Avalanche

January 8, 2021
by Michael Scandling
comments 44
California / Photo Log / Photography / Seascapes

_DSC8409_DxO11FC3T2Blog

January 2, 2021 — San Francisco, California

I went to Ocean Beach in San Francisco to shoot waves in dense fog for abstract or impressionist pictures. I did get shots for some of those. But the fog cleared for maybe thirty seconds and I caught this handsome specimen as well.

I rarely discuss social issues here. This is a photography blog. I will simply say that now more than ever I hope, wish, pray for sanity for this nation and the world in the coming year.

(Nikon D500, Tamron 100–400mm f/4.5–6.3 Di VC USD. RAW processing in DxO PhotoLab 4.1; Editing in Adobe Photoshop.)

The Author

California based fine-art photographer featuring abstract, impressionist, and minimalist seascapes — near and distant — and floral-based images. Fine-art photography can be seen at www.amagaphoto.com All original images on this blog are copyright 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021 Michael Scandling. All rights reserved. No images on this site may be copied, duplicated, reused, published, or re-purposed in any way without express permission from the copyright owner, Michael Scandling.

44 Comments

  3. Steve Schwartzman says

    A handsome specimen indeed. We seldom realize that the original meaning of handsome was the one conveyed literally by its components: ‘dexterous, skillful, convenient,’ or as we would say now in shorter form, ‘handy.’

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  5. Helen Cherry says

    Saw the title 1st and then the photo and immediately saw a mountain and avalanche before my brain caught up with what my brain was actually seeing. Excellent Michael.
    Watching what has happened in the USA from the UK I have to say I was not at all surprised at what happened . Not surprised but deeply saddened.

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    • Michael Scandling says

      Thank you, Helen. That’s exactly what happened to me when I was going through the shoot and came across this one. I was completely disoriented and thought I saw a mountain.

      My wife and I have a saying: you can be as outraged as you want, but you don’t get to be shocked. Not shocking. Very predictable, unfortunately. And utterly outrageous. The instigator needs to see the inside of a jail cell for the rest of his natural life. Of course, there is nothing natural about this individual.

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    • Michael Scandling says

      Thank you very much. Imagine my surprise when this one unfoggy image popped out. I thought that somehow a picture from a different shoot had slipped in. Stay tuned. Some of the foggy images will show up soon.

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  10. shoreacres says

    When you posted this image, you couldn’t have known that it would become a perfect visual metaphor for the country — in only four days. It’s a wonderful photo. As for sanity? Sanity’s great, but since everyone isn’t going to sober up right away, I’ll be happy with a little restraint on the part of the crazies.

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    • Michael Scandling says

      A friend of mine sent me this. Thought provoking. As far as Saturday goes, I understand exactly where you’re coming from. Nonetheless, you don’t get what you don’t ask for. Aim for the stars. You might not get one but if you’re aiming in that direction at least you won’t end up with a handful of mud.

      https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/this-political-theorist-predicted-the-rise-of-trumpism-his-name-was-hunter-s-thompson/

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      • shoreacres says

        I haven’t clicked your link yet, but when I saw Thompson’s name, my first thought was of my favorite quotation from him: “When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro.” Now, I’m off to see what your link contains.

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      • shoreacres says

        Well, that was quite a read. Certain sections were particularly resonant, but if I got started, I’d be quoting the entire article back to you.

        There’s only one place where she seemed a little off the mark, and that’s where she wrote, ” one great exception to the Angels’ ethos of total retaliation against authority was the military, just as one great exception to the Trump voters’ ethos of total irreverence is the police.” The willingness of certain members of the military and the police (past or present) to join in the fray at the Capitol suggests even those exceptions have eroded.

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      • Michael Scandling says

        Thank you. I made exactly the same observation and for the same reason. And that’s the part where things get even scarier. The question is what to do about it. This is a segment of society for whom the “game“ has been taken away from them for generations. It has been said that if you don’t give someone a game then the game becomes getting you. It would be extremely wise for the new administration to give everyone, by that I mean everyone, in the society a meaningful game. That’ll be two cents please.

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  11. Steve Gingold says

    This is a great image, Mike. As for the other concern…this has been growing for a while and was approaching a boil before the current administration took hold and just made matters worse. There are a lot of disgruntled crazies out there and we just have to hope that they keep as much of it to themselves as possible. We were actually lucky on Wednesday…it could have been much worse. We can just hope that was the apex of their actions.

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      • Steve Gingold says

        I agree with much of the writer’s ties between Thompson and the reaction of working class Americans to the dismissal of their concerns. I’ve always felt uncomfortable with the labeling people do of folks with a different outlook on life or how they live it. In many cases I think humans often look at others with disdain to make themselves feel superior in one way or another. I don’t know if that is basic human nature or the outgrowth of the division of wealth and comfort. But it does seem an ongoing problem throughout history which sort of says it isn’t going away any time soon.

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      • Michael Scandling says

        I don’t think it’s going away anytime soon either. Seems that people have what they consider to be an acceptable rate of change and very often the acceptable rate of change is very slow. Still, baby steps…

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      • Michael Scandling says

        I recall well that in my hippie dippy flippy trippy radical days of the late 60s and early 70s (when we thought we knew everything) we would speak rather disparagingly of the so-called “hardhats.“ But this has been going on a lot longer than that.

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      • Steve Gingold says

        Yes, our attitudes then were often unfortunate. Too much us vs. them. It was a shame how returning soldiers from VN were treated. Otoh, youth is for learning and mistakes are great teachers. But although strident in some directions, many of the positive changes came about because of steadfastness in our opinions. Humans are all about evolving, just as with all other life on the planet. Live and learn.

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  13. Paulie says

    Outstanding. Magnificent, Beautiful. I discovered oceanscapes in October on a trip to Morro Bay. Your work is inspiring.
    The 2nd was indeed foggy. Foggy is almost an understatement. I was in The City that same day; Crissy Field and Chinatown. It got misty to the point that I almost bailed out.

    You’ve had better luck at Ocean Beach than I. The couple times that I tried it were disappointing and had me going south to Pacifica.

    I hope your plea for sanity comes true. It’s up to us. As much as we would like to think that our president can achieve it, and I’ve no doubt that he is sincere, the unity is going to have to come from somewhere other than Washington – that is not a place that holds much hope.

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