Henry Goodman’s Photo Exhibit, LANDSCAPES OF THE WEST, on display in Grass Valley, CA, January 2-31, 2015.
January 20, 2015 in Arts, Events, Notes, Photo galleries
Henry Goodman (BK) has a photography exhibit, LANDSCAPES OF THE WEST, on display at the Flour Garden Bakery & Cafe, 999 Sutton Way, Grass Valley, CA from January 2-31, 2015. The show includes a collection of photographs of the spectacular beauty of the mountains and rivers of the West. Locations include the San Juan Islands, North Cascades, Grand Canyon, Mexico, Glacier National Park, Nevada, and Northern California. A few of the photographs appear below.
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- Reeds Reflected in Twin Lake After I graduated from college in 1972, my brother and I finished building a house in Vermont and sold the house. With the money that we had saved, we headed West. I decided to settle in Bellingham, Washington, near the North Cascades National Park and the San Juan Islands. I worked as a carpenter’s apprentice to learn more about building and to support myself, and I went exploring every chance I got. In the spring, I took a ferry to Orcas Island and hiked to the top of Mt. Constitution, the highest point in the San Juan Islands. There was a watchtower at the top of the mountain. I slept below the tower, woke up before sunrise, and climbed to the top of the tower. It was a clear morning, and there was a 360 degree view for great distances over the islands toward the North Cascades (San Juan Islands, North Cascades) and over Vancouver Island to the mountains of Canada (Strathcona Provincial Park.) As I walked down the mountain, I passed Twin Lakes, and I saw reeds bending into the water and reflecting
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- North Cascades National Park In August, I hiked up to Cascade Pass in the North Cascades National Park. There were spectacular views all around to the snowy peaks. August was spring in the Cascades, and flowers covered the meadows.
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- Pilgrimage to Talpa In October it started raining. I had saved some money, so I headed down the Pacific coast, visiting friends on my way to Mexico, where the climate is clear and sunny during the winter. At Toltec ruins in the state of Nayarit, I met some people who told me about a tropical island, called Mexcaltitan. There was a story that the Aztecs had begun their conquest of Mexico from Mexcaltitan. I headed to the island, as a passenger on a truck over bumpy dirt roads with egrets flying nearby, and then in a canoe with people returning from market. There was no hotel in Mexcaltitan, so people whom I had met on the truck brought me to the two young padres. They invited me to stay with them at the curate and to eat with local families. I spent a couple of weeks on the island, learning to fish and attending a wedding in a nearby village that the padre and I reached by canoe and horseback. The people of Mexcaltitan were very kind to me. Then Padre Jose Luis told me he was going on a peregrination, and he said that I should come on the peregrinacion. I asked what a peregrination was, and he replied, “Your heart is good. You should go with us.” And so I went. It turned out that the peregrination was a religious pilgrimage, walking 120 miles over six days to a religious shrine in the town of Talpa. We would start walking each morning with flashlights at about 2 AM, when it was still cool. One lady, Dona Gogita, who was 84, had made this pilgrimage each year for 67 years. I took the photo, Pilgrimage to Talpa, a little after sunrise on the third morning. After the pilgrimage, I slowly traveled down to Mexico City, where a group of Mexican mountain climbers invited me to go with them to climb Orizaba, a snow-covered 18,000 foot volcano. From there I went down to Oaxaca to see the magnificent ruins, but in Oaxaca I felt very weak and discovered that I had hepatitis, probably from drinking water in Mexico.
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- Grand Canyon After I was strong enough to travel, I returned to Los Angeles to recover with family. When I regained enough strength, I headed out to see the Southwest. I arrived at the Grand Canyon on April 12. At the rim, it was snowing and 14 degrees. I got a permit to hike one of the lesser used trails, the Hermit Creek Trail. As I headed down into the canyon the next morning, it was just above freezing, but clear and crisp (Hermit Creek Trail.) On the second day I reached the Colorado River. I slept near the river and woke up before sunrise. As the sun was coming up, I looked up at the cliffs, which were lit by the sun to an intense orange and gold. The colors of the cliffs were reflected in the river (Grand Canyon, Sunrise.) I knew that the Grand Canyon was a desert environment. I didn’t know that, in the spring, there were wildflowers, ones that I had seen, like Indian Paintbrush, but also brilliantly-colored cactus flowers. I spent 5 days walking in the canyon, where it was about 20 degrees warmer than on the rim. When I returned to the rim, I spent three days taking day hikes. One evening, the sunset light bathed the canyon in soft pinks and oranges
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- Log Fallen against Waterfall, Mendocino I began teaching science at Sierra Mountain High School in 1984. I took several natural history courses at Sierra College. The field trips that were part of the courses introduced me to some of the most beautiful natural places in Northern California. I began to take my students on 3-4 day camping trips to show them these places. On one of the field trips with my students, we hiked about 4 miles to a waterfall. A huge tree had fallen against the waterfall. In the photograph, it may appear that there are two separate pictures, one of the waterfall and one of a mossy tree covered by ferns. The two pictures appear to be spliced together, except that a few of the ferns on the log cross over onto the waterfall.
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- Near Pyramid Lake A friend suggested that we go to camp and kayak at Pyramid Lake in Nevada’s desert. Just before sunset, walking near the lake, I was struck by the colors and the backlighting of the sagebrush by the setting sun.
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- Glacier National Park In 1977, I had learned how to build with logs while teaching at an innovative school in Ontario, Canada. In 1988, I was teaching a log building class at Sierra Mountain High School. In the summer, I decided to go to a log building school in Prince George, British Columbia. On the trip to Canada with my daughter and son, we stopped at Glacier National Park. We took a hike along a creek. It was a cloudy day and dark in the woods, but the color of the stream was a brilliant turquoise. I shot the photo at a slow speed to let enough light in. This gave the water a misty, flowing effect.
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- Humbug Creek In spring, I find the Humbug Creek Trail to be especially beautiful because the water runs high over the trail’s waterfalls. My wife and I were hiking along the creek when we saw this spot. There was little light in the woods, so I shot at a slow speed. Again, this created a flowing effect. There was a leaf that moved across the lower right part of the photo. The leaf was blurred by its movement, and seems to mix with the flowing water.
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- South Fork, Yuba River One of my favorite hikes in the spring is the Buttermilk Bend Trail near Bridgeport. It is a hike that I often do with students and friends. I love the turquoises, greens, and whites of the rushing water and the textures of the granite.
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- Nevada City My wife and I used to walk regularly in Nevada City after work. One fall day, there was a dogwood in bright reds and greens peaking at the same time as the yellow and orange maples behind it.
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