Arbitrary Gate

  • Friday, November 20, 2009
  • Jeremy Jewell
  • I’ve gone into the Angeles National Forest in the San Bernardino Mountains a few times now and I’ve found some really pretty areas. A major part of this forest was recently involved in some wild fires, possibly set by arson, and as you can see, this part of the forest and mountains is pretty burned out. All of the plants are charred, and there is a ton of ash on the ground. So this area is maybe not the prettiest around, but does offer some interesting features, such as this gate I found. I couldn’t imagine why this gate was necessary; directly in front of the gate was a large berm that was pretty established. As you can see, directly under the gate is a large hole, with some strange rock formations. I can’t speculate as to what these rocks mean, but I’m pretty sure it’s some sort of Wiccan thing. Yeah, that’s probably what it is. 

    Regardless, this gate is ridiculous. There isn’t a road, or even a trail, in front of it or behind it, and there is no fence on the sides of it. Even if there was a road, any vehicle that first made it over the large berm would then get stopped by this big hole under the fence. Any person wanting to walk into the property could just simply walk around the gate. On top of its general uselessness, the gate is actually locked; just in case someone wanted to prove me wrong and open the gate and drive a dirt bike through there or something.

    Technically speaking, this is a single exposure, with (naturally) some post-processing work. This was such a gray and dull scene I was worried I wouldn’t be able to get something that I liked, but I enjoy this photo.

    Edit: Wait a minute; this isn't just a single exposure.  I did this one like I did the Mountain Sun photo.  I used one exposure of the sky and one exposure of the rest of the scene.


    Arbitrary Gate

    5 comments:

    1. Matthew L. Wells said...
    2. Is this one of the areas that got hit by the California wildfires last or two years ago, forget when it was. My guess on the gate is there either used to be a fence there that is now one with the ash, or, judging by the lack of scorched metal, warped metal, and that nice sticker on the top bar. I am going to say the gate is to block the hole, or block something. How far from the raod is this?

      On the technical side of things, did you desaturate anything, or is it naturally that dreary?

      November 20, 2009 at 12:43 PM
    3. Jeremy Jewell said...
    4. No, no desaturation what so ever. Actually, the scene is more dreary, and it was a challenge to bring some color to it.

      This area was very recently on fire; like within the last 2 months.

      November 20, 2009 at 1:08 PM
    5. Ward Jewell said...
    6. This is a great picture. I've never seen ash like that after a forest fire. The color is very well done. My guess on the gate is there was a wooden fence that completely disappeared in the fire. If so, what was it fencing off?

      November 20, 2009 at 7:13 PM
    7. Jeremy Jewell said...
    8. Yes, I think a wood fence is plausible. I still don't understand the berm in front of the gate/property and the hole under the gate. Anyway, what you see is what it was fencing off; practically nothing. Just empty land. Unless whatever was in there escaped when the fence burned down (if there was a fence).

      November 22, 2009 at 3:47 PM
    9. Ann said...
    10. I was thinking there used to be a wooden fence there too, but Matthew makes a good point. The fence should also be blackened with the kind of heat that reduced everything to ash. If you have a chance, though, you need to go back in another two months, when the rains begin again and see what starts to grow. That should be some good pictures.

      November 22, 2009 at 8:05 PM

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