anyone. Not worth all the anxiety and heat it would take and to no avail. Changing a gun owner's mind is almost impossible. To fix this problem we need to change the culture of our country. We need to, somehow, heal the deep fissures that exist between various communities in this land. I don't know how that happens given all the hate I find as I travel around. I don't know how to get everyone talking. But that's what needs to happen and soon. We can't keep watching as more and more, mostly white people decide that the only way out is to kill a lot of strangers, randomly, and then kill themselves. That's not the way to go forward. So figure it out and get started.
Mormon Barn at Grand Teton
I'm sure most of you have seen this image before. In the valley just east of the Grand Tetons, there's a dirt road and many old, wooden structures. It's called "Mormon Row". Mormons were the first settlers in this area; they were mostly farmers. They build their homes and barns in the valley, a few miles east of the mountains. I'm not sure how successful they were as the soil is mostly moraine, rubble washed off the peaks. I can't imagine they were terribly successful but I'm sure they gave it their best effort. The Snake River runs nearby so maybe they also tried to raise cattle which might have been more amenable to the conditions. Now, of course, the mountains and part of the valley are in the Grand Tetons NP. It a spectacular place. I spent 5 days in the park, taking well over a thousand pictures. Got some beautiful images which I'll show as time goes on.
I spent several early mornings with these buildings. I was there quite early as I wanted to take pictures before the crowds. Seems everyone who visits the park has to stop by and wander along the road so getting good pictures is a challenge. If you visit, plan to get up early, before the big buses with all the foreigners start to arrive. You'll get nothing useful once that happens.
This particular image was taken with my 70-200 mm telephoto lens on a Canon 60D. I was at 70 mm which, on the crop sensor, is about 105 mm equivalent. I had to walk far out in to an adjacent field to get the whole structure into the frame. The telephoto "pulls" the mountains closer to the barn which gives a much more dramatic presentation. The sun was low in the sky, over my right shoulder so there are some nice shadows. It was 7:30 am but the sun had already been up for a while. Next time I visit I'll try to get there before sunrise so I can get the red glow on the peaks and the barn. There's always something that can be done better. That's why it's important to visit over and over. One could spend a lifetime just photographing the West and it still wouldn't be enough time.
I combined 2 shots with Photomatix and then finished in Lightroom. I want to run these same images through blending to see if the result is better. I'll try that in a few days and report back if the results are good.
Get to Grand Teton NP. It's well worth the trip. Enjoy.
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| Mormon Barn - 70mm (1.6 crop),f/18,HDR,ISO 100,license CC BY-NC 4.0 |
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