Portal - a photo on Flickriver

Portal

            Alabama Hills, Whitney Portal, CA.   As the day began to end, I searched for closure from it in the Alabama Hills, a jumble of desert and rocks heaved up and tilted sideways by earthquakes, baked by the sun, and sculpted by erosion.  Outside of Lone Pine, on the Whitney Portal Road, it is a chaotic interlude between the gentle valley below and the solid granite wall that stretches northward. At the skyline, the Sierra serrate the blue, and the wind drives fire clouds overhead and tears them apart.  I can see the portal road like a flying V switchbacking up the rock, where it will culminate as the gateway to climb the highest mountain in the lower 48.  Walking across that threshold is to enter a mountain wonderland of tarns, cirques, boulder fields, endlessly interesting forest, and ever salivating views.  But portals are everywhere, aren't they?  I must have passed through one on the road into this complicated world, underneath the Sierra.  It's an entrance that I chase through, or maybe an exit I am chased from--I could make a case for either. I suppose the camera is even a passageway in my hands, an instrument by which I frame and define what I'm looking for.  And what am I looking for?  Knowledge.  Confidence.  A clear vision.  An unwavering heart.  How seldom I find it...how seldom I'm found. I drop my weight at the door for awhile, to concentrate on the event of color and detail dissolving into the twilight. And eventually come back, the door opens both ways.
   

Taken on: September 4, 2012

Tags:

Alabama Hills

Eastern Sierra

Lone Pine

Mount Whitney

Sierra Nevada

Sierra Range

desert

landscape

mountains

range

southwest

sunset « less

Sets appears in: • West

Groups appears in: • High Sierra • Outdoor Photographer Magazine (Unofficial) more » • California Landscapes and Desert • Golden Landscape, Only The Best ! (Post 1, Comment 1) « less

Camera: Nikon D700, f/16.0, 1/6 sec, 35mm, ISO 200 (more info) (hide info)

Camera:	Nikon D700
Lens:	17.0-35.0 mm f/2.8
Aperture:	f/16.0
Exposure Time:	0.167 sec (1/6)
Focal Length:	35mm
ISO:	200
Exposure Bias:	-2/3 EV
Flash:	No Flash
Exposure Program:	Manual
Exposure Mode:	Manual
Metering Mode:	Multi-segment
White Balance:	Manual
Light Source:	Cloudy
Contrast:	High
Saturation:	High
Sharpness:	Hard
Color Space:	sRGB
Software:	Adobe Photoshop CS6 (Windows)
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