Storm In The Sierras

Storm In The Sierras - Part One

In the fall of 2023 I became aware of a composition I wanted to capture in the Eastern Sierras. The problem was not knowing exactly were it was. I had seen a picture of it and knew it was in the Bishop area due to the particular mountains in the scene. I was pretty sure it was taken from Table Lands north of Bishop. I started searching, driving around, walking to the edge of Table Lands with no luck. I was able to rule out a number of locations. Then I resorted to Google Earth and, finally after much exploring, figured out what I thought was at least the approximate location. I had found a dirt road and knew I could continue my quest on that road and get fairly close to where I thought I should be. I began planning a trip to the Bishop area but what I needed for success was a good storm to bring the snow down the eastern faces of the Sierra mountains. Finally, a good storm was predicted for early March 2024.

The predictions were that the storm would come in late Friday and be gone by Sunday morning. I contacted my good photography buddy in Denver and we met up in Sacramento and headed to the Sierras on Thursday before the storm was to hit. But the storm came in early and 75 mile an hour winds were predicted for the passes over the Sierras for Thursday afternoon. Those were winds to avoid so we headed south to Bakersfield and went around the southern end of the Sierras and then north on highway 395 to Bishop.

What I was hoping for was to be on the edge of the storm and to be able to photograph the storm conditions. I got exactly what I had hoped for as can be seen in these images. The image above is the composition I had been obsessing on. It was captured on the third, and last, day of this trip.

The first morning in Bishop I woke up and saw the sky was fairly clear. We jumped in the car to scout the conditions to the west, the Eastern Sierras along highway 168. When you see light like that shown above, first thing in the morning, and you are out photographing, you might find your heart skipping beat. It was, indeed, a portent of some gorgeous scenery to be found.

This was taken that same morning from Pleasant Valley. As it turned out this historic storm had winds that were clocked at 190 miles an hour over the peaks. All of the roads, 395 just north of Bishop, highways 50, 80, 88, 89 were closed, By the time we headed home on Monday when the storm was predicted to be over, all of the roads were still closed. It was quite a storm, but Bishop was protected from it with fairly decent weather. However, driving 7 miles to the west on 168 placed us in a blizzard, literally. It was rather shocking how quickly we went from clear sky to it beginning to snow to white out conditions.

Family Life Of Red Foxes

The family life of a red fox is a joy to observe. The kits are very much like puppies, jumping on and chasing each other almost the entire day. Of particular interest is how the Vixens teach the kits to eventually become self sufficient around their food supply. There are two vixen in this family unit, the mother and grandmother, and I can not tell them apart. The kits you see here are still suckling from their mother. But by this time in their young lives she is well on the way introducing them to game. In the beginning she will stash the game, encouraging the kits to forage for it. The next step in the process you can see here, where she brings game directly to the kits. Here she is dropping a rabbit for them. At this stage in the teaching she has killed the rabbit. The next stage will be for her to bring them live game. The little black one grabs the rabbit and makes a run for it getting away from his siblings. A...

Red Foxes

I had never experienced anything quite like photographing red foxes. I was with them nearly all day, for three days in a row. I was so taken by them, especially the way they related to each other. Above is the dog fox, the adult male of the group, with one of his offsrping, a female kit fox. In this family group there were two vixen, one was the grandmother, the other the mother of three kits. The adult females attended the den all day with one or the other going off to hunt, returning with food for the kits. Missing most of the day was the dog fox and when he would return the kits all gravitated to him. All of the kits seemed to adore the dog fox but the moments between him and his daughter were especially touching. What a gorgeous, photogenic animal he is. When I returned a year later he was still there and there was a whole new brood of kits. I am hoping to return again this year having missed last year due to a bout ...

Art Display At The Center For Spiritual Living, Santa Rosa

The Center for Spiritual Living Santa Rosa, has a wonderful program that encourages artist members to display their work. The work is hung in the Social Hall and typically has about twenty pieces hanging for two months at a time. On March 1rst I will be hanging several images taken in Iceland, along with some wildlife images, including foxes, coyotes, eagles and kites. I will also have some paintings by my mother and two of my own. I am pretty excited about this showing. One of the pictures I will have in the show is of Godafoss, a beautiful waterfall in Iceland. When I first saw pictures of this waterfall I knew I wanted to go to Iceland to take pictures of it. This composition required gettin into some very cold water.

Notes To My Mother

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