Do you look on the dark side or the bright side?

A couple more from the ghost town of Bodie mentioned in my last post. These two in particular I think are good examples of how you can come away with totally different moods/interpretations of essentially the same subject, depending on your own point of view and techniques used. The B&W shot is not quite so dark and decayed in feeling when seen in color, but if you want to emphasize that view, then monochrome seems the way to go. In the color shot, the fresh green grass and the blooming flowers become the subject, creating a whole different attitude where nature can be seen as always moving forward and renewing itself even while the manmade structures slowly return to the earth.

I need to get back to this location and spend at least a whole proper day working (this stop was too brief)... the still-life, detail and landscape possibilities are endless. I'm afraid though with all of California's budget cutting, if they start to close some state parks, this might be one of the first to go, since there was already some talk of closing it for preservation purposes.

Of course, there will always be those who look only at technique, who ask "how," while others of a more curious nature will ask "why." Personally, I have always preferred inspiration to information.

- Man Ray

Big Sky Over Owens Valley

After more than the usual amount of research and writing for my last post, I hope no one minds if I keep it short and simple for a few days. This scene is shot from the Whitney Portal road (leads to the main trailhead for climbing Mt. Whitney), looking north towards Bishop and across Owens Valley.  The edge of the Sierras are seen on the left and the White Mountains are on the right, (eastward) towards Nevada. It was a winter day as you can probably tell, though no snow was on the ground down in the valley. This road however, was closed due to snow and ice from the point where I took this. One brave solo backpacker was planning to climb the mountain alone and was trying to convince someone to give him a ride to the normal end of the road, which would have saved several extra miles of hiking, but after walking up the road a bit and seeing the conditions, I had to politely decline. He convinced someone else to try, but they were only gone a few minutes before coming back down, so I don't think he got much help.

Please click on the image for a larger view and be sure to check out lots and lots of other SkyWatch Friday No. 44 links at their home page.

Rainbow Falls

It has turned suddenly very hot here in Southern California, so I thought I should dig up an image that feels cool and refreshing. Apologies to any of you still getting snowed on.

These falls are located inside an area known as the Devil's Postpile National Monument, just west of Mammoth Lakes & Mammoth Mountain ski area in the eastern sierras. There's only one dead-end road in and out this place and it usually doesn't open until mid-June, the road being impassable due to deep snow. 

"Rainbow Falls" gets it's name from the fact that at the right time of day when the sun is high, you can see a perfect rainbow in the mist created by the falls. We didn't have enough time to hang around and find out... this was actually shot early in the morning, while still mostly in shadow. I managed to avoid it pretty well, but there is considerable mist all around and the force of the water creates it's own wind, which of course sends lots of droplets towards the lens of your camera and ruins your shot; also if the light catches it wrong you get an ugly glare. It took me an hour of climbing around on these rocks and using my hat to shield the camera to get something useable.

You have to hike in about a mile from the parking at the very end of the road through a recently burned out section of forest (see the above shot, courtesy of my wife), arriving along the upper right edge of the gorge seen here, then climb down a short but steep section to reach the bottom. Maybe it's a little hard to judge the scale of the fall, but it's 100 ft. tall and the water really roars through with a lot of energy until later in the summer when it quiets down a bit.

"Rainbow Falls" - Eastern Sierra