Landscape Visualization

Not so long ago, I participated in a survey by an American specialist in landscape visualization. The survey focussed on the inclusion of visual utility infrastructure as it is built through the landscape.

At the close of the survey a question was asked for each to identify the ideal image of landscape visualization. Well, it would have been easy to say–landscape without any infrastructure visual intrusion would have been my preference.

Could not do that. But I did add that since humans had been living with and using the landscape as long as written history, the ideal landscape image should include successful use, accomodation and management of the landscape.

Just recently, I found a photogenic example that expressed my ideal. The images follow below.

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This foreground field, occurring at the confluence of three mountain valleys and two mountain lakes, was for decades a central air field for national self-defence. When that defence was transferred from props to jets, the airfield became community pasture and recreation for 25,000 local people. The red circle, enlarged in the image below, shows how well major electrical infrastructure has been brought through the adjacent forest.

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This is an enlargement of the red circle shown in the above image.  I should note that this landscape, incredibly photogenic, is regularly photographed by me in all seasons. And despite the well camouflaged electrical power line infrastructure, I always try to frame my photos without any visible infrastructure. We put up with that infrastructure to ameliorate climate, daylight and communications. That is our way of life.

I ain’t staying inside…

…when I’ve got this outside!

Spring sunshine!

Spring oxygen!

Spring growth!

Spring green!

Spring birdsong!

Spring fresh air!

Spring joy!

Spring flowers!

Can you find any of the above in the following images?

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Or better yet…go out and find them yourself.

 

Lunch

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I had lunch, with a couple chums, over at my friend’s place today.

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In case you think it was too early to have a picnic…just nearby the first spring hay was being cut. And, oh how I wish I could share with you that sweet spring green fragrance.

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This is the pasture the morning before it was cut.

Northern Hemisphere Only

The end of the day, the beginning of tomorrow.

The end of the old year, the beginning of the new year.

The end of the winter, the beginning of spring.

In the Northern Hemisphere all of these have resonant overlays.

The last weeks have been cold. The ground has frozen but not covered with snow. Winter is heavily just around the corner. It has its beauties, its discoveries; but it inevitably drags before it finishes. That is when I kling to the hopes of spring.

Kenneth Grahame—consummate observer of nature and seasonal changes in ‘The Wind in the Willows’—captures those spring hopes in reality through his character ‘Mole’. In the attached audio file, I read 90 seconds of Kenneth Grahame’s work wherein he describes how Mole becomes overwhelmed by excessive joy in the arrival of spring.

Mole embodies how we all endure the long winter—endure the hard life without the warmth and light of the sun. And, how we all feel such joy and relief in those first warm days of spring, when, in the meadow, hopes come true.

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