Amy at “The World Is A Book” has invited the Lens-Artists to share Landscapes this week, and has given us absolutely stunning examples from her own albums.
This is my favorite photographic subject.
When I was just 10 years old, I got my first camera – a Kodak Brownie Starmite – so that I could take pictures on our family vacation to Hawaii. I had seen mountains for the first time just two years prior on a family vacation to visit cousins in Colorado, and felt engulfed by a deep awe. I wanted to take the scenery home with me to Illinois, but had no camera then. I soaked in every vista, eyes and arms wide open. I was so excited to be able to take my own photos when I got to Hawaii.
I remember feeling a crushing disappointment when I discovered that the little printed picture didn’t quite take in all that I wanted to fill it. I still feel that way, but it hasn’t stopped me from trying.
What do I love about landscapes? Long views give me a sense of freedom, a sense of the vast beauty of the world.
When I was a kid, my parents took me to the Field Museum in Chicago to watch travelogue presentations. I would emerge from the hall bounding like a gazelle. I loved the open spaces filled with natural wonders, like an alpine meadow of wildflowers begging me to run through them.
There is nothing as exhilarating to me as a panoramic view of Earth.
It’s so difficult to get all that BIGNESS into a two dimensional frame.
I wish I had a lens that could do it justice.
There’s that “pinch me, I can’t believe I’m here” excitement of actually feeling the space around you in a beautifully large setting that’s impossible to get into a photo.
But I keep trying because I don’t want to let go of that feeling…ever.
scillagrace 
Love the vast landscape images. Thank you, Scalia for sharing your memories and travels!
You’re welcome. Thanks for yours!
Absolutely wonderful narrative to go with such beautiful landscapes. Thanks.
Thank you for looking in, Bruce. You have the most beautiful landscape right out your window. Glad you like these, too.
You seem to me to be capturing them pretty well! 😊
Thanks, Helen. I love being there in person the best.
Very beautiful! Thanks for sharing
You’re welcome; thanks for visiting!
Beautiful, beautiful views. ❤ I can feel all your awe and love and respect in your photos, always have. Keep the move on!
Wow, thanks!
Very beautiful and I love your text. I feel the same way!
I did find this comment in the Spam folder, thanks to your tip. I’m glad we share a love of landscapes so that we can share some awesome places!
Super, thanks Priscilla!
So very beautifully described and photographed. So much feeling, so much love. Thank you.
Oh, you’re very welcome!
This was a really nice read and I really like that first image.
Thanks – yes, that’s one of my favorites. 🙂
So gorgeous, images and words.I’m a little envious of your wide open spaces,I think I would love to live somewhere this wide..
I am truly fortunate to have space around me, and huge swaths of it even further West. But with privilege comes responsibility. I want to be aware of what I can do to help it stay wild and free.
Well that’s a wonderful aim – so much of the open land around here is being built on, and so much of it without a care for the landscape and everything that lives within it..it breaks my heart – we all need wild spaces so badly.
I work for a land trust, a conservation foundation. The mission is to buy land outright or legally protect through other means so that it won’t be developed. It’s a non-profit, non-government operation; the land trust movement has been able to protect a lot of smaller bits that government programs wouldn’t be interested…but every little bit adds up.