John & Anne Wiley

2015/04/09

High Contrast

Filed under: Flying,Happiness,Has Photos,Inner World,Nature,People,Random,SB Region — John @ 07:30

To attend a wedding we left our little corner of paradise for a quick trip to Phoenix. It looked like this when we left.

3545 Departure

3545 Departure

It looked like this (Phoenix was too smoggy for aerial pix) just before we arrived, as I noticed a little dry arroyo with saguaro cactus along the banks.

3691 For Love

3691 For Love

We made this trip for love, and it’s nice to see some stately saguaro, but vast scenes like this are also a reminder of why we love Home. People here talked excitedly about the low rent, and it’s always enriching to discover what people love about a place. We might try to explore some deserts and mountains before flying back.

2015/03/31

Gator Island

Filed under: Flying,Happiness,Has Photos,Inner World,Nature,Random,SB Region — John @ 07:07

To me this perspective on Anacapa Island looks like a giant gator lurking in the water. Unlike the different angle of pic I posted here a few days ago, this one was ok without a polarizing filter so the color is closer to how it actually looked. Gator & Miguel are my two favs of the Channel Islands closest to SB. At least until we’ve explored them all by land and sea. 🙂

2707 Anacapa the Gator

2707 Anacapa the Gator

2015/03/29

Eagle Luck

Filed under: Aviation,Flying,Happiness,Has Photos,Inner World,Nature,People,Random,SB Region — John @ 06:23

We flew some Young Eagles on three short flights from co-sponsor Above All Aviation through Lynn Houstons program named A Different Point of View, and during the flight I spotted a whale near the beach. I told the Eagles they were our lucky charms, because we rarely see whales and almost never near shore. After the last of our three flights we went back to look for the whale and happily found two. My fav pic of the encounter is this Pointillist impression with prismatic colors from the particular sun angle in the gently rippling water.

3014 Pointillist Prism

3014 Pointillist Prism

It glided slowly along just beneath the water like this, then finally came up for air.

3025 Whale Breath

3025 Whale Breath

Moments later it left a swirling circle of calm on the surface as it silently vanished into the depths. Mist from the breath of this blow hung briefly in the air, reminding me of the day I swam next to a Humpback as it sounded off Maui. The musky smell of that breath drifted down in a magical mist around me into the wordless memory of a lifetime.

2015/03/24

Dreamscapes

Filed under: Flying,Happiness,Has Photos,Inner World,Nature,Random,SB Region — John @ 05:00

We found ourselves feeling inexplicably sleepy in the evening, then realized this is why.

2162 Far Away Lands

2162 Far Away Lands

Today we journeyed to far away lands a few minutes from our shores, via magic carpet. This view across San Miguel to the other Santa Barbara Channel Islands stretching into the dim East initiated us into a lazy tour of such dreamscapes. Soon we were looking back at San Miguel from the other end, where colors conspire to transport the unwary back to memories of the Bahamas.

2248 Bahamian Miguel

2248 Bahamian Miguel

No wonder we felt drowsy, with so much to dream about! Overwhelmed with such visions, it seemed our excitement alone would have carried us along toward veils of mist in the mysterious East.

2410 Anacapa Island

2410 Anacapa Island

As we neared that end, the green gator shape of Anacapa greeted us. We’d been desperate for a clear day to make this flight before brown summer sets in. We even got to see faint blushes of yellow Coreopsis crouched on the North slopes.

2015/03/11

Red Green Blue

Filed under: Flying,Happiness,Has Photos,Inner World,Nature,Random,SB Region — John @ 07:20

The three primary colors of light are red, green and blue because they can be mixed to create every other color. Maybe this is why we love flying Santa Barbara, because our vistas offer the full spectrum. On one short flight with a friend we saw Red Rock, where some swimmers took a break from the river to enjoy the beach.

1962 Red Rock

1962 Red Rock

The red is probably from iron in the rock, and I like how it plays with the streak of green rock at the right that’s probably from copper content. The water will probably all but dry up in a few months, but normally this is a very popular Summer spot for swimmers and the daredevils who jump from great heights into the refreshing pool. The same recent rains that temporarily revived the river pools also brought a brilliant blush of green to the hills.

1989 Green Wrinkles

1989 Green Wrinkles

The happy cattle grazing here have worn winding topographic furrows into the slopes, offering an impression of wrinkles among the aging oaks with a faintly bluish hue. For magnificent shades of blue of course we need look no further than our shimmering Pacific, but I like the peculiar blue of this deep pond beneath the dam holding back muddy green at Gibraltar Reservoir.

1955 Precipice Blue

1955 Precipice Blue

For me the colors are greatly accentuated by the rush of looking directly down over the dam. I guess it’s deep in our DNA for gazing deeply into the blue over such a precipice to be breathtaking.

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