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Rhubarb Skies Photography Store

Frameless prints fitted for wall mount available on metal (aluminum) or reinforced paper. Most prints available in 2×3 (i.e. 12″x18″) or 4×5 (i.e. 16″x20″) configuration with wide prints available in 1×2 format (i.e. 12″x24″). Base cost for metal prints is $1 per square inch with discounts available for multiple purchases and for paying subscribers to The Daily Rhubarb. Orders, questions to Tim Connor tjconnor56@gmail.com, or (509) 838-4580. Reproductions and use of images by permission only.

Paleosoils, John Day Fossil beds, Painted Hills Unit

Paleosoils, (ancient oxidized soils) at the John Day Fossil Beds, Painted Hills unit, central Oregon

Who Knows where we’ve been. Ice Age flood cobbles, Spokane River

Showtime, Great Blue Heron, Lower Latah Creek

Geese flotilla at the Granite Dells near Prescott, Arizona

A Dark Note. A fist of basalt amidst Ice Age flood cobbles, Spokane River

Branch hopping Northern Flicker in the pines west of Spokane.

High Tide at Beach 4. Pacific shore, Olympic National Park

Silverhead. Current overflowing metamorphic boulder, Spokane River

You Again? Bull moose in a thicket

The blue underworld. Spokane River, west of Spokane

The Sisters. The landmark, twin basalt spires at Wallula Gap, east of Pasco, Washington

Oscar & company. Native redband trout feeding beneath rapids in the Spokane River

Monarch butterfly, Denver Botanic Gardens

Ferns in the light, Quinault Rain Forest, Olympia Peninsula

Sea of Palouse. Wild grasses and cultivated wheat in loessial Palouse dunes, western Whitman County, WA

Yellow warbler on a basalt perch.

Schnebly Hill limestone formations at Sedona, Arizona

Old blue eyes. Crawfish in the rocks, Spokane River

Preternaturally Orange, lichens on basalt at Amphitheater Crater near Odessa, WA

Male pileated woodpecker

Painted Hills unit, John Day Fossil beds in central Oregon

Calliope hummingbird, North America’s tiniest bird

Lyons formation sandstone at the southern entrance to the Garden of the Gods near Colorado Springs, CO

Whence it Came. Ice Age flood cobbles in the Spokane River

Western Kingbird along the road to Lamont, WA

Upon Arrival. Canyon sunrise in the Drumheller Channels north of Othello, WA

Silkstream. Autumnal colors along the Spokane River east of Spokane

Young mule deer buck in morning light

Meadow on Elder Road, north of Rockford, WA

Bubbles to the sky. Turning maple photographed from the water column, Spokane River, west of Spokane.

Ornately weathered sandstone at Beach 3, Olympic National Park, part of the Hoh rock assemblage along Washington’s Pacific coast

Sticking the landing. Male Violet-green Swallow on a cliff above the Bowl & Pitcher in west Spokane

Ice Notes. Refreezing snow along Latah Creek

Mount Tahoma through the clouds. Washington’s signature volcano (aka Mt. Rainier)

Autumn at Tumwater Canyon. Along the Wenatchee River, West of Leavenworth, WA

Rufous hummingbird feeding on Penstemon at the Denver Botanic Garden

Steamboat in sage. Steamboat Rock in upper Grand Coulee, a remnant of the former landscape that survived the Ice Age floods

Yellow warbler flitting among Serviceberry blossoms

Juvenile native Redband trout in the Spokane River, west Spokane

Wahclella Falls in the Columbia River gorge south of Bonneville, OR

Bull Moose in early winter, Riverside State Park

Saguaro cactus in the Sonoran Desert near Phoenix, AZ

Turning maple leaves photographed from the water column, Spokane River in west Spokane

September Blue

Elephant Mountain basalt & sage at the Drumheller Channels

Skyfall

Joyful Noise

Desert sunset at the Granite Dells near Prescott, AZ

Touch the sky

Touch the Sky, upright sandstone pillars at the Garden of the Gods near Colorado Springs, CO

A crimson tide, water rushing over willow roots

Sage, Juniper and exposed paleosoils at the Painted Hills unit of the John Day Fossil beds in central Oregon

The Violet-Green Acrobats

I hear them before I seem them. It’s a rapid, squeaky chirp, sometimes so raspy that it sounds like the snaps from a overhead power line. A sound of spring, because that’s when Violet-green swallows return from Mexico or even further south. They’re plentiful near water where they comb the sky for bugs, and also along cliffs where they find nesting cavities.

They’re not much afraid of people. I actually had one get stuck, momentarily, behind my back a few weeks ago. It swooped in quickly and burrowed in as I was sitting on the edge of the rimrock above the river. On a regular basis, they’ll playfully streak within inches of my head, chirping in my ear.

They’re incredibly fast, true to this note from Cornell Ornithology Lab’s on-line bird guide: “It can be difficult to get a good look at flying Violet-green Swallows, but you might have an easier time following one with your binoculars if you spot one a little bit further away.”

Photographing them is a different sort of challenge. They do perch at times but it’s only when the male swallows are in flight that the bright, violet patches on their rumps become visible. Getting those shots, takes calculation, patience, practice, and more patience. It’s worth it though. Take a look…

Male, perching cliffside
Female, briefly perched on a limb
taking flight, 1
taking flight, 2
the plunge
and the double plunge
female, at liftoff
male taking flight from a tree
the swoop
the turn
pair, in flight together
female, bringing nesting material
the glide
the fly-by
female, briefly hovering
male, briefly hovering
sticking the landing
almost sticking the landing
male, flexing at perch
male, at perch below cliff
female at mossy perch

Time On Earth, Vol. 1

In his 2016 book The Big Picture, Cal-Tech physicist Sean Carroll brought eternity and the cosmos down to Earth, so to speak, by noting that a contemporary human can expect to live for roughly 3 billion heartbeats. He wasn’t trying to be dour or morbid, just trying to help put our individual existence in the context of deep time, given that the universe is 13.8 billion years old, and the Earth itself 4.5 billion years old, as best we can tell.

Maybe you don’t need a photographer to console you, to point out that a lot can happen in the time and space of a single heartbeat, or the blink of an eye in which a quality moment can transpire. But it’s true and there’s nothing more satisfying for a photographer than a well-focused instant of reflected light that reveals beauty, poignancy and perhaps a lasting hint of the eternal.

—-tjc

Effervescent rapids, Spokane River