Black and white photo of a lone hiker on the steep cinder slope of Cinder Cone, Lassen Volcanic National Park.

Her Last Mile

Cinder Cone, Lassen Volcanic National Park, California

She stopped to talk to my girlfriend and me while I was setting up for sunset — her last day in the park, Lassen Peak the day before. Then she walked on and became the thing the frame had been missing: something to hold that slope to scale. The conversion to black and white came later. Colour was doing nothing here that the shape of the cone wasn't already doing better.

Nikon Z 7_2 · TAMRON 150-500mm F/5-6.7 Di III VC VXD A057Z · 150mm · f/11 · 1/3200 · ISO 1000

June 28, 2026

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Black and white view across the crater rim of Cinder Cone, its cinder slopes curving away, Lassen Volcanic National Park.Full moon rising over Sunrise Peak at twilight, seen from the cinder slopes of Cinder Cone, Lassen Volcanic National Park.

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