Photographic meanderings

Yes, friends, I have joined the ranks of the eternally connected: I am now an iPhone-ographer. Taken today from Tunnel View. Expect more images from my iPhone while I am on the road!

“Kid and Gorilla”, by Garry Hayes. B&W conversion by me, posted with kind permission.

This image comes from a lovely article by Our Friend Garry over at Geotripper about confronting the animal within, and the humanity of other animals.

Dear Readers;

I’m sitting in a room with bare walls. Most of my stuff has been shipped to Missouri. What remains will be loaded into my car tomorrow. I’ve lived in Yosemite for 6.5 years now, called it home. I’m making a big change this year, heading out of my own will.

I’m going to miss my beloved Sierra Nevada. I’ll miss the sound of Yosemite Falls outside my window. I’ll miss my road trips to the White Mountains, and I’ll miss my stunted, twisted Bristlecones.

But I’ll be working on some projects over the winter; My book about the Bristlecones, a photo essay about the recovery efforts in Joplin, MO, and I’ll be photographing the Occupy Wall Street protests of the midwest. Plus I’ll also be able to work on long-neglected cross stitch projects.

I’ve started a meta-blog; it will be where I’ll be reporting my activities, updates on my projects. You can find it here: EdieHowe.com

Soon I will be launching another blog: Unoccupy Yosemite. Watch for it here.

Yes, I’m nervous. I really, really hate moving. It sucks. But all things change or die, and thereby change. It’s time for a change.

I will be returning to Yosemite next spring. I’ve been awarded a position as a cashier at Glacier Point Gift Store again!

I’ll continue to update this blog, but most of the image will be from my archives.

Wish me luck!

Yosemite Conservancy webcam image, Sentinel Dome camera. 8:05 am, Nov 3, 2011. Thanks to YC for the image, and to Steve Bumgardner for tweeting the heads-up!

If you’re not familiar, New England got hit pretty hard with an October snow-pocalypse. This particular gem was posted to a mailing list by a long time friend of mine. Power is still spotty, and even places with power restored internet connectivity is still out. I presume my friend (anonymity requested to protect the plageristicly-guilty) posted this from work. Enjoy.

Day 4 of the outage. Deep in the jungle at this point. Hardware is intact, but no internet seen, we’re purely in local mode now. Natives are becoming restless and muttering about Ver—n. Caught Imbitu preparing a spare modem for sacrifice – the sad little devil doesn’t understand that no hardware spirits can help him against the demons of C-m–st corporate incompetence. Morale is dropping. Sent scouts out to look for alternative signal sources; I know it’s hopeless, but fiddling with foil and coathangers keeps them busy. I think Carruthers is going mad; he’s muttering about withdrawal and clicking repeatedly on Refresh, the poor sodder. Supplies of cached XKCD comics and videos involving kittens are almost exhausted; if we don’t get a ping soon I’m not sure what will happen. Bartles is starting to dream of Rockwell 56K V.90 modems at night, cycling through the handshake ritual. Freeeeooooo, Freeoooooooooop… I may have to shoot him.

If you find this, know that we do have landline phone service and if we’d stuck to DSL we might not be down the creek and lacking paddles in this fashion. Must go – the beaters are rubbing aloe on the cable modem again – Jones, signing out.

In 1979 I took an oath to protect and defend the Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic. While I have fulfilled that oath with the completion of my enlistment in the US Navy, I have felt a personal calling to step up and defend the constitution once again. With the injury of Scott Olsen during a violent crackdown by Oakland, CA police assisted by several other local Bay Area police forces, I am compelled to step up once again to protect and defend. This time I won’t have a paycheck. I won’t have health coverage. I won’t have a weapon.

I’ll have my camera.

I will be photographing #Occupy protests along the route to my winter job in Ellington, MO; I hope to visit small towns and big cities, photograph the Occupiers, their processes, living arrangements, and signs.

This is not an objective documentation by any stretch of the imagination–I am in support wholeheartedly of the Occupy movement.

Occupy Sacramento has a small core group of Occupiers. One man stood and spoke passionately about how he was sick of being told that he was doing everything wrong, that he’d lost his job, was losing his home, and had no insurance for his car. Another man, a member of the Veterans For Peace, stood up and said that he was proud of the group, that he’d demonstrated against the VietNam war, and that he’d brought some food in support of the #OccupySacto group. I spoke on learning to recognize the signs of burnout, making the effort to pace yourself, and also recommended some books on the subject of consensus building.

I noted that even some of the more disruptive homeless people were treated with dignity and respect. I was touched by the sincerity of the two young men who approached me after general meeting broke up and I headed toward my car. They thanked me, spoke to me of their goals, what they were hoping to accomplish.

View the set of 5 images here.

If you are from #Occupy Sacramento, you have permission to repost this to your blog. All others must contact me for license to use these images.

Today I’ll be buying my first smartphone–the iPhone 4s. Then I will be heading over to Oakland to observe my first #Occupy protest. We’ll see how the iPhone does photographically.

In the mean time, take a virtual stroll over to Cole Thompson’s blog, and check out his incredible photography. I’d embed his YouTube slideshow, but I haven’t had a chance to ask permission, so here’s a link: Cole Thompson’s Portfolio Video

Be well, and remember: There’s a 99% chance you’re one of the 99%.

One of my favorite places to explore is this dolomite ridge, viewable from the from the Methuselah trail, after the first 1/2 mile. Eventually you meet up with the southern end, and a social trail leads along the knife edge past these incredible snags. The view is stunning, down the eastern hills of the White Mountains, all the way into Deep Springs Valley, and the northeastern end of the Inyo Mountains. On a clear day you can actually see into Eureka Valley, and the sand dunes.

This little teaser is a gift from Steve Bumgardner, Yosemite videographer. If you don’t follow his works, you should. In his words:
“Since this years display is less than spectacular, here’s a little taste of the great colors from last year. Enjoy!”

Here’s Steve’s web log: http://www.yosemitesteve.com/
You can follow him on Twitter, too!

Now starts the countdown until I leave for Missouri. Day of departure is November 7th, for the first leg of my journey. In the mean time, I’ll mostly be posting images from my archives. This shot is of some invasive raspberry vines near my room after a hard rain in October of 2010.