Images
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Images seen here are my own work, with the exception of the obvious non-photographic images,
taken during the travels I have had the opportunity to make. As
brief background, I spent the summer following my collegiate
freshman year in Europe, based in Paris for a five week
Study
Abroad. During that month, I explored much of northern France, as
well as going to Belgium and Switzerland. After my sophomore year, I
spent the summer working for 10 weeks at
Yellowstone National Park
in Wyoming. During those two months, I explored as much of the
Yellowstone as I was able to, along with a week long trip to
California that included visits to
Yosemite National Park and San Fransisco. The
other road trip I have taken was just prior to the beginning of
spring semester, 2003, when I drove out to California with my
brother and stopped along the way at a few more parks:
Petrified
Forest and
Grand Canyon National Parks. As a matter of course, then,
I highly recommend acquiring and using the
USNP Service's Golden Eagle Pass, which grants access to all USNPs for a paltry cost. As
far as that goes, I highly recommend travelling anywhere your heart
leads you, as there is no better way to broaden your world
perspective than to get out into the larger world beyond your local
domain. With these thoughts in mind, enjoy this small gallery. Click
the thumbnails for larger views of each of these images, or go to the
root directory.
"If only the French had fought in
my time as they did later, Britain may have been able to keep all of
this!" -Henry VIII's Lament
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The European Road Trip
July 2000, Paris. La Tour Eiffel. The first day of my month
long stay as a Study Abroad student.
Le Penseur, by August Rodin, at his museum. Les Invalides,
the tomb of Napoleon, can be seen in the background.
Probably the most famous cathedral in the world, Notre Dame is literally the heart of Paris, as its location marks the geographic center of the City of Light.
Seen here from the rear, replete with flying butresses supporting the weight of the massive stone walls.
Sacre Coeur, or "Sacred Heart," a famous cathedral in a northern
arrondissement of Paris.
L'Obelisk, in central Paris, brought there a few centuries ago from
Egypt, from whence it was stolen.
Sunset in Paris reflected off the Seine, the river which divides the city in
half.
The view from the top of the Eiffel Tower. Picture is centered on L'Arc de Triomphe. [Alternative view]
One of Monet's famous painting from his Giverny garden, of Water Lilies
My photograph of Monet's subject in Water Lilies, taken from his
garden at Giverny, France. After having seen this immaculate garden, it is little wonder Monet was able to produce some of his incredible work. His subjects were lush and teeming
with oppurtunities to be directly transported onto his canvases.
While in Switzerland, I thought it would be a fine idea to hang glide.
So I did. Hang gliding over Interlaken, Switzerland.
This is a more conventional photograph of Interlaken, Switzerland, where I spent a weekend during my Study Abroad in Paris. View here from an adjacent mountain
over the valley between the lakes, or interlaken, as a train pulls into the depot.
Mont-St.-Michel must be one of the most amazing structures in the world. Constructed in the heyday of cathedral building, it is a brilliant cathedral built upon
an older cathedral, which is built upon a massive rock at the intersection of the Brittany and Normandy coasts. Why that rock is there puzzles me, as there is
nothing like it anywhere in the area; how a cathedral was built upon it those several centuries ago is beyond my comprehension. Truly, a feat of human accomplishment
in construction, Mont-St.-Michel must be seen firsthand to be truly appreciated for what it is.
From the American cemetery in Normandy, France, where Americans
suffered upwards of 6,600 casualties out of the 250,000 soldiers invading "Fortress Europe," held fiercely as it was by Nazi Germany.
Utah Beach, in Normandy. One of the five beaches attacked by Allied
forces during the D-Day invasions known as Operation Overlord. The other four beaches concurrently invaded on June 6, 1944 were: Omaha, Gold, Juno, and Sword Beach.
A view of the ruins of German defenses at Utah Beach. Notice the
landscape: the indentions are bomb craters, as the terrain is naturally flat
in that area. Also see the series of bunkers and barbed wire, the few
remains of the Germans' intricate network of defense.
Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks
This image is a piecing together of smaller satellite photos taken by the US Geological Survey in the 1990s. For access to more satellite photos, go to
http://terraserver.microsoft.com. In the photo here, the lighter area in the bottom right of the image is the
Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone, with the Yellowstone River coursing through it.
His name is Captain Delight. Although the weather turned warmer the
following week, Captain Delight survived a full two weeks before giving up
the ghost. At an altitude of 8,000 feet, Canyon Village was quite cold,
even as seen here in late May.
Avalanche Peak, in the Shoshone Mountains, on the eastern border of YNP.
After climbing this mountain in the last week of May, we realized why it was
not recommended to even attempt the hike until late June. The
trails were under several feet of snow, which was not conducive to following
the correct track up the mountain. The photo seen here exhibits the
extreme slope and treacherous conditions occurring at that time of year.
As a side note, I should point out that due to our faulty navigation, this
is not actually Avalanche Peak, but instead is the much more difficult (ie,
impossible at that time of year) trek up Bunsun Peak, situated adjacent to
Avalanche.
A photo of me on my first hike up Mount Washburn, a 3 mile each way journey climbing 2,000 feet, from Dunraven Pass to the summit.
After mid-June, there are few gentler hikes in YNP, as I have seen, but doing Washburn before the snow melts can make it a good challenge. Affording some of the
most spectacular scenery in the vicinity of Canyon Village, Mount Washburn is certainly one of my favorite hikes in the park, providing its excellent view
without an overly arduous trek.
View from atop Mount Washburn, at 10,000 feet, overlooking the Grand Canyon
of the Yellowstone and, barely visible on the horizon, Lake Yellowstone, the
largest alpine lake in the world at its altitude.
The paved track to the top of Washburn on the descent side of my trip. I am an amateur when it comes to photography, but I have quickly found that I enjoy using
light in my pictures. Here, I sought to caputure some of the day's brilliance and succeeded, illuminating cloud, water, and ice. Being from the South, I am
not accustomed to the concept of snowblindness, but it is a reality in places like YNP on particularly sunny days early in the year.
The unpaved trail up Washburn, the trail I ascended in Late May. An
arduous, but not overly difficult hike, even in the snow, provides a view
certainly worth the trouble. Mount Washburn is one of my favorite
hikes in YNP; I hiked it at least three times during my 10 weeks as a resident in the park.
Lower Falls, in the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone, where the Yellowstone
River falls on its journey toward Gardiner, Montana, the northern entrance to YNP.
A buffalo, photo taken with an 80 zoom, meaning I was much closer to
him than I should have been. As an advisory to anyone who may ever go
to YNP, do not get close to the buffalo. They will not respect your
space, and they are much bigger than you are. The park notes that more
people are injured by buffalo every year than are harmed by the native
grizzly bear population.
Not immediately as dangerous to hikers as bears or buffalo, Yellowstone's moose population is both significant and potentially dangerous to stupid travellers.
As with most of Yellowstone's native animal populations, the best way to admire the wildlife is from a safe distance. This photo was taken with a 300 zoom,
so, unlike the photo above, I actually was a safe distance away.
I chased this fellow around for at least half an hour before he would cooperate and grant my request for a photo. Taken on a hike up Observation Peak, overlooking
Canyon Village, part of the 20 miles I logged hiking that particular day.
This image struck me as significant when I snapped the photo. As can be seen, a solitary tree stands among the fallen logs of many others. The image this brings
to my mind is that of endurance, which was important to me at the time as I was on the return trip of a very difficult hike to Osprey Falls. A six mile each way
journey included a three mile in stroll through gentle hills, followed by a sharply marked three miles to the bottom of a canyon, from the bottom of which I was
able to enjoy the cool spray of the Yellowstone River crashing down Osprey Falls in a fantastic waterfall. The only negative to this particular hike is that once
one has enjoyed the view of the Fall, it is necessary to hike a steep three miles back out of the canyon before once more enjoying an even three further miles out.
In all, though, it is a view worth the effort, something which requires determination, much like the tree in this photo.
A mid-July sunrise over Lake Yellowstone, at Storm Point. Another of my favorite hikes, this one is best done before the park opens up for the tourist season. Since Storm Point is
such an easy hike, the path is nearly constantly packed with throngs of tourists, degrading the natural appeal of the hike. In order to catch this sunrise, I had to leave
Canyon Village several hours before sunrise to allow time for driving to and hiking out to Storm Point. Something strongly appeals to me about cool summer mornings over
this wide lake, affording the splendid morning view of which only a glimpse can be captured here.
Driving home from Yellowstone in the extreme northwest of Wyoming back home to Nashville, Georgia, the sun set and rose upon me twice during the journey. The rise on my
first morning out, seen here along Interstate 80 west of Laramie, WY, was one of the most spectacular of the summer. Beginning my drive at 4:00am, I traced the growth
of light as it began out my left driver's window until it reached the steady glow seen here. If you have never driven into the rising sun from the first gleam of dawn,
you should. 2,000 miles of driving in two days is only tedious if you ignore America's captivating scenery. (Or if you fret over the speeding ticket you received the
night before from the Wyoming State Patrol's finest....)
As mentioned above, I am quite amateur with my photography. The following black and whites were the first b/w roll I ever shot, but I feel that they turned out nicely,
due entirely to the gorgeous canvases provided by Grand Teton National Park. The image here is of Hart Lake. With black and white, I wanted to try to capture an emotion
in my picture. I'll leave interpretation up to you, but I can only say that for this shot, the second time that day I visited this spot (having earlier taken a color
shot in calm weather) the weather had taken a nasty turn and was on the verge of a major thunderstorm.
In this photo, and the next two, I was driving through GTNP seeking out some of the man made impositions upon the surpassing beauty of the natural landscape. Here,
a dam forestalls the waters of Lake Jackson from flooding the lands below. I felt that black and white served this shot better because as color seems natural,
a removal of color would help to infer the deviation from a natural landscape caused by the anomalous dam.
Also near the shores of Lake Jackson, a view over the small harbor, with the majestic Grand Teton Mountains in the background.
For tourists not intrepid enough to hike about the park, or who merely enjoy riding, GTNP has equine companions. My purpose here was to acheive a sense of human
interpolation upon the natural state by imposing boundaries in a place where there are and should be none.
Assorted Road Trips
It would have been a shame if my twin brother Phillip had actually been drinking from that holding tank. One of our many fun side-quests on the original journey to Yellowstone.
Among the more interesting pictures not seen on this page would have to be the Corn Palace, in Mitchell, South Dakota, which is remarkable for its façade made of corn.
That's right. Corn. Good thing this disposal tank wasn't made of...well, nevermind.
Welcome to Metropolis, Illinois. Also along the way to Yellowstone, this had to be the most interesting side quest. Alas, we did not have time to see the Superman Museum.
Josh did, however, stop to pose with the Man of Steel.
The Painted Desert, inside Petrified Forest National Park. The painted desert extends from this location along Interstate 40 in Arizona nearly to the South Rim of the Grand
Canyon, 200 or so miles north and west. On a day less hazy than this one, the view would have been even more fetching.
My brother and I drove from Georgia to California in a Daewoo. I have nothing against Daewoos, but, as can be seen in this photo, we thought it would be fun
to drive around the Painted Desert in our beloved car. Nevermind that the impact might have totaled it. But if the Park Ranger is asking, we were only trying to test
the strength of the parking brake. In case you're wondering, it held up fine.
This picture is just a shame. Maybe the model here isn't well known in the eastern US, but he is Jack, the famed spokesman for the Jack-In-The-Box fast food chain.
Here, he is posing in the snow on the southern approaches of the Grand Canyon, around 8,000 feet in mid-January. As he says, "Brrr! It's cold out here!"
In an unfortunate bit of luck, I made my first trip to the Grand Canyon on one of the few days that weather conditions prevent a truly formidable view of the landscape.
On one of the park placards I noted that about 90% of the time conditions for viewing are excellent, leaving about 10% of the time for hazy and/or foggy conditions.
Leave it to chance to allow me only one day at the Grand Canyon, and for that day to be hazy and foggy. I will simply have to return so that I can get more pictures.
Overlooking Yosemite Valley, at the western end of Yosemite National Park along California SR 120. Yosemite's hard, rocky mountains stand in contrast to the predominance of more
gentle and eroded mountains in the Yellowstone.
Sunset at Tuolumne Meadows, on the eastern side of Yosemite National Park. The trip to Yosemite occurred during my term of summer employment at Yellowstone. I was able
to secure eight consecutive days off from work, along with my brother and some friends, so we decided to leave Wyoming for California for the week.
My Home Town
Another satellite photo created from the images at the USGS Terraserver, this is my hometown, Nashville Georgia.
raboyd@valdosta.edu
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