About the Site . . .
SightLines is a site dedicated completely to photography and travel in the USA. The site's purpose is to encourage, to inform, to entertain and to admire God's Creation. Yes, plenty of man's work will be featured here, as well, but the natural world will be the main focus of attention. And, speaking of God's Creation, it is my view that He has done some of His most interesting work in the American west and it is there that the travel narratives begin.
Delaware
 My home base is in the tiny, low, flat state of Delaware, where the highest point is some 500 feet above sea level and the elevation averages a mere 60 feet. No grand overlooks or sweeping vistas here, unfortunately. There are also no mountains (oh, there is the ambitiously-named Mount Cuba, but it is nothing more than a hillock, really), no deserts, no canyons, no mesas, no buttes, no alpine passes, no elk, no caribou, no rattlesnakes, no bears (although we do have 3 'confirmed' mountain lions, now - see photo at right of tracks in my front yard), and there is not one national park, volcano, salt lake, sandstone arch or hoodoo in the state. As a photographer who has spent his life in awe of the magnificent landscape work of Ansel Adams, Galen Rowell and David Muench, the Delaware landscape is pretty thin gruel, indeed. That's why this "young" man has decided to go west!
Content
The photos on the site will, one hopes, speak for themselves, and the writing will attempt to convey the impressions left on me by the various locations and landscapes. Of course, there will be factual information given from time to time, but don't expect to use this site to complete your geology or history homework. A lot of other sites try to do this, and we will leave that kind of commentary to the experts.
For the time being, at least, until the volume of content requires another system of indexing, our travels in the USA will be arranged chronologically and in linear order - i.e. the first place we went will be followed by the second place, then the third, and so on. Of course, you can read it any way you like, but that is how it will be presented.
The Blog
In the navigation bar at the top of each page, you'll notice "NOTES FROM THE ROAD." The point of the blog is to provide a philosophical history of the site and to fill in some of the blanks that will exist in the travel narratives due to their brevity, and to supply the missing detail - i.e. trip planning, route finding, GPS use, photo equipment decisions, food and clothing choices, and so on.
A Word About Mountain Roads
In the narratives that cover locations in mountainous regions, you may notice an undue emphasis on the type and condition of the access roads. This is because roads are my first consideration when planning a trip that includes my wife. To her, the ideal road is wide, recently paved, has no y-axis variation, has guard rails but no steep drop-offs on either side and is basically straight (for her, Kansas would be an ideal place to vacation). This road concern stems from a harrowing experience on the Mount Washington (NH) Auto Road (which was created, I think, for the purpose of being harrowing) in 1981 that has left her wary of any road with any elevation change or curvature at all. Trip planning can sometimes be a challenge, but since there's no one I'd rather travel with, it's a challenge I gladly accept.
The Great Outdoors
For reasons that I now find impossible to fathom, in our earlier lives, my wife and I were never much interested in going outside (except to walk to the car) and regarded hiking, camping, overland-route-finding or any of the other outdoor arts and skills as anathema. We were content to view our critters in a zoo and do our communing with the natural world at the local park. No more! Something snapped inside us and now we're hooked and want to see nature up close and personal.
We are rank amateurs at the outdoor thing, but we intend to learn. We have a 4WD SUV, several GPS units, backpacks, know what gorp is and when to use it and have great hiking shoes. So, I guess, we're off - hope you enjoy the site!
|
|
|