Archive for the ‘Sierra Nevada’ Category
Valentine’s Day Sunset
February 17th, 2010 | Author: albert
Spent Valentine’s Day with Linda up at Lake Tahoe. We of course did what photographers like to do and sought out a romantic sunset 
This hot is taken from the Eastern shores of Lake Tahoe. Not quite as much color as we would have liked, but still nice.
Blended two shots here, one exposed for the sky, one for foreground. The long exposures also softened the water as it was quite choppy.
I loved these rocks in the foreground and took quite some shots, all with different compositions. I liked this a lot, but will post more in due course.
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A drive through Hope Valley
November 20th, 2009 | Author: albert
It was one of those Saturdays, nothing planned, not wanting to sit at home, kind of strange weather, not bad, but not particularly good either. What to do? So a friend and I decided to drive towards Lake Tahoe and see if there was anything worth shooting.
Rather than taking the freeway, we decided to go the back roads and took the Emigrant Mormon Trail and then Hwy 88 through Carson Pass and Hope Valley. The higher the elevation, the colder it got. At 8000 ft it was 37 degrees and this was only October!
In many ways it was kind of boring. Fall color was gone and no snow yet, that in between kind of day.
We spotted an area with interesting trees and rocks and decided, considering we’d come all this way anyway, to get out and shoot something, ANYTHING!
This is the result of that outing, kind of cool actually and I am quite happy with the results and it shows that there are photo opportunities hiding almost everywhere.
Picnic in the High Sierras – Overlooking Kings Canyon
October 15th, 2009 | Author: albert
Finally got around to looking at my Sequoia National Park and Kings Canyon pictures, places I went to with my son Rens.
We found, quite by accident, this magnificent picnic spot, overlooking the Sierras and King Canyon.
As you can see, we sat on a rocky ledge with a magnificent view spread out in front of us. I could have sat there all day, just absorbing the splendor of this view.
Just to the left of the bushes you see here on the left side of the picture, was this view seen below.
The canyon you see just to the right of the tree is Kings Canyon. We didn’t actually go there that day, so it is still on the “to do one day” list.
This shot is an HDR comprising of three shots, –1, 0 +1 EV apart. The HDR treatment added extra drama to the sky.
Long forgotten
October 15th, 2009 | Author: albert
I just heard from a friend that the road to Bodie is closed due to snow. He was very disappointed as this probably means Bodie will be now closed until spring.
This inspired me to post some of my favorite shots of Bodie as I was there just a few weeks ago. As you can see from the blue sky, snow was the last thing one would expect to see just a few weeks later.
I really like this first shot, I couldn’t resist shooting through the old wagon wheel. I was lying on my belly for this one.
The second one is one of my favorites. I just love these old rusted cars. They just tell a story I find and I end up wondering who drove it, where they went in the car. Great to let your imagination run off.
Simplify, Simplify, Simplify
September 14th, 2009 | Author: albert
Those are the three rules of photography (or something like that) and I guess you can’t go much simpler than the photo in today’s post.
This was shot early morning in the White Mountains, which lie just east of the Sierra Nevadas. The sun was up, but only barely and the surrounding landscape was covered in a light haze that was starting to burn off as the sun picked up in warmth. I was standing at about 10,000 ft elevation here (that is 3048 meters high, for my non American readers). I actually went higher that day as I was heading to the Ancient Bristle Cone Pine Forest, which stretches from 10,500 ft elevation to its peak at 14246 ft.
While I didn’t go that high, I probably ended up around 10,700 ft or thereabouts. For someone who is not used to those elevations, sucking air is quite an effort. I huffed and puffed my way around the trails taking pictures of these old trees. And they are old. In fact, the oldest tree in the world can be found here, although the Forest Authorities do not identify which tree it is out of fear of vandalism. Sad, but good to know this tree is being looked after. It is over 4000 years old.
Pictures of those trees are the subject of another post.
