Murder of One

SSA Photography (301 of 400)

Taken at Point Lobos State Natural Reserve in Carmel, California, this American Crow was quite inquisitive and not frightened by the rambunctious four year old, who was hurtling smooth pebbles into the water at an otherwise alarming pace or the amateur photographer fumbling to fit his telephoto lens on his camera.

As you can see in the gallery “Birds,” I have a fascination with blackbirds – crows in particular.  Be it Wallace Stephens’ Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird, or stories of crows fashioning tools or dropping walnuts in an intersection so that they could be crushed by the cars and then swooped up and enjoyed by the ingenious little creatures, I have always felt that crows have an anthropomorphic quality, a certain misunderstood humanity about them.  I think this photograph captures the beauty and thoughtfulness of this particular crow, who was patently observing me as much as I was observing him.

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Portal

SSA Photography (363 of 400)

This photograph was taken through an arched doorway at Bolton Abbey in North Yorkshire, England.  Looking through the portal, which was remarkably intact for a 12th Century Augustinian monastery, you can see the priory in various states of ruin.

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View Towards Withens

SSA Photography (391 of 400)

Looking across the moors at the ruins of Top Withens, the farmhouse that was the inspiration for the Earnshaw family house in Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights.   This photo was taken just before dusk on a hike in Haworth, West Yorkshire.

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