Have you ever had the feeling you were being watched? At sunrise high up in the Temblor Range of mountains in the California Desert, a stone face watched over me as I watched over a spectacular sunrise among the vibrant blooming slopes of these young mountains. In the morning breeze purple-blue lupines dance as the thin clouds turn pink from the rising sun. After stumbling across this place I immediately became enamored with it. The entire wildflower color palette was amazing here, from the lupines to the yellow goldfields to the grasses littered with tiny orange fiddlenecks and distant patches of blue-purple phacelia. Within the minutes just before the harsh direct sunlight of the day would arrive, the soft glow of the day’s first light beautifully embraces the landscape. Such moments are my favorite.
Since Trump opened the Carrizo National Monument to oil drilling, just imagine how much more beautiful these landscapes will be when embellished with road cuts, networks of pipelines, sump pits, dirt berms, derricks, and pump jacks. The fragrance of crude oil will mask the honey-like smell of the flower blooms. And the ugly silence of the Temblor Hills will be broken by the orchestral groaning of diesel engines powering the oil pumps.
Many of the oil formations in this region are under high pressure. A few miles away, on the east side of these hills, near the town of Taft, was the Lakeview Gusher of 1910, the biggest accidental oil spill in the world. It lasted 18 months and flooded the surrounding terrain with crude oil. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lakeview_Gusher The 1969 Santa Barbara oil spill was another blowout gusher that broke through the surrounding geological fractures. Just think how much more beautiful these hills will be if they are coated with shiny black oil flowing down the canyons onto Soda Lake and across the Plain.
Think all this is improbable? "Temblor" is a Spanish word for "earthquake." The Temblor hills are split by the San Andreas fault, which is overdue for "The Big One." Can you imagine the logistical problems of getting oil spill control equipment into that steep, unstable, terrain?
I dont know if it is me or what, but there seems to be somthing a little strange about the background purple luminance on the hills. Seems really light or bright.... It is your rendering of course... but I might be tempted to darken it slightly?
Yeah, that's pretty much what a lot of these hills looked like during the past few weeks, especially if you got some pinkish pre-dawn or post-sunset light.
Regarding the comment above, while I'm far from a fan of the take-backs in national monuments, especially those in Utah, I think while Carrizo Plains NM was on the list of monuments proposed for take-backs initially, but that no changes were made. If I'm wrong, please point me to updated info on this, as I'd like to be part of activism to protect this monument.
Mark Metternich wrote:
WOW! What an incredible scene!!! Congratulations!
I dont know if it is me or what, but there seems to be something a little strange about the background purple luminance on the hills. Seems really light or bright.... It is your rendering of course... but I might be tempted to darken it slightly?
Thanks Mark. I am actually not brightening anything specifically here and clarity is at -10 (this shot is all Lightroom). Those fields of phacelia were a really saturated hue towards blue when lit up by the sky and turned very purple with warm sunlight. The foreground slope with the stone face and the bright yellow hill facing to the right on the right side of frame are starting to get some sunrise soft glow more strongly. There's a -1/3 stop grad in LR from the top that is also suppressing highlights a bit. Overall the curves adjustment I did bumped up the saturation a bit with the saturation slider itself at 0 as is dehaze and vibrance. A simple increase of the dehaze slider sends this scene into radioactive territory.
gdanmitchell wrote:
Yeah, that's pretty much what a lot of these hills looked like during the past few weeks, especially if you got some pinkish pre-dawn or post-sunset light.
Regarding the comment above, while I'm far from a fan of the take-backs in national monuments, especially those in Utah, I think while Carrizo Plains NM was on the list of monuments proposed for take-backs initially, but that no changes were made. If I'm wrong, please point me to updated info on this, as I'd like to be part of activism to protect this monument.
Dan
Dan from my memory you are right. Carrizo was under consideration for butchering but somehow was spared for now. The scene just on the east side of the Temblor range is an apocalyptic hellscape of oil and gas wells that is a really tremendous contrast from the natural beauty of this monument. I shudder to think of what this awful administration would have allowed if they had decided to do so.
Dan and Kurt: Where did you get the idea that Trump and BLM have abandoned their plans to start oil exploration in the Carrizo Plain National Monument? Conservation groups are still fighting that battle. You seem to think that the oil exploration would start overnight. Even for an impetuous Federal government, there is a necessary delay from decision to implementation. Part of this is dealing with court challenges and State actions. For a very recent news update: https://www.sanluisobispo.com/news/local/environment/article229099614.html
It's a easy Google search to see relevant, factual, activity for the previous 12-18 months.
jdc562 wrote:
Dan and Kurt: Where did you get the idea that Trump and BLM have abandoned their plans to start oil exploration in the Carrizo Plain National Monument? Conservation groups are still fighting that battle. You seem to think that the oil exploration would start overnight. Even for an impetuous Federal government, there is a necessary delay from decision to implementation. Part of this is dealing with court challenges and State actions. For a very recent news update: https://www.sanluisobispo.com/news/local/environment/article229099614.html
It's a easy Google search to see relevant, factual, activity for the previous 12-18 months.
jdc562, where did you get the idea that this is your living room for Trump bashing and politics talk? Take your discussion elsewhere - there are a billion forums/groups available for political and activism-related discussions. Leave this space for landscape photography-related topics.
jdc562 wrote:
Dan and Kurt: Where did you get the idea that Trump and BLM have abandoned their plans to start oil exploration in the Carrizo Plain National Monument? Conservation groups are still fighting that battle. You seem to think that the oil exploration would start overnight. Even for an impetuous Federal government, there is a necessary delay from decision to implementation. Part of this is dealing with court challenges and State actions. For a very recent news update: https://www.sanluisobispo.com/news/local/environment/article229099614.html
It's a easy Google search to see relevant, factual, activity for the previous 12-18 months.
The last news I saw was that the boundaries would be unchanged back almost a year and a half ago and I must have missed the part about the land management review, probably because at the time they simply said they were reviewing *all* national monuments. While I appreciate the updated info I am not looking for a fight in a thread simply about my photo, especially when we are on the same side regarding preservation of CPNM. In the Carrizo facebook group I recently joined I have not seen any discussion of this.
kurt765 wrote:
Thank you everyone for the comments!
Dan from my memory you are right. Carrizo was under consideration for butchering but somehow was spared for now. The scene just on the east side of the Temblor range is an apocalyptic hellscape of oil and gas wells that is a really tremendous contrast from the natural beauty of this monument. I shudder to think of what this awful administration would have allowed if they had decided to do so.
Kurt, I just put two and two together to figure out who you are after I saw this same photograph posted somewhere else. Nice work, by the way.
You are right about that "hellscape" over in the general area of McKittrick and Buttonwillow. I've been through there many times — most recently just a couple of weeks ago as I travelled between the Carrizo and Death Valley. I've contemplated doing a long term photography project in the oilfield area, but the concept is still being refined. (Ooh, that awful pun was not intended, but I'm going to leave it there. ;-) )
Regarding the Carrizo, where the bloom has likely pretty much dissipated by now, this actually turned out to be a pretty spectacular year. I was there two years back for the so-called "superbloom," which was quite something. The expectation this year was that it wouldn't be very spectacular, but in the end nature outdid herself and exceeded expectations. I was out there twice this season, once about a week into March and then again at the very beginning of April. The bloom got a late boost from a very wet February and a big atmospheric river storm around the start of March — that event increased the bloom all over the southern half of the state.
For those who haven't been there, it really can look like this if you get to the right spot on the right date at the right time of day in the right conditions... :-) The good news is that there are similar scenes all over California in a year like this one. In fact, as we drove over towards that oilfield "hellscape" on the other side of the Temblor Mountains on the second visit, we saw equally spectacular flower fields in many places where we were almost the only people looking at them! I just returned this week from Pinnacles National Park, where there were many areas of (the tail end of) a spectacular bloom, too.
Since this thread is about photographs, I'll be brief. (I'll ignore any addition posts along these lines from you in this thread.)
Your link addresses forward-looking legislative proposals... and it doesn't contradict what any of us wrote.
In tone and content, your posts exemplify the divisive hysteria that destroys political dialog. Try that google thing you mentioned to look up "horseshoe theory" for some fun reading that seems relevant in your case.
Don't pollute the dialog with hysterical misinformation, disinformation, and worse. Look for accurate information and work intelligently on these issues instead.
I understand the urge to criticize the effects of drilling for oil/gas and agree we would prefer not to have it. Who is willing to give up their transportation and electricity to help achieve that?
stanparker wrote:
I understand the urge to criticize the effects of drilling for oil/gas and agree we would prefer not to have it. Who is willing to give up their transportation and electricity to help achieve that?
I'd be happy to discuss elsewhere how you think not drilling in one specific place means we can't have any energy at all, but this is the Landscape Photographer board.
EVERYONE:
PLEASE STICK TO DISCUSSION OF THE PHOTO IN ANY FUTURE REPLIES THANK YOU
mach250 wrote:
great shot, personally I would have lowered the saturation and darkened the shadows as it appears to blend together hdr-ish.
DaleBerlin wrote:
Beautiful image. A bit over saturated IMO, but very nice indeed.
Looking at this again after a few days I'm not going to really disagree. I've been all over the map in how to process this one. It's quite saturated just from the before dawn soft light once highlights are suppressed a bit to bring the sky down and then contrast is added. I'll probably chew on it some more every once in awhile in the coming months.
