Winton Park, Piedra, Fresno County, CA, 3/1/2016
At the beginning of a late winter photography road trip to California’s Western Sierra foothills, I visited Fresno County’s Winton Park, 27 miles east of the city of Fresno. The Kings River winds through the park and forms the heart of this panorama. Usually, I’m drawn to a composition based on balance and harmony, parts that belong together. Here I was intrigued by how disparate and unrelated the elements are, with only the river uniting the scene. The foreground is a riparian environment, a wetland with beaches. The right half is rugged and mountainous. To the left, gently rolling grassy foothills appear, supporting an oak savanna. The 133-mile Kings River is the largest river draining the southern Sierra Nevada mountain range. Its headwaters originate along the Sierra Crest in and around Kings Canyon National Park. The river is impounded just upstream from here in Pine Flat Lake before flowing into the San Joaquin Valley.
