An Afternoon in the Mountains Plus Artist's Perspective

I often post pictures of the mountains from down here in the valley. The truth is I rarely get to go up into them. It is worth it when I do get to go up, because it is absolutely amazing up there. There are more trees and it is considerably cooler. There is even a teeny tiny town situated at the top. There is a gift shop up there that sells the best fudge ever!

The downside is that it takes SO long to get even to the foothills. Once in the foothills there are the previously mentioned giant houses you have to get past before you can really enjoy the view. Overall, I love it when I get to go, and this past weekend I got my chance.

It was the plan all week. When Saturday came I was let down by the heavy haze covering the city. It made the distant view of the mountains unclear, and I was actually fretting that it would mess with my ability to get the kind of photos I wanted. I decided that I would just have to deal with the conditions as they were. It was my only day to get up there.

As I got into the mountains I had hoped that the haze would just be above the city and that it wouldn't permeate the mountain atmosphere. I was wrong. Nevertheless, I was determined to get some good photos. Maybe I would have gotten better photographs if not for the haze, BUT there really is no use thinking about that when what I did get was pretty awesome.

This, for example, is my favorite!



I also like this one a lot.



Those types of photos are nice, and I was happy with them, but my true purpose in going was to have a new and interesting environment for experimentation. I wanted to play around with mood, perspective and movement. In order to illustrate how I did this I will first post a photo in which you can tell exactly what is going on. The next will be the experiment in mood and movement.

This first two are really the only ones where both are experiments, but keep in mind I was in the same location for both. The first it is easy to tell what is going on. The second is only an impression. I think they both work, but that's just me, the artist, speaking.







These next two I did while chasing the sun on its way down.






These two I think are the last I will show you of this trip.







NOTE: I have sometimes used photos from the internet in the past and also may in the future. That being said, all photos I have taken myself are, in fact, my property and may not be used without my express permission.