Notes To My Mother

  Just north of Bishop there is a lovely location called Pleasant Valley.  The Owens River winds its way through the grasses and reeds, providing a popular location for fishing.  I was taken by the beauty and peacefulness.   One of the really great things about this part of the Eastern Sierras is the smell of sage.  After walking through some I carried the smell on my clothes the rest of the day.  And it is actually quite beautiful if take a close look at it.  I comes in a variety of colors from red to yellow and shades of blue.   To the east and north of Bishop you can often find ponds.  I say "often" because all of them are not always there.  During the drought this particular pond was dry.  I was so happy to see it full this year as it is one of my favorite to visit.  There are other ponds east of town that were full even during the drought years so it you want to see some ponds, they are there to be found. On the ...

  Whenever I think of the Eastern Sierras one of the first images that comes to mind is Mono Lake.  I've. known this lake since I was 4 years old and I can remember driving by it on highway 395 with the water very near the road.  It has lost a lot of water since then (1946-47) but it retains its beauty.  This image was taken in February when the Milky Way is low in the horizon in the early morning.  You may already know it is best to shoot the stars in the darkest hours and that would be after Astronomical Twilight ends at night and before it begins again in the morning.  It goes like this:  in the morning first there is Astronomical Twilight when the dimmest light begins(about 30 min), then Nautical Twilight (another 30 min) then Civil twilight followed by sunrise. The Golden Hour is just before and after sunrise.  This image was taken in the last moments of darkness just as Astronomical Twilight was beginning.  You can see the beginning of ...

As you may have gathered from previous posts, the Eastern Sierras is one of my favorite places to spend time.  Here are a few of the spots that I particularly like.  Highway 168 out of Bishop, CA, will take you into a beautiful area of the Sierras following Bishop Creek to the west and into the mountains. The scene above is Bishop Creek on the way to South Lake. Not far away is North Lake a very pretty lake in late September and early October. It is the place to be early in the morning just before the sun hits the mountain peaks. You will know you are in the right place by the crowd of photographers. A picture of this lake was the screensaver image on iMacs a few years ago. Whenever I am in the Sierras in early October I head for this lake to catch a beautiful sunrise. What I really want is an image of this location during Autumn color with snow on the peaks. Just missed it a  couple of years ago. The next best thing is North Lake with mirror-like reflections, autumn colo...