The Salt Desert

We associate scenes of desolation with the vast deserts of the Middle East, but Arizona and Utah do have their deserts despite the efforts of the tourist bureaus to convince you otherwise. If you look at the ground carefully, you will see the salt deposits in this vast plain, just south of the famous Utah Salt Flats. The Western Deserts of Utah have an attraction all their own, but certainly are not as visited as other areas of dramatic scenery. This is still one of my favorite places on earth.

A Mountain Storm

As you gain altitude, the weather can change dramatically. When you look at the mountains, you may be standing in warm sunshine while just a few miles away, there is a storm raging on the mountains. Although I live in the desert, we have a similar phenomena when it can be raining on one side of the street and not on the other side. Even though I love warm sunny days, I also love clouds and storms, especially for taking photos. You will need to click on this photo to see the whole thing.

Peacock

When I was a lot younger, we had semi-wild peacocks in our neighborhood. I can distinctly remember hearing their very loud cries early in the morning on hot summer days. Beauty always comes at a price.

Texture

As I look around my highly manufactured world, I long for texture. Plastic is nice for some things, but there is a lack of real texture to any of the objects that we use daily. Everything has been designed to prevent injury to the extent that there is no real living left in everyday objects. Nature is not designed to avoid lawsuits for product liability.

The Perfect Form

Does form follow function or is function a byproduct of form. Nature would seem to answer both questions in the affirmative. Form and function are inseparably connected. In the design world, we should look more to nature and less to our own preconceived concepts of what nature is all about. We can learn more about design from an hour spent in a grassy field that in a year at a university. But with most, sitting in a field for an hour would not produce any learning at all. Why is that? Because we have been conditioned to turn off learning in informal situations. 

Color and Texture

We are surrounded by beauty. There is a big difference between looking at something as simple as grass growing in the field and seeing it. We can only see what we know about. We need to study the world around us to see the beauty. If you have never seen grass as beautiful, you need to learn about it and look carefully at it, then the true beauty will begin to reveal itself to your soul.

Mystery Photos -- Babies

I have a hard enough time telling my own children's baby pictures apart, these are photos taken by Margaret Godfrey Jarvis Overson in the early years of the 20th Century. The top photo was likely taken much earlier than the bottom three. Any guesses?