Rick Billings, M. Photog., Cr.

The Palace Of Fine Arts San Francisco

Across the lagoon, the view runs straight through the great central arch of the Palace of Fine Arts rotunda to the colonnade beyond, with reflecting water, willows and pines framing the reddish Corinthian columns and sculpted frieze panels and waterfowl gathered in the foreground. Key Features: The Origin: The Palace was one of the finest buildings of San Francisco's 1915 Panama-Pacific International Exposition. The Architect: Bernard Maybeck, one of America's most influential architects, set a new standard for civic architecture in the city with this design. The Rebuild: Built of temporary materials for the fair, the decaying Palace was reconstructed in permanent materials between 1964 and 1974. The Rotunda: The open rotunda rises about 162 feet, framed by sweeping colonnades and the lagoon.

The Palace Of Fine Arts San Francisco

Cypress and pine frame the great domed rotunda of the Palace of Fine Arts across its lagoon in San Francisco's Marina District, its arched openings, paired Corinthian columns and carved friezes filling the frame with the curving colonnade beyond. Key Features: The Origin: The Palace faithfully recreates Bernard Maybeck's building for the 1915 Panama-Pacific International Exposition, rebuilt in permanent materials decades after the fair. The Design: Maybeck chose the theme of a Roman ruin, meant to show the passing of grandeur and the vanity of human wishes. The Structure: An open-air octagonal rotunda on eight piers, flanked by two curving colonnades along the lagoon. Its Legacy: The Palace and the Marina Green are the only parts of the 1915 Exposition still on the site.

Tree Of Life

The immense, gnarled trunk of El Árbol del Tule, a Montezuma cypress, fills the churchyard in the town center of Santa María del Tule, Oaxaca, Mexico, its buttressed roots, deeply furrowed bark and thick lobes of wood looking like several trunks fused into one. Key Features: The Ancient Tree: More than 1,500 years old, it is one of the oldest trees in the world, written about by both the Aztecs and the Spanish. Record Trunk: At 11.62 meters across and 35.4 meters tall, it has the largest trunk diameter of any tree on Earth. Hidden Shapes: With a little imagination, its knots and folds become the faces of goblins, monsters and animals. One Tree: DNA tests confirmed it is a single living tree, though researchers once thought it might be several grown together.

The Golden Gate Bridge San Francisco

Waves roll in over Baker Beach in the Presidio as the Golden Gate Bridge stretches across the strait, its towers and cables reaching toward the rugged Marin Headlands, seen low from the water's edge. Key Features: Baker Beach: One of the closest beaches to the bridge, it runs a mile below the cliffs of the Presidio's western shore, with the headlands beyond. The Bridge: The Golden Gate Bridge spans the entrance to San Francisco Bay, linking the city to Marin, and is one of the most photographed landmarks in the country. The Coast: Cold currents and steady wind shape the waves here, while the headlands' dry, rounded hills rise behind.

Napa Valley CA

The sword-shaped leaves of a variegated euphorbia whorl out from a central rosette in a Napa Valley garden, their pale cream margins and yellow-green centers sharp against soft, blurred foliage and pale blossoms behind. Key Features: The Plant: Euphorbias, or spurges, are evergreen perennials, and variegated forms like this one bring cream and green foliage to a garden all year. The Detail: Each slender leaf carries a thick cream edge, and the tight spiral of the rosette draws the eye to the center. The Setting: Napa Valley's estates and gardens favor low-water ornamentals like this one alongside their vineyards.

Napa Valley CA

Bunny Foo Foo, a 35-foot stainless steel rabbit, leaps above the vineyards of HALL Wines along Highway 29 in St. Helena, Napa Valley, its polished lattice body shining against a clear sky over the vines and wooded valley hills, a small American flag in its forepaw. Key Features: The Sculpture: Artist Lawrence Argent made it from more than three metric tons of polished stainless steel. The Setting: It stands beside Highway 29, one of Napa Valley's main wine touring roads. The Artist: Argent also created Denver's giant blue bear and Sacramento's giant red rabbit.

Humboldt Lagoon State Park California

Humboldt County, California

A jagged bluff streaked with rust, ochre and blue-gray rises straight up from the shore at Humboldt Lagoons State Park on California's north coast, its jointed rock crowned by a fringe of wind-sculpted scrub and grass against a deep blue sky. Key Features: The Rock: Hard rock deposits here shield the underlying Franciscan formation from the waves, leaving pinnacles and jagged bluffs. The Lagoons: A thin strip of dune and beach separates the park's chain of lagoons from the open Pacific, part of the largest lagoon system in the United States. The Setting: Forty miles north of Eureka, the park's dunes, forest, prairie, coastal scrub and marsh support a rich variety of plants, birds and wildlife. The Coastline: Dark cliffs mark where the sandy lagoon beaches give way to bare, mineral-streaked rock.

Humbolt Lagoon State Park CA

Humboldt County, California

A large dark boulder anchors the open beach at Humboldt Lagoons State Park in Humboldt County, California, below a steep coastal bluff whose face shows a band of rust-colored soil beneath wind-sheared scrub and a lone conifer. Key Features: The Lagoon System: The park is part of the largest lagoon system in the United States, shaped by the meeting of two tectonic plates. The Bluffs: Layers of orange sediment cut through the green-topped bluff, the mark of steady erosion along this stretch of the Redwood Coast. The Shore: Dark sea rocks rise from the sand where the bluffs meet the beach.

Humboldt Lagoon California

Morning fog drifts off the Pacific over a lagoon in Humboldt Lagoons State Park on California's redwood coast, as a canoe glides along the misty shore and sunlight filters through low cloud onto a hillside of redwood and spruce. Key Features: The Lagoons: Shallow coastal lagoons, cut off from the Pacific by narrow strips of sand, make up the largest lagoon system in the United States. The Setting: Forty miles north of Eureka, coast redwood, spruce and fir crowd the hills above the water. Native Heritage: The Yurok people have lived along this coast for generations, traveling between villages in canoes hollowed from redwood logs. The Fog: Mist off the Pacific keeps the climate cool and moist, often burning off by midday to reveal the forested hills.

Beach Rock

A single weathered stone rests on fine, sun-warmed sand, its cool blue-gray surface sharp against the golden grains around it, the raking light bringing out its fractured, crystalline texture. Key Features: The Color: Cool blue rock against warm gold sand. The Texture: Sharp facets and mineral veins show years of weathering. The Composition: Tight, simple framing turns an ordinary beach find into a study of color and form.

Oregon Dunes

A great wave of pale sand rises against a heavy, cloud-filled sky in the Oregon Dunes National Recreation Area, with dark conifers clinging to its edge and a simple log fence marking the trailhead where forest gives way to open sand. Key Features: The Scale: The Oregon Dunes are one of the largest stretches of temperate coastal sand dunes in the world. The Setting: They run for 40 miles along the coast between Florence and Coos Bay, with wind-sculpted peaks nearly 500 feet above the shore. The Landscape Mix: Sand, lakes and forest within one recreation area shelter rare and varied plants and wildlife. The Ongoing Change: Spreading vegetation is slowly claiming the open sand, one of the Forest Service's biggest challenges here.

Frog Rock Oregon Coast

From a high coastal bluff on the Oregon coast, a lone sea stack rises from the deep blue Pacific, its weathered basalt streaked with rust-colored lichen and capped with wind-pruned grass. Waves break white at its base, where teal shallows give way to deep indigo offshore. Its low, humped silhouette earned it the name Frog Rock. Key Features: Sea Stacks: Oregon's sea stacks are what remains of ancient lava flows and headlands, left standing offshore as wind and waves wore away the softer rock around them. Coastal Habitat: Nearly every rock off Oregon's coast is part of the Oregon Islands National Wildlife Refuge, with nesting ledges for seabirds and tide pools at their base for sea stars and anemones. Naming Tradition: Many rocks on the Oregon coast carry playful nicknames inspired by their shapes, like this one's frog-like profile.

Oregon Coast Sunset

The sun sinks into the Pacific beyond Crescent Beach, seen from the cliffs of Ecola State Park on Oregon's north coast, as the curving shoreline, offshore sea stacks and the forested slopes of Tillamook Head catch its light on wet sand and breaking waves. Key Features: The View: From the cliffs above Crescent Beach, a secluded cove between Tillamook Head and Cannon Beach, the coast runs south toward Cannon Beach. Historic Ground: In 1806 Captain William Clark of the Lewis and Clark Expedition surveyed this coast from Tillamook Head and called it one of the finest views he had seen. The Sea Stacks: The offshore rocks belong to the same chain as Haystack Rock, Cannon Beach's famous landmark. The Park: Ecola State Park protects rugged, forested headlands and beaches on Oregon's north coast.

Shell Aberdeen Washington

Scoops, a restored vintage Shell filling station in Aberdeen, Washington, faces the camera straight on across its forecourt, in classic yellow and red with twin globe-topped Shell pumps and a hand-painted sign offering ice cream and coffee where fuel was once sold. Key Features: The Building: A former roadside Shell station kept in its original 1930s-era paint and signage. The Transformation: The garage bays and pump island now house a working ice cream and coffee shop. The Setting: Aberdeen is a working timber town in the Grays Harbor region of coastal Washington, on Highway 12. The Appeal: Its period details, from the lighted Shell sign to the original pumps, make it a favorite stop for travelers and photographers.

Time To Fish

A small aluminum gillnet boat sits tied to a wooden floating dock in a quiet tidal channel, seen from above, its Washington registration numbers on the bow and coiled net line on its big bow reel, with weathered pilings and golden marsh grass along the muddy banks beyond. Key Features: The Boat: A bowpicker gillnetter, built to haul salmon nets over the bow on a mounted drum reel. The Registration: The WN prefix on the hull marks a boat registered in Washington State. The Setting: Tidal sloughs with old pilings and marsh grass are home water for Washington's estuary fishing communities. The Fishery: Boats like this work the region's commercial gillnet salmon runs of Chinook, coho and chum.

Stacks Aberdeen WA

Row upon row of raw log ends fill the frame at a mill yard in Aberdeen, Washington, at the mouth of the Chehalis River on Grays Harbor, their sawn faces glowing amber and gold in low sunlight, streaked with bark and moisture. Key Features: The Timber Town: Aberdeen's mills processed huge logs cut from the old-growth forests of Grays Harbor County. Industrial Peak: By the mid-1920s, the county's mills were shipping a billion board feet of lumber a year. The Workforce: The mills drew a large workforce of millworkers and loggers to the town and the forests around it. The Composition: Tight framing turns the stacked timber into an abstract pattern of circles and diagonals.

Stacks Aberdeen WA

Towering stacks of freshly cut logs wait for the mill in a timber yard in Aberdeen, Washington, on Grays Harbor, seen close at ground level with hundreds of trunks layered against a bright blue sky, their pale cut ends and bark catching the sun. Key Features: The Region: Forests and port access made Aberdeen a center of the Pacific Northwest timber trade. A Historic Title: In 1924 Aberdeen shipped its billionth foot of timber, earning the title "Lumber Capital of the World." Industrial Scale: Weyerhaeuser opened its first Aberdeen mill in 1924, one of many that shaped the town's economy. Changing Times: By the 1970s most of the old timber had been logged, and most of the mills closed through the 1970s and 1980s.

Mt Rainier WA

The glaciated upper slopes of Mount Rainier fill the frame under a deep blue sky, streaks of andesite rock cutting through the ice and showing the layered volcano beneath its permanent snowcap. Key Features: The Volcano: Mount Rainier is a stratovolcano rising to 14,410 feet, the highest peak in the Cascade Range. The Ice: It carries more glacial ice than any other Cascade volcano, with twenty-six glaciers feeding rivers to Puget Sound and the Columbia. The Setting: Mount Rainier National Park, where the mountain rises nearly ten thousand feet above the valley floors around it.