Dugout Wells (+explanation)
by Alberto Patiño
Winter morning in the heart of Big Bend. The lonely Canary Island palm is, together with an old windmill and a few other scattered memories, all that remains from what used to be a small settlement, complete with school and library, in the early twentieth century. Today it is a beautifully peaceful oasis in the Chihuahuan desert. You can often have it all to yourself, especially at dawn.
P.S.: Craig's comment raises a good question. I decided for "Man and Nature" because the palm tree is "hand of man". The species is native to the Canary Islands and North Africa, and was planted there by humans. I am personally not concerned about the distinction between "Landscape" and "Man and Nature", but suppose that one shows, for instance, a lake that is an artificial reservoir, but neither the dam nor any other structure are seen in the image. Is this landscape or man and nature? One can come up with many more situations like this. Again, I have no opinion (for once....) but would be interested to know if there are some strict regulations in this respect.
Thanks Craig - good question!!!
Comments
3 commentsAs an aside, is any of the settlement you mention shown in this photo? Just wondering why the Man & Nature gallery. I looked around for quite some time and couldn't spot anything.
By hand of man I took to mean objects that were created by man: roads, bridges, sailboats, trails, buildings, canoes, man himself, etc. A few years ago someone got a WP in M&N of a closeup of a coot in water. Turns out the water in the image was from a reservoir. But the image itself gave you no clue about that. Strange.