Clifford Beshers

  • My inclination this year was to resist the straight and narrow. Roads are fastest, but destinations lie. A short walk off the road, thought it be in trackless desert, offers possibilities unique to you. Pause the drumbeat of efficiency. Let the wind and sand shift new patterns into your mind.

    A well-worn road runs straight through a desert valley, until it climbs out the mountains on the far side. To the side, dark desert plants. In the distance on the valley floor, beige sand kicks up in the wind. Partially cloudy skies above.

  • Questions from the very elderly.

    My father, 95 and suffering from some dementia, asked: If the ruler of England converted to Catholicism and became Pope, what would happen to his/her spouse?

    His assembled offspring replied that we thought:

    • such a conversion would be an unlikely choice for a modern British monarch,
    • it is unlikely such a person would be chosen to be Pope,
    • it is very unlikely that a woman would be chosen as Pope,
    • any candidate for Pope would have to be unmarried,
    • getting a divorce would also be disqualifying.

    He seemed satisfied with this answer and went back to sleep. But now I’m left wondering why he asked it in the first place.

  • Generally, March to June is when I’ve heard of big blooms in Death Valley, but here it is December, with the daytime temperatures about 68F (20C), and these flowers showed up in…droves? Bunches, perhaps.

    Yellow flowers bloom in Death Valley in December.

  • Elsewhere in the park, there is no standing water, but the flowers blooming in December, while dust blows in the background, are evidence of the big rainfall last winter.

    Yellow flowers fill a desert valley floor. Barren mountains loom in the distance. Dark grey clouds cast deep shadows.

  • A stroll in the salty shallows of Badwater Basin.

    A man walks through the shallows of a shallow, salty lake. There shores are white salt, dusky mountains rise from the far shore.

  • Pretty little beast.

  • In many ways, watching the pilgrimage to Badwater was as interesting as the site itself. Death Valley National Park is enormous, but it also is a challenge to traverse and understand. A pool of water so far below sea level is a recognizable mark, something to check off a list.

    A long, but sparse, line of people walk along a white alkali path to the edge of a shallow lake. Dusky mountains rise from the far side. Everything is brown or white.

  • Looking at my photos from Badwater, I realized that when I’m at a crowded location, I tend to include other photographers as models. They stand apart, always in front of something interesting, and they stay still for shots in low light.

  • A Christmas miracle, a man walks on Badwater Lake in Death Valley. The real miracle is the return of water to this basin after the record precipitation last year.

    A man appears to walk on the surface of a large lake. The surface is smooth, reflecting the mountains in the distance.

  • Looking down into Panamint Valley, a partially cloudy skies make all the difference in a photograph. I’ve taken this shot several times, but with flat, uniform light, and it has always resulted in a boring image.

    Looking down from a high point, a large, barren valley runs left and rihght. Light hits the bottom of the valley, while the foreground is mostly dark. Patches of light hit the rugged, eroded mountains on the far side of the valley. Clouds fill the sky, but not uniformly, there are many different types, and patches of blue show through.

  • This is the first in a series of posts from Death Valley. I went with a purpose, to see Badwater Basin with actual water in it. I nearly didn’t make it before sundown, because cloud cover made interesting lighting the entire drive, and I kept stopping for scenes like this.

    In the freground, sparse desert plants in sand. In the background, rough, rising terrain, with geologic striations and no visible flora. In the center, a bank of sand dunes with two people standing on one peak, looking very small in the giant landscape. The foreground and background are in cloud shadow, the valley floor beyond the dunes is brightly lit by the sun.

  • A fold in the Inyo Mountains. Normally, it is hard to distinguish these sections of the mountainside, but the partial cloud cover provides the lighting that informs the depth.

    A section of a mountain is lit by narrow shaft of sunlight. The rock is layered, with stripes running vertically, a sign of geologic folding.

  • Mortimer, hunting birds at the feeder, though they are unattainable for an indoor cat.

  • Mmmmm… Golden Retriever hambone.

  • This photo was inspired by #stickerspotter @maique.

    A broad tree trunk has a white, wide board attached to it. Drawn on the board are red sunglasses with pointy bits rising up from the outside of he lens, like cats’ ears or eyes. The ends of the bows suggest ovaries at the end of fallopian tubes. There are no words. Below the board, the tree has two bulbous knobs, and near the roots, a dark vertical opening.

  • The Inyo Mountains really look their best under partially cloudy skies.

    Grey-brown weathered mountains loom over a grassy valley, with clouds on the mountain peaks and above casting shadows.

  • Eastern Sierra Nevada, near Independence.

    Jagged mountain peaks are shrouded in puffy clouds.

  • Clouds, shredded when they hit a change in the winds.

    Above a mountain, cumulonimbus clouds on high are white and puffy, but lower down, out of the light of the setting sun, they are dark and stretched thin from winds.

  • When sunrise sets a cloud on fire.

    A mountain range blocks the sunrise, but clouds above it are brightly lit from behind.

  • Ghost dolphins in the sky.

    A collection of wispy, curved, grey clouds hangs over a mountain landscape. The clouds have some darker, curved streaks that look vaguely like dolphins swimming.

  • What I need is an AI bot that can tell me where I left my diamond file kit.

  • Storms are finite.

    Dark clouds hang over a dark mountain valley. Blue sky and pink clouds can be seen in the distance, where the dark cloud cover ends.

  • $148 Million.

    That has a really nice ring to it.

  • When the wind stretches cumulonimbus clouds here, the results often look like skulls, often rodent skulls.

    This one feels like a dragon skull.

    A cumulonimbus cloud has been torn by the wind into a strange curling shape resembling a rodent skull.

  • Murderbot series picked up by Apple.

    I think the Murderbot books will be a real challenge to adapt to the screen.

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