Saturday, September 20, 2008

Dust

At about 35,000 feet as we approached this area there was a haze. It looked like a cloud bank, except it was the wrong color. "Is that smoke?" I asked, "It can't be dust this high." But it can, of course.

When the dust storms come in, the morning light looks yellow, not quite a lemon yellow, more sickly. In the evening everything is a bright orange. It looks like a bad science fiction movie special effect for the surface of Mars. It is eerie and beautiful and alien and exotic.

Change things slightly, a little darker, a little smokier. High on a wall are curls of razor wire. Caught in the razor wire are trash bags and tattered sheets of black pastic flapping in the wind. It looks like a clothesline in Hell.

To the naked eye in the orange dusk the motes of dust are invisible, too fine to even taste. The first pictures look bad and I frantically clean the lens trying to wipe off the water marks. The lens is clean of course. The flash is illuminating dust looking like light bubbles in the picture. I turn off the flash. I will treasure those pictures.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Sounds beautiful....

It is good to "hear" you again! Hope you are doing well.

Steve Perry said...

Post some of the images -- must be some that are non-specific enough they could be from a lot of places.

You can put 'em on PhotoBucket or the like.

wyeastmt said...

Amazing to be in once of these storms! It is incredible to see it for the first time. Hope you are doing well!!!

Unknown said...

What an effect. Glad you're still around. :)

Mark Jones said...

I look forward to talking to you when you get back, hearing what you have to say about it all--and now, seeing the pictures you've taken.

Anonymous said...

We miss you Rory we do..
Oh Rory we miss you..

Hope you're okay.

Peter