AlishaV's Blog

This is the original picture that I photo-shopped to make the other fantasy land one. I cropped it into a square, lightened it, and then added more saturation to bring out the colors. I think it turned out a bit different but also still had the same feeling as the original picture, that sense of place that is Trona Pinnacles. The Trona Pinnacles are tufa or carbonate spires near Death Valley in the California desert. They were created underwater 10,000 to 100,000 years ago, when the Panamint Valley and Death Valley were filled with ice age lakes. They are now high and dry though. Check out The Trona Pinnacles for more information about their formation and location as well as a film clip from a Lost in Space episode that was filmed at Trona Pinnacles. Also, I want to apologize about the last items I posted. When I linked those pictures from Flickr to the blog I had no idea that it was sending out blog posts for each one. I'm so sorry about filling up your in-boxes with several mess

I have thousands of pictures that I've taken, most of them on various field trips through California or other parts of the west. Though we went to some wonderful places full of great possible shots, I rarely get the best pictures since we hurry from place to place and my short legs make it hard to keep up anyways without stopping to take pictures, so most of my photos are taken as I'm hurrying along or even out of the window of the field trip vans. Thus, they aren't the greatest they could be, but there have been some accidents where I got a few pictures that turned out nicely even without planning and tripods and proper equipment. These are a few of my favorite pictures.

This was a boring shot of the Trona Pinnacles, carbonate towers near Trona, California that are similar to those at Mono Lake. It was early morning, but a bit past the best time to take a picture so the area was really heavily shadowed with many bright spots. I played with the picture using photo-editing software and brought out that natural glow that was hidden by the glare. I liked the picture a bit, but wasn't really into it until I set it as my desktop background for a while. The different tones the picture takes on as the computer boots up, then warms, then as it gets turned off, makes the picture turn from earliest dawn to sunset at various points and I've just fallen in love with the variations.

Sunday (70) Originally uploaded by AlishaV Red-tinted pools of saltwater in Searles Dry Lake, Trona, California during Gem-O-Rama. We waded through these pools to collect Halite crystals and they may look like blood but they stink horribly. The algae that gives them the red color and the salt mix and makes a terrible smell. The crystals are worth it though :)

Alabama Hills and Moon Originally uploaded by AlishaV Camping at the Alabama Hills in California near Death Valley. Though the place has a stunning feel to it, it is extremely difficult to capture that sense of wonder in a picture. I love the color of this shot and the moon in just the right spot about some of the boulders that make up the area.

Double Arch in Arches National Park, Utah. The two arches creat all sorts of wonderful shadows and a great little cavity beneath them. I actually have a better picture of it that I'll try to load up later.