Death Valley, California
These are the least visited and most remote large sand dunes in Death Valley. A rough dirt road and lengthy hike to see them.

www.theoutbound.com/yosemite/backpacking/backpack-to-pana...

Tags:   Panamint Dunes Death Valley telephoto mountains California Nikon Z7 sand wind erosion landscape Panamint Springs desert dunes sand dunes

© All Rights Reserved

www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eo2ZsAOlvEM


"Let us be lovers, we'll marry our fortunes together
I've got some real estate here in my bag
So we bought a pack of cigarettes and Mrs. Wagner's pies
And we walked off to look for America
Cathy, I said as we boarded a Greyhound in Pittsburgh
Michigan seems like a dream to me now
It took me four days to hitchhike from Saginaw
I've gone to look for America

Laughing on the bus, playing games with the faces
She said the man in the gabardine suit was a spy
I said, be careful, his bowtie is really a camera
Toss me a cigarette, I think there's one in my raincoat
We smoked the last one an hour ago
So I looked at the scenery
She read her magazine
And the moon rose over an open field

Cathy, I'm lost, I said though I knew she was sleeping
And I'm empty and aching and I don't know why
Counting the cars on the New Jersey Turnpike
They've all come to look for America
All come to look for America
All come to look for America"

Simon and Garfunkel 1968

Tags:   America road Death Valley Simon and Garfunkel alienation Panamint Springs California existential Nikon Z7 highway memory

© All Rights Reserved

A symbolic photo, that I took in Cape Town, South Africa in 2017, for the world we are now living in..... for a better tomorrow.

"Twas in another lifetime, one of toil and blood
When blackness was a virtue, the road was full of mud
I came in from the wilderness, a creature void of form
Come in, she said
I'll give ya shelter from the storm"

Bob Dylan 1974

www.youtube.com/watch?v=-gsDBuHwqbM

Tags:   Dylan storm ocean light cloud South Africa Cape Town B&W

© All Rights Reserved

Mesquite Dunes, Death Valley

Tags:   dunes sand hiker B&W California minimalism Nikon Z7 telephoto shadow contrast Death Valley isolation isolate alone solitude light light and shadows photographer hike Mesquite Dunes sun PM

© All Rights Reserved

This poignant letter was written 100 years ago during the Spanish Flu Epidemic by F. Scott Fitzgerald. There are many parallels to today.


THIS SIDE OF PARADISE: A LETTER FROM F. SCOTT FITZGERALD, QUARANTINED IN THE SOUTH OF FRANCE

Dearest Rosemary,

It was a limpid dreary day, hung as in a basket from a single dull star. I thank you for your letter. Outside, I perceive what may be a collection of fallen leaves tussling against a trash can. It rings like jazz to my ears. The streets are that empty. It seems as though the bulk of the city has retreated to their quarters, rightfully so. At this time, it seems very poignant to avoid all public spaces. Even the bars, as I told Hemingway, but to that he punched me in the stomach, to which I asked if he had washed his hands. He hadn’t. He is much the denier, that one. Why, he considers the virus to be just influenza. I’m curious of his sources.

The officials have alerted us to ensure we have a month’s worth of necessities. Zelda and I have stocked up on red wine, whiskey, rum, vermouth, absinthe, white wine, sherry, gin, and lord, if we need it, brandy. Please pray for us.

You should see the square, oh, it is terrible. I weep for the damned eventualities this future brings. The long afternoons rolling forward slowly on the ever-slick bottomless highball. Z. says it’s no excuse to drink, but I just can’t seem to steady my hand. In the distance, from my brooding perch, the shoreline is cloaked in a dull haze where I can discern an unremitting penance that has been heading this way for a long, long while. And yet, amongst the cracked cloudline of an evening’s cast, I focus on a single strain of light, calling me forth to believe in a better morrow.

Faithfully yours,
F. Scott Fitzgerald

Tags:   desert Death Valley isolation tree minimalist minimalism F. Scott Fitzgerald COVID-19 Coronavirus self isolation sand dunes patterns wind

© All Rights Reserved