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.

White Tailed Kites - A Family Affair

Perhaps you have seen birds fluttering in one place in the air. I have seen Northern Harriers do this as well as kestrels. But most commonly it is the white-tailed Kite. Three years ago there was a family of them in the Laguna De Santa Rosa and I had the privilege of witnessing their behaviors and capturing some of it with my camera. This first picture (above) shows a juvenile in flight and an adult on the branch. The juveniles are distinguishable by the brown markings. This Kite family had three juveniles and one adult, perhaps two adults but I only saw one at any given time. Late one evening I saw this scene with the adult holding a gopher or vole while the three juveniles gathered. I was particularly taken by the orientation of the juvenile's body on the bottom left. As it turned out I got several shots of juveniles in unusual positions. On one occasion I photographed one of the juveniles doing a somersault in mid air (topi...

The East Side of the Sierras is Beautiful

Why “Notes to My Mother”? My mother was the one person in my life who was always interested in what I was doing, what I had to say, who I was. She was never too busy to listen and take an interest. Never critical, always accepting. Even when I was wrong or misguided, there would still be a gentle interested listener present. Though she has been gone over 6 years, I still get the urge to write or call her, to share an image I am proud of or share my latest adventure to some beautiful place. I know she would love to hear about it. My mother was an artist. She painted most of her life, right up to her passing at the age of 96. When I was 4 years old we lived on the east side of the Sierra Nevada Range. She would take me out to paint with her - she with her easel, me with mine - and we would sit together creating our art. While I gave up on the medium she kept at it. Then, in the year she passed I picked up a digital camera and began my adventure into the world of landscape ph...

Aurora Borealis May 10: A Northern Lights Extravaganza

As a quick update: All of these images were taken on the night of May 10-11, 2024. on San Juan Island WA. We were taken by surprise in the middle of our vacation when it was announced there was to be an aurora display that would likely be visible from our location. What an understatement! What we witnessed was simply out of this world. We saw colors I did not know existed in the auroras, especially the light pinks and, of all things, orange (neon). There were four of us on the grounds at the Trumpeter Inn during the "show". I was the only one with a DSLSR camera so the others would see something interesting and I would point my camera in that direction and take a timed exposer. Most were in the 15 to 20 second length. At one point, Jan looked up straight overhead and saw something that was quite unusual; it looked like some kind of convergence. I pointed the camera overhead and took this picture, which I find startling....

Notes To My Mother

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