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Welcome Everybody

Hello - Welcome. The purpose of this site is to document my experiences photographing wildlife and nature throughout Australia and abroad.  I hope you find the content interesting and educational, and the images  cause you to reflect on how important it is preserve natural places and their inhabitants.

All wildife has been photographed in the wild and animals are NOT captive or living in enclosures.

For me photography of the natural world is more than just pretty settings and cuddly animal photos. It's a concern for the environment and the earth all living creatures must share.

Note that images appearing in journal posts are often not optimally processed due to time constraints.

You are welcome to comment on any post.

 

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Tuesday
Feb172009

Painted Rock Petroglyph Site, Arizona

This site protects a variety of cultural and natural resources including volcanoes, archeological sites and an estimated 20,000 carved images. Many of the images are recognizable as animals, people, brands and crosses; others are more complex. These images are inseparable from the cultural landscape, the spirits of the people who created, and whom appreciate them, but whose culture has since vanished.

I anticipated it would be a short visit, however, I spend most of 4 hours at the site. The petroglyphs are located on volcanic rocks deposited by ancient volcanic flows which rise above the desert floor. There are many petroglyph sites in New Mexico and nearly all volcanic flows have glyphs etched out of the rock.

There are two styles of glyphs; etched using a rock as a etching tool, or scraped using a rock. Motifs vary depending upon the ancient tribe that produced the artwork, however, most relate to the cosmos and local animals. Circles, squares, lizards, nets, faces, and bighorn sheep are all represented at this site.

If visiting the site, it must be remembered that this site is protected and collecting any material from the area is strictly enforced by a resident ranger on-site.