Nicasio Grazing Land Photo

Photographer’s Note

Entering the south end of Nicasio Valley one drives through dense redwood groves that crowd up against the winding road. Homes in that area see very little direct sunlight during the day. This shot toward the south was taken just north of the town of Nicasio. In the distance you see hill slopes covered with fir trees, most of which are redwoods. The road is at the very bottom of the valley, meandering between the undulating hill forms.

In the foreground you see grasslands opening up. From this point north rolling hills will have few trees on them, but plenty of cattle and milking cows. With apologies to the vegetarians among us, these cattle will some day find their way to Bay area grocery stores.

This photo was taken a bit earlier in the evening than the parish church photo. Tomorrow I'll share an image I captured today of the wide open spaces just north of here. I was using a Canon Digital Rebel that a good friend loaned to me for a few days. Shooting with a digital SLR all day today was like a dream come true, especially with a collection of Canon lenses loaned by another friend. The results are pretty breathtaking. I feel blessed.

RGatward, Rinie_Hoff, timotey, Gix, Burnham, GrahamB, Liora, taivo, doreeneden, pamastro has marked this note useful

Critiques | Translate

RGatward (19743) 2004-07-23 3:32

Very nice landscape Curtis, IMO made by the grazing cattle. It brings to my mind some of Mohammed's (elihesamian) recent landscapes of Iran. Funny how similar and different some places can be at te same time.

Rinie_Hoff (9332) 2004-07-23 3:35

Where are the horses, Curtis? A nice leading Arabian mare, leading a herd with mares and foals, and a proud stallion on the look-out?
Beautiful landscape, with nice clouds above it, the diagonals lines, coming from left and right, are very nice in this picture. Too bad you got those stupid electric wires, luckily they are not very disturbing.
I am curious for the results you got with the rebel, I can read that you liked very much playing around with it.

timotey (1926) 2004-07-23 3:42

Another beautiful scene of this landscape.
Curves are so nice giving a beautiful aspect to this picture and playing as a frontier between each step of the depth of field.
The rising light increases details and contrast and the sky is astonishing !

Gix (3559) 2004-07-23 4:18

a oper view of the quiet life in the hills.
And the air is pure & trasparent!
Why stay i here sitting under 36° + 90% umidity ???
Nice photo of a nice pace.
Giorgio

GrahamB (939) 2004-07-23 4:26

Nice rural scene. I like the layers of hills coming in from each side.
Shame about the power lines but thats life! but they are not that distracting and I guess I was looking for them after the comments from Rinie.
Very nice.

Burnham (2426) 2004-07-23 4:47

Nah, not the same feeling of being "at home" I think is was the church that did it yesterday ;o) This is quite a view 8unfortunately i'm at a very small monitor right now on a break at work). The sky is magnificent and the curvy landscape below it makesthis a perfect shot.

Liora (1857) 2004-07-23 6:08

These are really not the views I would associate with California, but I guess that makes this series so special. Tranquility as far as the eye can see... Well captured!

taivo (1840) 2004-07-23 12:53

Beautiful shot. I like landscape shots. I like the downward sloping hill so you can look into the valley. The colours are great. The cows add some liveliness to the scene.

doreeneden (1014) 2004-07-23 17:31

A nice landscape enhanced by the clouds.

pamastro (7213) 2004-07-24 0:28

Beautiful sky. Beautiful landscape. Very tranquil again. This is beautiful countryside. It looks very beautifully kept. Again I love the layers of hills and great lines and textures of the topography. The cows in addition to the peaceful, agricultural, feel give a great sense of scale making this landscape much more vast than it would appear empty. Gorgeous shot, Curtis. Great job.

Hanssie (9133) 2004-07-25 4:07

Rural....peaceful, nice done, like to have a very long walk here....