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One more and if nobody comments I ain't posting no more!

SamSam Registered Users Posts: 7,419 Major grins
edited April 11, 2010 in Landscapes
As the evening sun slides below the surrounding mountain peaks the mysterious rocks of Death Valley continue their inexorable race across the playa. We may not be privileged to know the purpose of this, but we can enjoy and bare witness to this marvel of nature.


Sam

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    Sexy6ChickSexy6Chick Registered Users Posts: 948 Major grins
    edited April 5, 2010
    Sam wrote:
    As the evening sun slides below the surrounding mountain peaks the mysterious rocks of Death Valley continue their inexorable race across the playa. We may not be privileged to know the purpose of this, but we can enjoy and bare witness to this marvel of nature.


    Sam

    It's hard to get comments on this board, but no one wants you to stop posting. This is a place for sharing pictures, just like the one you posted. And it's a great picture that definitely captures quite a site, one I would love to see today.
    ~*Natalie*~

    A lover of all things photography.

    Olympus E-500

    My Smugmug Gallery
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    EclipsedEclipsed Registered Users Posts: 360 Major grins
    edited April 5, 2010
    Death Valley is the kind of place that you could spend ages photographing. There are a lot of opportunities.

    Hey, if you stop posting, we will all feel sad...:cry
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    EnitsuguaEnitsugua Registered Users Posts: 186 Major grins
    edited April 5, 2010
    Sam wrote:
    As the evening sun slides below the surrounding mountain peaks the mysterious rocks of Death Valley continue their inexorable race across the playa. We may not be privileged to know the purpose of this, but we can enjoy and bare witness to this marvel of nature.


    Sam

    Those rocks are wild. Another SmugMuger, Jon Cornforth http://cornforthimages.smugmug.com, recently had his image of this published on the cover of Outdoor Photographer. See http://cornforthimagesblog.com/2010/02/25/outdoor-photographer-cover-image-april-2010/.
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    EclipsedEclipsed Registered Users Posts: 360 Major grins
    edited April 6, 2010
    Has anyone here actually seen the rocks come down?
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    redleashredleash Registered Users Posts: 3,840 Major grins
    edited April 6, 2010
    Sam - Please keep posting. :D

    I like this shot. Most of the shots I've seen tend to include just one rock, so I like seeing your view with multiple rocks, coming and going in different directions. It must be an amazing sight to see in person!

    Lauren
    "But ask the animals, and they will teach you." (Job 12:7)

    Lauren Blackwell
    www.redleashphoto.com
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    SamSam Registered Users Posts: 7,419 Major grins
    edited April 6, 2010
    Thanks guys!

    I was just getting a little frustrated. While not looking for praise or adulation a comment or two, you like, you don't don't like, give up photography what the heck is it? is appreciated.

    And poor Wilber is beside himself in the journeys section. 243 views and not one comment. The poor guy (duck) put up with high winds, freezing temperatures, harsh roads, no bathrooms, my cooking, and sleeping outside.

    Oh wait...that was the good part. :D

    Here is the little trooper ready for a good nights sleep.

    Sam
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    bgarlandbgarland Registered Users Posts: 761 Major grins
    edited April 6, 2010
    Sam wrote:
    Thanks guys!

    I was just getting a little frustrated. While not looking for praise or adulation a comment or two, you like, you don't don't like, give up photography what the heck is it? is appreciated.

    And poor Wilber is beside himself in the journeys section. 243 views and not one comment. The poor guy (duck) put up with high winds, freezing temperatures, harsh roads, no bathrooms, my cooking, and sleeping outside.

    Oh wait...that was the good part. :D

    Here is the little trooper ready for a good nights sleep.

    Sam

    Wilbur looks like great travel companion. What a trooper.

    And yes your shots are great, nicely done. I hope to get over there someday.
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    JCJC Registered Users Posts: 768 Major grins
    edited April 6, 2010
    redleash wrote:
    Sam - Please keep posting. :D

    I like this shot. Most of the shots I've seen tend to include just one rock, so I like seeing your view with multiple rocks, coming and going in different directions. It must be an amazing sight to see in person!

    Lauren

    Actually, if you look closely, there may be two sets of rocks with different paths, but for the ones with well defined paths that we can see, they are all moving in sync.

    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Sam
    As the evening sun slides below the surrounding mountain peaks the mysterious rocks of Death Valley continue their inexorable race across the playa. We may not be privileged to know the purpose of this, but we can enjoy and bare witness to this marvel of nature.


    Sam

    This is actually a really cool shot, you can see where/when the wind changed direction.
    Yeah, if you recognize the avatar, new user name.
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    DavidTODavidTO Registered Users, Retired Mod Posts: 19,160 Major grins
    edited April 6, 2010
    Sam wrote:
    Thanks guys!

    I was just getting a little frustrated. While not looking for praise or adulation a comment or two, you like, you don't don't like, give up photography what the heck is it? is appreciated.

    Sam


    Sam, to be honest, I've given up on reading most of your posts since you won't embed your images, and instead insist on a very long string of singly attached images, like this: http://www.dgrin.com/showthread.php?t=163867 . If you want critique, you could start by making it easier on your viewers.
    Moderator Emeritus
    Dgrin FAQ | Me | Workshops
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    CWSkopecCWSkopec Registered Users Posts: 1,325 Major grins
    edited April 6, 2010
    Cool shot, Sam! thumb.gif

    I'd never noticed that there were different sets of rocks traveling on differing routes. I guess I always figured that they all travelled the same direction.
    Chris
    SmugMug QA
    My Photos
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    JCJC Registered Users Posts: 768 Major grins
    edited April 6, 2010
    CWSkopec wrote:
    Cool shot, Sam! thumb.gif

    I'd never noticed that there were different sets of rocks traveling on differing routes. I guess I always figured that they all travelled the same direction.

    According to the prevailing theory, close groupings of rocks should have been traveling the same direction. However, it looks like the center rock (between and slightly behind the two curved track rocks, doesn't have the final (northern?) curve to it.
    Yeah, if you recognize the avatar, new user name.
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    SamSam Registered Users Posts: 7,419 Major grins
    edited April 6, 2010
    DavidTO wrote:
    Sam, to be honest, I've given up on reading most of your posts since you won't embed your images, and instead insist on a very long string of singly attached images, like this: http://www.dgrin.com/showthread.php?t=163867 . If you want critique, you could start by making it easier on your viewers.

    David,

    Thanks you for your thoughts. I guess I don't understand how this makes it harder for people to see or read?

    I would like to understand this a little more. It seems like a lot more work to post that way. Most of the images I post here aren't on my website, so it would be extra steps to upload to my Smugmug site and then to link to them, and maintain. If I ever delete the images they would disappear from the post.

    But If I can understand and see a reason, I will absolutely look into it.

    Sam
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    DavidTODavidTO Registered Users, Retired Mod Posts: 19,160 Major grins
    edited April 6, 2010
    Sam wrote:
    David,

    Thanks you for your thoughts. I guess I don't understand how this makes it harder for people to see or read?

    I would like to understand this a little more. It seems like a lot more work to post that way. Most of the images I post here aren't on my website, so it would be extra steps to upload to my Smugmug site and then to link to them, and maintain. If I ever delete the images they would disappear from the post.

    But If I can understand and see a reason, I will absolutely look into it.

    Sam


    Sure, Sam.

    It would be less cluttered, and easier to read.

    You need to upload the images somewhere, and rather than do it one by one you could batch upload.

    Your images look better when embedding, our attachments are brutal on your images as far as compression goes.

    You need to resize the images manually in order to attach, if you embedded you could skip that step.

    If someone wanted to quote your post, and select a few images for comment, you're making that step more difficult, as well.

    There are lots of shortcuts for embedding images. I use TextExpander, grab just the photo ID from the URL, then type in my magic command "smimg", which formats and pastes the proper URL from the image ID only (which I grab from the URL bar instead of having to go "get a link".

    Even using a free service like Skitch (plasq.com/skitch) would be better and easier for you and your viewers than attaching.

    I'm sure I could think of more, but that's a start. Let me know if you want any help with it. I assume offline would be better so that we no longer hijack your thread.
    Moderator Emeritus
    Dgrin FAQ | Me | Workshops
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    wfellerwfeller Registered Users Posts: 2,625 Major grins
    edited April 6, 2010
    CWSkopec wrote:
    Cool shot, Sam! thumb.gif

    I'd never noticed that there were different sets of rocks traveling on differing routes. I guess I always figured that they all travelled the same direction.

    Think strong winds and dust devils.
    After analyzing their rock trail map, researchers found that the longest, straightest trails are concentrated in the southeastern part of Racetrack Playa. In this area, wind is channelled through a low point in the mountains, forming a natural wind tunnel. In the central part of the playa two natural wind tunnels focus their energy from different directions. It's in this area that rock trails are the most convoluted.

    So the evidence suggests that strong gusts of wind and swirling dust devils, in combination with a slick playa surface may set even the heaviest the rocks in motion. Off they go, scooting along downwind until friction slows them down and they come to rest. There the stones wait for the next time when slippery mud and wind spur them into action again.

    http://digital-desert.com/death-valley-geology/racetrack/

    Here's a link with some trail maps.

    http://sophia.smith.edu/~lfletche/deathvalley.html


    & Yes, linked images are kind of a PITA.
    -
    Anybody can do it.
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    Wil DavisWil Davis Registered Users Posts: 1,692 Major grins
    edited April 6, 2010
    DavidTO wrote:
    snip…
    If you want critique, you could start by making it easier on your viewers.

    like using a font colour which doesn't disappear against a light background…

    (sigh…)

    - Wil
    "…………………" - Marcel Marceau
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    SamSam Registered Users Posts: 7,419 Major grins
    edited April 6, 2010
    Next post I will give it a try.

    Sam
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    SamSam Registered Users Posts: 7,419 Major grins
    edited April 6, 2010
    Wil Davis wrote:
    like using a font colour which doesn't disappear against a light background…

    (sigh…)

    - Wil

    Font color????

    I just use the default Dgrin color?

    Sam
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    Wil DavisWil Davis Registered Users Posts: 1,692 Major grins
    edited April 6, 2010
    Sam wrote:
    Font color????

    I just use the default Dgrin color?

    Sam

    Somewhere, your font colour is being set to white ()

    Here's what it looks like on my screen (all others' posts & quoted posts show up as black (i.e. #000000):



    - Wil
    "…………………" - Marcel Marceau
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    SamSam Registered Users Posts: 7,419 Major grins
    edited April 6, 2010
    Wil,

    I think I may know what the problem is. Sometimes I type posts in a word processer and change the font to white. Some how I guess the default color for Dgrin can be seen against dark and light colored backgrounds.

    Sam
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    David_S85David_S85 Administrators Posts: 13,199 moderator
    edited April 6, 2010
    The default color in the forum always produces reliable results. When composing a long post, I use a simple text editor like Windows Notepad, which doesn't format anything. The cut and paste results are predictable that way, though you might need to check line returns. Using anything more advanced might result in unreadable posts when cut and pasted here.
    My Smugmug
    "You miss 100% of the shots you don't take" - Wayne Gretzky
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    riddim_makerriddim_maker Registered Users Posts: 1,835 Major grins
    edited April 8, 2010
    Now that I've soon this image Death Valley is next on my list of places to visit wings.gif :ivar
    Thanks for sharing Sam
    Russ
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    AndManAndMan Registered Users Posts: 1,252 Major grins
    edited April 11, 2010
    Very nice shot Sam.
    Sexy6Chick wrote:
    It's hard to get comments on this board .....
    I agree though I don't understand why it should be. ne_nau.gif
    Peter

    www.andmanphotography.com

    Facebook Fan Page

    "Landscape photography is the supreme test of the photographer - and often the supreme disappointment." Ansel Adams
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