Just a Trickle

Went out to see if I could scout up some new locations here in my own area last weekend. I expected all the streams to be bone dry, so was surprised to find a little bit of flow still going on in a few spots. Very, very dry again this winter.. normally this would be a pretty good little waterfall at this time of year. On the one hand, it's nice that it has been so warm, but here's hoping for some snow, or at least rain, before the season ends. 

Snow, Mistletoe, Doves and Really Cold

Last post for this year; a winter scene in the San Jacinto mountains of Southern California.  Hope everyone has a wonderful and productive New Year.

Foggy Forest

Nothing quite like a misty, foggy Sunday afternoon out in the 6000' elevation forest around my house. Certainly no worries about anyone popping into my shots accidentally (well, maybe a deer, but rare to see them during the day). 

Peace and Light

Driving home through Garner Valley at the end of the day a couple of weekends ago.  Hard to tell from this, but the hills just behind the fore-most line of hills on the right, is where the Mountain fire tore through the area on the first day, then devastated much of the backcountry way up into the mountains, all the while threatening to destroy the whole town where we live. Only days of hard work by hundreds of firefighters and some amazing luck with the weather got it under control.  Here is what it looked like last summer. We're having a very warm and dry winter, with an historic drought in most of the state, so might be a long and mean fire season coming up this year.

Fall: California Style

Can you tell that this scene was taken about 3000 miles from the one in my last post? Maybe if you're familiar with both areas and know your trees:)

Around here at this elevation, about the only native trees that change color much in the fall are the oaks, and they don't get really bright or varied colors, at least compared to the maples back east and aspens, which prefer a slightly higher elevation and don't occur here unless someone deliberately plants them.

This is an almost always deserted road in the forest just below my house where I like to walk in the afternoons after working.. it was especially pretty the other day after a night of heavy rain.
I could go a year and not see a single soul along here, but on this day I ran into a couple of guys in a truck who asked me if I had seen any deer..that reminded me that it's hunting season (this is national forest land) and I'd better stay on the road and not go off track through the woods for a while:)

Devastation View

It has already been, and continues to be, a rough fire season here in the west. This view is the result of the "Mountain" fire, that only by a miracle of weather (and lots of hard work by firefighters), missed destroying our little village of Idyllwild here in the San Jacinto mountains. 27,500 acres were burned.   It started back on July 15, and is still smoldering up in the high country above the town as of August 25, although it is fully contained.  If the wind had been different when it started, or we had not received some unusual rain just at the right time to knock it down when things were looking bad, we might have been goners.  Idyllwild village had to evacuate.. the area where I live is a few miles further north and west, so we were on alert and ready to go, but luckily never had to actually leave.   Definitely the closest call since we have lived here, though.
Another big fire occurred a couple of weeks later down on the eastern foot of the mountain near the I-10, but that was prevented from getting up into the forest which was good for us, but quite a few houses and buildings were destroyed in that one. We haven't even got into the real Santa Ana season yet when some of the worst fires typically happen, so looks like we'll be on guard around here until the winter rains arrive.

How hot was it? It was so hot....

... last week that even the local squirrels were just too gassed to move!  Actually, I kind of felt the same way:) Living in the forest at 6000 ft. elevation normally protects us from really excessive heat, but a few times per year, seems like the mercury travels into the mid-90's, even here. It was close to 100° just below us in the main part of town, at 5000 ft.  Of course we can't complain too much, since down in the desert not that far from here, they are routinely around 110° this time of year and were toying with 120° last week. We drove down there one afternoon and wow.. takes your breath away if you're not used to it. At least we cool off nicely at night, where they don't so much.
In the summer, I always leave a pan of water out for the local critters, because there is no natural water to be found for quite a distance around where we live, and they seem to really appreciate it.. more than food I think.  Guess this guy was deciding if he had the energy to get down to the ground for a cool drink.
Yes, I know... I haven't been updating posts here much recently.. I have quite a bit of deferred maintenance work to catch up on the house and yard this summer,  and then we had a rather large and unexpected vet bill that postponed our plan for a July road trip to Arizona and Utah, so I just haven't had the opportunity to get out and shoot much new work.  In the meantime, I've got plenty of backlogged stuff to process and print anyway, so no hurry!

Backtracking

A few posts back, I wrote about this incredible old manzanita that I came across while hiking several months ago; at the time, I just took a few quick, hand held shots of it in the existing harsh light and then noted the location so that I could go back and do it properly under better conditions.  So, here is the result of my recent return.. I think everyone would agree that it is quite an improvement when done under the softer light of a partly cloudy day and with more thought given to how to handle the subject..
Nature can be notoriously uncooperative, often it seems especially so when you take time to travel hundreds of miles just to photograph a spot and don't have the luxury of simply going back anytime… that's when you really have to be flexible and try to adapt to the existing conditions, whatever they may be.  In that situation, I've been lucky at times and frustrated at others.. but always try to consider it part of the fun and the challenge. Since this one was local, I was able to go back at an opportune time and work as long as I wanted, so I now have several print-worthy shots in the can, and I think I will cross this one off my "to do" list:)

Dark Meets Light

Same day, same storm as seen in my previous post. Summer-like weather ever since. This was the best spot I could find to capture these great heavy clouds against the fresh white snow.
The last couple of years, we've had one last bit of snow around Mother's Day, so we'll see what happens this year.  All I know for sure is that we will NOT be planting the vegetable garden before June.. we made the mistake of putting the veggies in in May last year, and ended up starting all over again in June, because of a week of below-freezing nights that killed almost everything.

Spring Snow

It's been a really unusual winter here in the San Jacinto Mountains.. the real winter months were mostly warm and dry; now that it's spring, we've had several pretty good snow storms.  I usually don't expect to shoot scenes like this in mid-April, but here you go, this one is from last Saturday.  Now, it's back into the 70° range and the snow is already gone... go figure. This, and a couple more from the same day, will probably be my last opportunity for snow scenes this year, but that's o.k., because I am actually quite happy with a few from this day.

Ancient and Twisted

My wife and I were out for a casual hike last Saturday, near home on a little nature loop trail I've never explored. Just up a bit beside the trail, I spotted this amazing and obviously really old manzanita skeleton.  I've never come across one with this huge of a trunk; more like the size of a tree.  With or without bark and leaves, I always love the shapes and texture of these bushes, especially the large ones.  I definitely want to go back and reshoot this properly, when the light is less harsh, either late in the day or when there are some thin clouds in the sky to take the edge off. Monochrome tends to be more forgiving of less-than-ideal light than color, but even so, it never feels quite right unless the light is interesting to begin with.

And the Winner Is?

Just before sunset, a particular lone tree standing in the glassy water caught my attention... and I decided to stay put in this one spot and work with it as many ways as possible in the perfect part of the twilight. This quality of light only lasts for a very short short period, so you don't really have precious minutes to be wandering around looking for subjects.. better to be already committed to it and set up.
I usually stick with one pic per post, but thought I would show two side-by-side here today, because this is a very good example of how the same subject can be interpreted in such different ways by changing lenses, composition, subject emphasis and timing.
I don't really have to choose between these of course; they would both make nice prints (and I actually have two or three other variations too), but if I did, I'm really not sure yet which I would select. I would love to hear your opinions about which one works better to your eye... and even a little bit about why you think so, if someone feels like taking the time to give it some thought. An opinion poll for me and a bit of a creative exercise for you, as it were:)

Sky Watch: Looking Homeward

Number 3 in this current series:  The clouds lit up in a remarkable way for just a few minutes after sunset, as you can see here (and lucky that I was in a spot with the glassy water to mirror it). One of those situations that you can't always anticipate, but when you see a lot of high, thin clouds late in the afternoon, it's more than likely that something good is going to happen.. just have to be ready:)
The large mountain in the distance (45 miles southeast from this spot) is where I live. The smaller, pointy peak far to the right of the whole mount, towards the foreground hills, is Tahquiz Peak and our house would be directly below there on the ridge that crosses in front of it. (A friend from town was hiking up to that peak at exactly the same time I was shooting this, but even with the recent warm weather, there was too much snow and ice to make it all the way to the top, meanwhile, I was quite comfortable here working in a tee shirt.. a true land of contrasts).
I framed this shot specifically to get the view of the mountain prominently into the scene. I have another one from a couple of minutes earlier where the mountain is lit up beautifully by the setting sun, but the sky was more unique at this moment.
Visit the SkyWatch home page each weekend for more great skies from all over the world.

Sky Watch: Sea of Clouds, II

Today's Sky Watch is another interpretation of the scene in my previous post.  A good example, I think, of how extremely different the same thing can look from different points of view (not just in photography, I might add:)  This one was shot from exactly the same spot and at the same time, but this time directly into the sun and with a short telephoto lens to bring the clouds and ridge closer together. Shooting at the sun (with my hand extended as a shade) caught these beautiful, fiery highlights on the fast moving wisps of cloud rushing across the scene just below the ridge.
Visit the SkyWatch home page each weekend for more great skies from all over the world.

A Sea of Clouds

An interesting part of living at 6000' elevation is that the weather sometimes approaches from BELOW, rather than above, as you might normally expect. San Jacinto is a nearly 11,000' mountain island, surrounded by desert on the east and rolling, semi-arid hill country to the west.  Especially as we get into winter, that can create some spectacular effects.  Driving home from town the other day, I noticed this perfect sea of clouds extending as far as the eye could see, from just below where we live... all the way out to the ocean, 100 miles to the west. As soon as I got home, I grabbed a camera and ran up the street to my favorite sunset lookout spot... an outcropping of granite boulders on the side of a ridge just near our house.
I'll have a completely different, and I think more dramatic, interpretation of the scene next.

Long Time, No See...

Yep, I'm still here. And wow, it sure gets easy to put off posting once you get out of the habit of doing it on a regular basis.. before you know it, one or two months have gone by.
My regular commercial work and now,  running the new gallery, are conspiring to keep me from getting outdoors to shoot, but that should change in September, since my wife and I have booked a week-long trip to the Olympic Peninsula in Washington right after Labor Day... I hope to spend a lot of time photographing the lush, green rain forest and uniquely beautiful beaches up there.  That should certainly generate some interesting new work and will be kind of a fresh subject matter for me, which is always nice.

A couple of weeks ago, my old friend (from art school days, back in the '70's.. a long time!) stopped by here for a few days with his family, while on a north-south tour of California, visiting various family and friends along the way. He teaches art now at a private school in western Massachusetts, where we both grew up, and is a really fine plein-air painter... he works at that a lot during the summers while he is off from teaching. He of course wanted me to show off some of my favorite local scenes so he could take a stab at painting them and on the one session that I hung around while he was working, I couldn't resist to wander up the stream and do some studies with my trusty iPhone while killing time. Of course the quality is not there for any kind of printing, but it's sometimes fun to just shoot carefree with no tripod and no worries about quality... and see what you can see.


Since I don't have any new stuff right now and haven't had the inspiration to dig up and talk about anything already in the can, I thought I'd post a few of these just for a hoot.  All here shot with my phone. Notice the detail in the shadow area of the first one below. The iPhone has a pretty nifty HDR capability built right in; it takes two exposures, then blends them right in-camera and it works quite well... I actually had to tone it down some to make it look natural. I expect most digital cameras will have this feature in the near future.

One More From the Foggy Forest... and Some News.

The third, and probably the last one from this series, at least for now.  Somehow I'm picturing this set of images as large, contemporary stretched-canvas prints, probably soon to be seen on the walls of my new gallery.  Which bring us to the "some news" part...
Ever since we moved here from the city a year ago, it has been a goal to have my own permanent space to show and sell in. (Setting up outdoors at art shows is fun, but LOTS of work and hard to do consistently, while showing in a large gallery among dozens of other artists is less than ideal for sales.)  I didn't want to do this right away last year, because I knew we needed some time to get resettled and there was lots of other work to do on the house, etc., but this spring, the right space, at the right price just kind of popped up. Also, I was lucky enough to find a motivated and talented partner (a sculptor-who only needs floor space, as opposed to my needing only wall space, so that's perfect) to help out and share the expense. It's a fairly small space for now until we see how it goes, but there are neighboring spaces that will be available in the future for expansion if we can make it work. Selling artwork even in the best of times is tricky and with the economy still shaky, there are no guarantees of success, but I am excited to give it a try anyway. Idyllwild is known as a destination for it's galleries and art... and with the busy summer tourist season coming, we should be able to do o.k.
I'll be tied up with planning and setup for the next few weeks, (we want to open for the July 4 weekend), so I may not be posting any new work for a while (probably not SHOOTING any new work for a while either:), but I'll try to keep the blog updated with our progress on this new project.  Stay tuned:) 

And It Gets Thicker...

The second in my "Foggy Forest" grouping.  The soft transition from detailed foreground to the misty background gives it an especially watercolor-like style that I always like to see.  It's really nice to compose under these conditions because the background is so easily abstracted and free of distracting details. Walking past this spot yesterday evening, I noticed that there are quite a few wildflowers blooming now that would have been a nice accent.. too bad I was a few days early.. not likely to get this opportunity again before they are gone, at least for this year.

Foggy Forest Evening

This scene - and a few more similar ones upcoming - have been in my head for literally months now, but obviously it required some very specific conditions: late afternoon light, thick fog, and preferably little or no rain (which makes it very difficult or impossible to shoot, unless you have someone there to hold an umbrella for you).  So, I finally got my opportunity this week and spent a busy hour shooting like crazy out in the foggy, wet forest one early evening after several previous days of rain.  Shooting fog is tricky, because the contrast that you see with your eyes is sometimes so different than what the camera sees; some shots that feel fantastic at the moment don't do anything when you look at them later, but others that didn't seem so dynamic in the field look great when you get to processing them. When you hit it just right, the sense of depth and deep, saturated colors can really work well.  I got a dozen or so pretty good frames in about an hour of work; probably two or three will make it as prints at some point... not a bad day's work.  I have a few more of these in the pipeline.

Granite Swirl

Another from a recently processed batch.. I probably shot this back in early December, I don't recall exactly. This is on film, so no EXIF data.. guess I should get back in the habit of taking notes:)
There are quite a few small waterfalls on the numerous streams in my area, but I've never seen one like this, carved right into solid granite.  I'm especially pleased because I found this one completely on my own.. no one told me about it and I've never seen a picture of it, which is kind of surprising.  I had no idea there was even a stream here, let alone this nice fall, until I pulled over and parked one day to explore some rock formations and noticed sound of the stream. Following the water down a ways, I came across this.  I shot a few variations because the shape is so unique, but this is my favorite so far.. maybe I will post a couple more, to see if one gets more reaction than the others.