Solving Mark's Mystery ... for wysiwig by auntietk
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No AI - This artwork was created entirely by hand or with traditional digital tools.
Description
Bill and I went to the top of Steptoe Butte in the Palouse today ... the same place Mark (wysiwig) went earlier in the year. When Mark was there, everything was green and growing, but at this time of year the wheat has been harvested and the fields are being burned off and plowed under. We were pretty excited to see the area at harvest time, because everything looks quite different! They have three seasons there ... green, brown, and snow ... so if anybody wants to brave the Palouse in winter to make that third comparison, be my guest. There's no way in the world I would drive up Steptoe Butte in the snow! It's about a 1,000 foot climb, the road makes three spiral revolutions around the hill, the road is narrow, and there's no guard rail.
If anyone remembers a night shot Mark put up that had mysterious red lights, I do believe I've solved the mystery. I would hazard a guess that every one of those wind turbines has a red blinky light on top!
... you're welcome, Andrea! :) ...

Comments (24)
This is Mark's original mystery shot.
I just took several captures of turbines myself this week end yesterday returning from my trip. yours is very beautiful
What a relief to know! Thankyou Tara, so obvious, once you told us! It looks so very different in brown mode, but still breathtaking. Perhaps someone will use a plane to get the white photo, must look online.
I have looked at Mark's gallery as you suggested and now seeing the area in "brown mode" as Andrea puts it! Absolutely magnificent view! On our trip from London to Edinburgh we saw several of these "wind farms". It is such a clean way to produce electricity but apparently very expensive to start up!
seems to be the perfect place for us! what a stunning capture and the colors remind me of the caingorms in scotland! from the thumb I thought it is a shot of a desert with its typical sandwaves and was wondering about the windgenerators g amazing capture! ;o)
A fabulous landscape shot and love the story behind it all.
Very beautiful scene.....
Beautiful shot and great to see the mystery solved. Even in my tiny town out in the sticks we have these ugly things near us. Now if you want a mystery shot, you and Bill should really go to Marfa to see the Marfa lights when you go to TX this winter!
A fine shot. The bonus here is this amazing landscape. Love the shadows / light!!
Wonderful shot of the graceful hills receding into the distance - they remind me of sand dunes in the desert - the shadows really help to define them & create an appealing mosaic of dark & light tones...
Beautiful capture. I like the wide view and the golden colors.
Wonderful Capture!!!
Wow! What a view.
WOW! I couldnt believe my own eyes and I knew you dont use Bryce or any other 3D program, Tara. There is maybe one tiny oasis, so far the eyes are reaching. Only a house and a tree here and there. Fantastic. Oh yes, of course, the windmills are having a light :)
Very cool stuff. I love all the travels and things you see.
Amazing capture Tara. About the red lights of the night shot that you mentioned here. There is a red light on top of our boiler house chimney as well. As i understand it all high points is supposed to have red lights that i suppose should be working at night time. I also presume that it have to do with aircraft that fly at night time for them to see the red warning lights. Just guessing though. God bless.
Well I'll be double dipped! These things were all over the place and it never occurred to me that they might be the reason for the lights. This is an amazing image. It really does look like sand dunes. Thanks for solving the mystery. I have a deerstalker cap and I can put your name on it if you like.
A spectacular shot, Tara! Oh, to get an aerial shot or two of this....
I suspect you're right about the red lights - to ward off low flying planes or high flying butterflies! :-D
A very impressive capture... Aloha
awesome capture!!
I make you right. And this is a stunning shot! I must get over there and do some exploring...
Denise wrote, "I must get over there and do some exploring..." Get over there??? Man, for me "getting over there" would be a major trip! I'd LOVE to "get over there"! Full View is an absolute must on this---and btw, as I said to Bill, my internet's back tonight, and I'm doing 2 comments in everyone's gallery, just to show my face again; but I'll do more here soon, I promise. But getting back to the shot...
In full view, it is a rolling landscape of almost Biblical bleakness and endlessness. Without the lights, etc, it's just big and rolling and mythic. The wind turbines are like futuristic insects, or religious artifacts from an alien world. But the dunes (they're not dunes, I know, but they look like it) are mythic, from another world. Beautiful capture of the deep reddish tans, with orange undertones. And of shadow with light in a quilt of effects. And the tapestry of all that against the devouring background. With its smattering of trees and homes, it's a scene out of another planet; or what this planet would look like after some strange war or apocalypse. Poetic and bleak and beautiful. It looks like you were standing on a platform, too. Love this shot. (And btw, as I said in Bill's two decay shots, buddhas would be right at home here...the emptier and vaster, the more fitting for their "dissolution of the universe"...)
Wow, what can I say that hasn't already been said? How about this reminds me of a quilted bed spread that kids have been jumping on when their mother wasn't looking? Silliness aside, this really typifies the Palouse. So glad we got to wallow around in it for a few days:)
wicked capture and cool comparison between night and day