I’m a fan of all kinds of landscape photography, and one of my favorites is a picture of hills or mountains receding into the hazy distance, with the colors getting foggier and more washed out the farther away they are. Here’s an example if you don’t know what I’m talking about.

I’ve tried taking pictures like this all my life, but they’re never any good. The photo never captures what the scene looks like in real life. On Saturday I was seduced once again as I was driving out to Silverado Canyon. There they were: our local foothills, receding into the distance. I felt like a bit of a chump, but I stopped and took some pictures. Then some more a mile later. Then some more. And some more. Finally I gave up and headed to the canyon.

When I got home, I was shocked: several of the pictures turned out pretty well. The best of the lot shows eight different shades counting the sky. And it required no manipulation at all except for some exposure compensation (the original was overexposed). I’d like to capture something even better, so I can’t quite check this photo cliche off my bucket list. But I almost can.

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We need to start raising significantly more in donations from our online community of readers, especially from those who read Mother Jones regularly but have never decided to pitch in because you figured others always will. We also need long-time and new donors, everyone, to keep showing up for us.

In "It's Not a Crisis. This Is the New Normal," we explain, as matter-of-factly as we can, what exactly our finances look like, how brutal it is to sustain quality journalism right now, what makes Mother Jones different than most of the news out there, and why support from readers is the only thing that keeps us going. Despite the challenges, we're optimistic we can increase the share of online readers who decide to donate—starting with hitting an ambitious $300,000 goal in just three weeks to make sure we can finish our fiscal year break-even in the coming months.

Please learn more about how Mother Jones works and our 47-year history of doing nonprofit journalism that you don't elsewhere—and help us do it with a donation if you can. We've already cut expenses and hitting our online goal is critical right now.

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