Pregled posta

Marketing

TTo celebrate completion of the first week of my Fall Semester I made a late Friday trip down to Alviso to check out Salt Ponds A6 and A8. These ponds lie just west of Alviso and have been opened to tidal flow in the last year.

I was able to visit Salt Pond A6 (the Knapp Tract) a year ago to photograph the pre-breach condition of the pond. It was an interesting landscape for a variety of reasons. The pond had been in disuse and its bottom had been taken over as a breeding ground by tens of thousands of California Gulls. The scene provided interesting ground textures with the added bonus that you could see the earthwork preparations for the upcoming levee breach.

Salt Pond A8 was a different scene. A year ago this pond was not dry but filled with water in a way that was visually complex. From the ground it looked like a large pond. But from above it was clear that the upper layer of the pond was clear fresh water (I assume rain water) while a couple of feet below the surface the water appeared to have higher salinity and the mid-green, turbid color of halophiles. This murky green water conformed to the deepest areas such as old marsh channels and borrow ditches. The effect was photographically interesting.

Fast-forward to the current day and Salt Pond A8 is still filled with water but it is now managed tidal flow. This new water is also turbid – with sediment not halophiles – and causes the pond to have a uniformity that is less interesting to photograph. On the other hand, Salt Pond A6 has made a more interesting transformation from dry abandoned pond to a place that fills and empties with the tides every day. It seems much transformed as seen from the air and is already accumulating sediment.

This set also includes views of Salt Pond A7 and its large crop of Cyanobacteria as well as Alviso Slough and the A ponds on its other side.

To celebrate completion of the first week of my Fall Semester I made a late Friday trip down to Alviso to check out Salt Ponds A6 and A8. These ponds lie just west of Alviso and have been opened to tidal flow in the last year.

I was able to visit Salt Pond A6 (the Knapp Tract) a year ago to photograph the pre-breach condition of the pond. It was an interesting landscape for a variety of reasons. The pond had been in disuse and its bottom had been taken over as a breeding ground by tens of thousands of California Gulls. The scene provided interesting ground textures with the added bonus that you could see the earthwork preparations for the upcoming levee breach.

Salt Pond A8 was a different scene. A year ago this pond was not dry but filled with water in a way that was visually complex. From the ground it looked like a large pond. But from above it was clear that the upper layer of the pond was clear fresh water (I assume rain water) while a couple of feet below the surface the water appeared to have higher salinity and the mid-green, turbid color of halophiles. This murky green water conformed to the deepest areas such as old marsh channels and borrow ditches. The effect was photographically interesting.

Fast-forward to the current day and Salt Pond A8 is still filled with water but it is now managed tidal flow. This new water is also turbid – with sediment not halophiles – and causes the pond to have a uniformity that is less interesting to photograph. On the other hand, Salt Pond A6 has made a more interesting transformation from dry abandoned pond to a place that fills and empties with the tides every day. It seems much transformed as seen from the air and is already accumulating sediment.

This set also includes views of Salt Pond A7 and its large crop of Cyanobacteria as well as Alviso Slough and the A ponds on its other side.