Wednesday, October 20, 2010

Aerial

I took this photo last year at about this time, then forgot about it. I ran across it last night, messed with the color and contrast, and came up with this.

I'm not sure what to say about it except I like it.

Yes, I took it in Pasadena. It's not an aerial shot. I was gazing out over the Devil's Gate Dam, looking north. This area is all overgrown now, but a year ago after the Station Fire and before the winter rains, the land was bare and a little stream trickled through it. We had ceased to take the dogs down there because of the color of the water. It was orange, though not this bright, from the fire retardant run-off from the Station Fire, according to Bellis. Dogs just don't care. They'll splash about in liquid plutonium if it looks like fun.

I detect footprints in this photo. They could belong to me, and to a certain canid I know.

19 comments:

Vanda said...

It looks like aerial photography of some wild landscape. Beautiful colors, and very fitting the season.

Anonymous said...

I like it too -- thought you took this from 10,000 high. I'm taking the day off (most of it, anyway) and plan to drop by Devil's Gate to see what it looks like after three days of rain.

Bellis said...

AH thought the same thing I did - that it's an amazing aerial photo of a river delta. I think the red color comes from a kind of iron-metabolizing bacterium. We may find similar ones on other planets. Is it just a coincidence that JPL is upstream.......?
(Only kidding.)

Susan Campisi said...

It still looks like aerial photography to me, and knowing that it isn't is oddly disorienting. My brain can't make the shift to perceiving it as anything but. Interesting...

Petrea Burchard said...

I noticed this morning that I hadn't given this one a title, but you've all given it to me. "Aerial."

Bellis, I don't know if it's a coincidence. Do you remember the red water that was running there last year? Did any of you go down by the dam? We finally had to stop going there. The water was so foamy and weird.

HearkenCreative said...

She's lying...it is aerial photography...oh, no, there's the footprint (it would be a giant's if it was aerial), and there's the pawprint, and there are some other tracks in the photo too. Amazing. Thanks for making me look.

I'm constantly trying to move water away from my house as it comes down this week, because it looks and smells funny. I'm hoping that it's just washing away toxins that have been building up from so long without rain...

pasadenapio said...

It's Mars, I think. That Boz is an interstellar pooch.

Bellis said...

The foam last year came from the red fire retardant dropped on the Station Fire.

Petrea Burchard said...

Ah, Bellis, thanks for clearing that up for us. I'll add that to the post. Interstellar Boz is glad to know. Now, can we help Hearken with his toxic runoff?

Margaret said...

Kind of scary though. Those colors look pretty toxic.

Virginia said...

This is an AMAZING shot. I still don't believe it's not an aerial but whatever it is ........a keeper.
V

Petrea Burchard said...

It wasn't super scary in the original, Margaret. It was just scary.

Well, Virginia, it's a big dam.

Jean Spitzer said...

Looks otherworldly, for sure. And beautiful.

Dina said...

You are such an experimenter.

Kind of creepy to think what kind of chemicals those planes drop around us. Some rocks just a few minutes from my house are still pink, years after being doused with that flame retardant.

lewi14@gmail.com said...

It looks amazing ...

Petrea Burchard said...

Jean, that's part of Hahamongna Watershed Park, which is otherworldly indeed.

Dina, I agree, though I guess the alternative is worse.

Thanks, Steffen.

Thib said...

Amazing shot, Patrea! Honestly, it's difficult to realize it's not an aerial photo...

And, unfortunately, it's an illustration of how could be the Donau river, in Europe, after this huge industrial accident a few days ago in Hungary... ;-((

Petrea Burchard said...

Hello Thib! So nice to see you here. I hope the Donau can clean itself, like this little stream has.

Petrea Burchard said...

Thib, I should clarify: I enhanced the color in the image. The water was running a bit orange, but not this bright! The reason was flame retardant used a few months previously. We had a terrible fire in the mountains in the fall of 2009 called the Station Fire, that's still under investigation. It burned 250 square miles of forest.