A great landscape photograph is one in which the viewer can imagine themselves; unsurprisingly, some of my own favorite pictures are ones featuring an obvious spot for the viewer alongside a gorgeous setting.
Tag: wood
Preparing for Winter
When winter arrives, the last of the garden needs to be harvested and wood needs to be stacked.
Integratron
Landers, California’s Integratron is said to be at the intersection of ley lines and underground reservoirs, and was originally designed to hold a device that its creator hoped would extend human lifespans. While I can’t say I’ve been able to verify any of that information, its stark white presence in the desert above the Coachella Valley is certainly striking.
While it was freezing and blustery outside, within the Integratron, the enormous parabolic dome of wood (with no metal used in its construction) was definitely warm and inviting. I’ll attribute this to thermodynamics more than supernatural forces.
Timberline Coffee Time
While Timberline may be cozy and a little creepy at night, coffee time the next morning makes it a far cheerier place.
Quadplane
The early stages of flight produced such remarkably fragile vehicles; when placed against the jet fighters of later periods, aircraft like this one look like insects.
Sunset Through Wooden Window Grid
Time has transformed a random sunset shot out the window of my sabbatical apartment in Berkeley’s Normandy Village into a nostalgia-inducing pixel arrangement. Even the wood patterns in the window frames now stand out to me.
More From an Uprooted Show
Uprooted, performing in a private residence. As David Crosby said on “4-Way Street”: “This is wooden music again, so you gotta be cool, otherwise you won’t hear it.” In this setting, acoustic instruments were paired with a wooden structure.
Uprooted
In the woods of Hermon, New York, Uprooted played a show to celebrate the release of their new CD. The band’s name stems from its origins: all of its members are transplants to the North Country from across the US. Fitting, then, that the show took place in a home with many handcrafted wood details and structures. The audience stretched far back under the balcony where I hid to take this shot.
Shipping Container House
Photographing landscapes and structures (and being the son of civil engineers), I’ve become a bit of an architecture fanboy. The trend towards building with shipping containers, whether a do-it-yourself effort or a pre-fab corporate approach, seems particularly exciting. This weekend, I encountered this in-construction house built from three forty-foot intermodal containers. The owners added sloped roof, a permanent foundation, and windows and doors outside, but they liked the shipping container aesthetic and plan to keep all of the original paint and labeling outside. I find that look charmingly authentic.
Inside, however, there’s little hint of the structure’s more exotic origins. Though, like the exterior, the interior is still under construction, there’s a straightforward home inside the three long shipping containers worth of space.
Mohonk: Ready for the Show
Mohonk Mountain House’s parlor is far grander than the name might imply. After dinner, it’s the site of live entertainment. That could be a comedian, or a string quartet, or a band, or an animal trainer. The consistent variety could almost be called old-fashioned—matching the tone of the room.
Oh Christmas Tree
The themed outdoor trees at Longwood Gardens are really something to see. The brightly lit tree was all the more inviting for being on the edge of an unlit meadow in the evening. Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!
Lake Mohonk Rocking Chairs
Morning sun across the old wood of Mohonk’s porch matches perfectly with the coils of vapor from a hot cup of coffee. I think this photograph effectively captures the ladder-like pattern in the chair shadows and the possibilities of hiking in the hills beyond the lake.
Snow Storm in the Backyard
Snow was falling last night. The small houses with highly peaked roofs and additions out back are a characteristic of this part of town, where the mill workers once lived. The wood sheds are another notable characteristic of an area where many people use only wood stoves to heat their homes in the winter.
Au Château
Visiting Ottawa often means a visit to the surreal and somewhat overwhelming Château Laurier. The outside of the hotel, I’ve noted previously, is pretty impressive; the interior doesn’t disappoint, either. For all the polished-floor touches and deep wood paneling, I find the most charming (and perhaps old-school Canadian) feature of the scene is the portrait of Winston Churchill.
Carriage House in America
A trip down to Lexington, Kentucky for Pony Finals has us staying in a converted carriage house. “Cozy” describes the place well, with its rough, wooden surfaces and mid-twentieth-century-rec-room aesthetic. The juxtaposition of the modern TV and the old roof beams is more charming than awkward.
Decaseconds 