Notes To My Mother

It is hard to pick a favorite place to be at night in the Sierras because there are so many great places. Lake Sabrina ranks very hight on my list for a number of reasons.  One, its elevation is very high at just over 9,100 ft which helps with reducing the atmosphere between the camera and the stars.  It is also a very scenic spot, both in the daytime and at night.  In the middle of the drought the water level was very low which made a shot like this one impossible.  But during wet years it is a joy to shoot.  It is also very scenic in the daytime, especially first thing in the morning.  And finally, it is easy to get to being just 18 miles on highway 168 out of Bishop.  Another easily accessible night location is Tioga Lake located along highway 120 just past the top of Tioga Pass when heading west.  The only problem with this location are the cars that keep coming on the highway to the left of this scene.  A little patience and you will get...

Last year my grandson, Levi Davis-Lundblad, and I went to Mt. Shasta to see if we could get some images of the Milky Way over the mountain. We stayed just north of Weed and went exploring. We were looking for good views of the mountain and instead found a wonderful sculpture garden dedicated to veterans of war. It is located about 11 miles north of Weed on highway 97. We switched gears and dedicated our limited time to shooting the sculptures at night with the stars as our backdrop. The sculpture above is titled "Why?" and represents the upper portion of the work. "Nurses Never Sleep" is dedicated to all of the nurses who have served during wartime. "The Flute Player"During times of war a flutist were used to communicate with the troops as the sound would carry much better than the human voice. To all veterans Photo by Levi Davis-Lundblad. I am planning to return to this area during the dark skies in June to see if I can capture that image of the Milky Way...