Monster-smash rain storms the night before left me surprised when this Sunday morning broad blue skies and linear sunlight to reflect from every surface in Berkeley. The Campanile (a.k.a. Sather Tower) was looking particularly proud of itself.
Tag: Reflection
Gold Light on the Rock
The lights of Alcatraz matched the color of the sunset for just a moment.
Arinell’s Pizza
Like any college town, Berkeley is beset with pizza joints. Almost all of them offer a delicious slice, but a lot of those slices are, well, not really pizza. Deep dish so thick and dense that knife and fork are mandatory? All-organic cheese detonation without sauce? Pizza bagel? All of these can be mouth-watering under the right conditions, but quintessential crispy-yet-foldable slice of (New-York-inspired) pizza is found at Arinell’s in downtown Berkeley. The venue matches the food.
Bonneville Salt Flats Flooded
Driving through the Bonneville Salt Flats, home of land speed records and long empty stretches, was a mirage-filled experience in the summer. Traversing the same alien landscape in the winter, following a series of major storms, is a brain-twisting exploration of optics: perfectly smooth surfaces (too shallow to support waves) make perfect clones of every hill and mountainside. This five-shot panorama captures the full scale of the space; I encourage you to click through to the full-size (32.1 MP) image on Flickr and see the detail for yourself.
Girl on the Lake
Portraits in the style of intense indie rock album art have always been a favorite of mine. Evergreen branches and melting snow start the package, but it’s the tiny details in the far-off Mohonk Mountain House that really complete the mysterious setting.
Mohonk Dock Snow
Summer canoeing is months in the past at Mohonk Mountain House; snow and rime crust the boat dock. On the cliffs in the distance, the hotel’s signature gazebos are (mostly) unoccupied and winter is settling in.
American Hogwarts
Mohonk Mountain House is a unique hotel in the hills above New Paltz, New York. Though I visited there during the summer as a youth (while reading Harry Potter, naturally), this was my first visit as an adult and during the winter. None of the magic has been lost during the seasons in between.
Boathouse Foliage
Rural college campuses have components I’d never considered: rivers and boathouses and forests. The arrival of (slightly) colder weather means the canoes and kayaks will be closed away for the winter. Autumn, here we go!
Two Views of the Hudson
Structures along the Hudson River mark eras of American practicality and industrial life. There’s a great combination of aesthetics and practicality.
The mid-century (1955) Tappan Zee Bridge is from a different era from the lighthouse above, but it also represents this aesthetic/industrial impact on the Hudson River.
Views of Lake Louise
Piper‘s trip to Alberta, Canada led to some incredible images of Lake Louise. The scale of the setting is almost incomprehensible—except for the tiny canoes by the shoreline.
The composition and content of the photographs brought to mind the works of early/mid-twentieth century naturalists, and I tried to envision what their take on Piper’s work would have been:
Real-World Zen Garden
Ottawide 2014
Visiting nearby Canada means looking at a mirror-version of the United States, reflected across the border. Like looking in a mirror, everything is still recognizable. Up is still up. Down is still down. But the brands and the metric units and the nationalism is different. Does looking in the reflection of Ottawa in the Shaw Centre reverse the transformation?
An added bonus: this is technically a self-portrait, with my tiny self down in the foreground.
Reflecting Rings
I love the way the rings and building reflect off the pool on quiet mornings like the one when I captured this shot.
Superstructure
New buildings are rising constantly in the Pearl District of Portland, Oregon. The reflective surfaces and exposed structure have me waiting for James Bond to send a villain tumbling over the edge of the top floor.
The Beast Awakens
The arcing forms of burning steel wool, mirrored and displayed in a “tiny planet” polar projects, put me in might of science-fiction technology or some demonic portal.
Decaseconds 