a Taj MuttHall Dog Diary: The End of the World

Thursday, August 16, 2012

The End of the World

SUMMARY: And I feel fine about this photo challenge.

Karma posts monthly photo challenges, which I read about on Dawn's blog. August's challenge from Karma is to post a photograph of the end of the earth. You can read her short post to see what she meant by it.

She's allowed archived photos for this month.

I've included not just those that look like there is nothing beyond, but also anything that adds a more literal feeling of the earth coming to an end.

I tried to pare down the quantity, but couldn't help myself. Here you go.


Hiking in the Santa Teresa Hills, looking north over San Jose--and the world ends just beyond it, burning into oblivion. (In reality, fog settles over the San Francisco Bay at sunset.) 



Anywhere in the coastal range, looking to the west, there is nothing beyond but the eternal fogbank off California's coast. There be dragons. Here be tiny deer contemplating her mortality.


On another day, looking out towards the Pacific--but, nope, nothing there but endless clouds.


On a stormy day, the friendly field behind my home becomes an apocolyptic scene.


From atop Black Mountain, the ocean fog creeps in to consume the very ground on which we stand.


There used to be a valley with 1.8 million inhabitants at the base of Communications Hill. Today--gone, and a lone survivor climbs from the abyss.


A dark evening as the coastal fog bank consumes the very mountains and races towards the fleeing crowds.


From a high trail in Rancho San Antonio Open Space Preserve looking northwest, you can see the end of the world.


The world has fallen away below us.
(Fog at the Grand Canyon--the world ends here and we float in a sea of nothing.)


Oh, we've been here before--a month ago, and the world *still* ends here, out over the Pacific.


The end of the world at the end of the world.
(Cold war relics atop Milagra Ridge, south of San Francisco, on a foggy day.)


Out in the Sierras, obviously nothing could possibly exist beyond the far frozen peaks.


Back in Santa Teresa hills, you can clearly see that the world ends to the northeast beyond the castle on the mountain. (Lick Observatory on Mount Hamilton.)


Climbing Four Mile Trail up the side of Yosemite's cliffs to Glacier Point, the world falls away below you, sometimes thousands of feet straight down.



The world ends at the end of the world.
(From Montebello Ridge looking out at the sunset.)

12 comments:

  1. Oh these are good....very good. Love many of them, but something about the last one, the light on that hill...it looks like I could paint it. Love that one the most. I think. Glad you did this. Did you put your link on Karma's blog post so she can include it in her wrap up at the end of the month? Oddly I started accumulating my own end of the earth photos from the archives this morning. We're going out of town this weekend, over to Lake Michigan, so I'm hoping I'll find at least one new one...but if not...I have a couple waiting in the wings.

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    1. I did put a link on Karma's post, and thanks for the link! It was fun trying to figure out what to search for to find the photos i kinda thought were there somewhere in my archives.

      I did save the best for last. :-)

      Eagerly waiting to see what you "end" up posting.

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  2. Your pictures are absolutely fabulous and the places you chose for Karma's challenge too, of course ! I love your comments too. It inspires me to look into my archives and recent vacation photos and post some too. Congratulations for your great photography.

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    1. Oh, thanks! I had a couple of these in mind when I started searching my files, but when I searched for "fog" and "clouds" (which seem to be the biggest indicators of the end of the world :-) ), I found a bunch of others that seemed well suited to the theme. A nice chance to post some otherwise hidden images. Looking forward to seeing how you're inspired.

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  3. Wow, those pictures are just awesome!

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    1. Glad you enjoyed them. I'm now thinking that I should've listed dates. I think they're all within the last 4 years, but I'd be interested to see whether that's true. Something else to do "later". :-)

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  4. I love that song! And I loooove those photos. Especially the second one -- to die for. The distant horizon/layers thingie is soooo beautiful, but then the surprise of the lone deer -- [swoon]

    Thanks for sharing.

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  5. Hello! I'm finally starting to make the rounds of the photo hunt posts now that I've finally completed my own! You have some absolutely gorgeous shots here - beautiful colors and composition. And really cool for me to see some west coast shots being an east coast girl! Hoping to do a wrap up post this weekend - and hoping to send more visitors and comments your way. :-)

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  6. Wow! Absolutely beautiful choices!

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  7. Wow! Beautiful series. I love the way you interpreted the "end of the earth." :)

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