AUTUMN'S SPECTACLE

Black and white is a medium you see on museum walls or buried

inside the daily newspaper. Ansel Photographers Adams and Sebastio

Selgado set the benchmark for creating black-and-white images. The

rest of us can only dream of doing as well.

Fall is a spectacular time of year in Sonoma County, when the

region's vineyards come alive with color begging to be

photographed. But quite by accident, I found myself driving the

coastal hinterlands between Sonoma and Marin counties searching for

storm photos.

Recent rain had matted down field grasses. Combined with late

afternoon light and towering cumulus clouds, the scene was

something you see only over the Great Plains. It was one of many

such scenes in Northern California that cry out to be captured in

black and white.