Welcome to our Galleries page!
Below are a number of images that introduce our grouping of pictures into what we rather grandly call "galleries". Click on any one of these images and it will link you to that particular gallery.
The Eastern Sierra Nevada mountains and the Owens Valley. One of our very favorite all-season areas. Incredible panoramic scenery and so many trails and back-roads still to explore...
Death Valley. So ominous a name, so rugged a place. And yet, whether you sit at dawn on the cool morning sands of the glowing dune fields, or stand alone on the wind-swept bajadas, it is one of the most movingly raw and magnificent geological landscapes. In this gallery we hope you share with us some of the awe we feel whenever we are there.
Lost Worlds of the West. In our travels back and forth across the western range-lands of the US, we have encountered either by design, or by simply stumbling upon, pockets of long abandoned efforts by men of different colors, creeds and lifestyles, to eek out some form of living. This gallery is our effort to provide testimony to their extraordinary efforts.
Geo-Visions. Fundamentally, the study of geology is the study of how our planet works and why the lands upon which we live and depend are the way they are. But it is also so much more. It is also the study of nature's beauty, the art-work of Mother Earth and Father Time combined. In our photographs we try to capture some of this time dependent beauty. But as a geologist, it is impossible NOT to give explanations, for not only do we see the beauty and history of the image with our eyes, but we feel it and we gush with it. The words are our vent!
Trees, Flowers and Nature's Textures. Wherever we travel, when we look closely at our surroundings, when we look for the geology, we also invariably see so much more. And in this we find ourselves endlessly amazed by the fine details, whether they be in the trees, the wildflowers, or even just the sand and dirt at our feet, that sits directly upon, and is literally an extension of, the underlying geology.
Oceans. Today, our family lives on the shores of the Pacific. It has not always been so. We have lived by, surfed on, sailed on, paddled on, almost every one of the world's oceans. In this gallery we try to represent what our love of an ocean life-style means for us.
Lost Worlds of the Yucatan. Occasionally we venture beyond our home shores. In the Yucatan Peninsular of Mexico, we discovered a rare and special land of ancient stone pyramids and temples, of overgrown and crumbling haciendas, where ghosts and spirits never felt far from our shoulders.
Heritage Britain. There are many reasons why so many North Americans think of Britain differently to all other countries. It is of course in part related to being the "Motherland", but there is also a lingering admiration for the culture, the people and the beauty of this small island from whence has sprung a veritable font of creative and industrial brilliance, enterprise and adventure. That so small a piece of global real estate has had so profound and significant an impact on global events and global development is more than astounding. But what may not be immediately apparent is that British and American "exceptionalism" share a common cause: in one way or another, the coming together and melding of a wide array of different nationalities and ethnicity. Both are melting pots, but in Britain's case, the melting took place over centuries, the evidence for which, today lies in its many historical monuments and institutions.
European Passages. Much of what we say about Britain is also equally true of many other parts of mainland Europe. The American ideals of opportunity, freedom and prosperity were an irresistible draw for so many who had only known down-trodden lives of hopeless impoverishment in the ancient lands of the "old world". Cheap passages to the land of seemingly endless possibilities gave people hope and a reason to brave the rigors of the passage and the challenges of starting lives anew on foreign soils. But today, no matter how significantly the US landscape of that time has been transformed, back in the old world things still largely remains as they were when the ancestors of today's American families left those ancient shores. So to return, today, and see those old buildings and landscapes, shaped and manicured largely as they were when our ancestors left, is a stirring experience that so many American families seek to experience at least once in their lives.
Industrial. "Helicopter on Deck!" Oil field workers head shore ward after two weeks offshore on an oil rig in the North Sea, somewhere between Britain and Norway. The oil and gas industry, the poster-child for all that is wrong with rampant, rapacious capitalism..... In this gallery we explore this notion and try to sort fact from fiction and perception.