Last week my family did a quick trip up to Virginia City for my unce’s 80th birthday party. I knew there would be potential of some beautiful fall colors on the trip so I kept close tabs on some of my favorite Eastern Sierra spots for fall. By Wednesday it was looking like there was a strong possibility of snow on our weekend trip which made things even more interesting. The fall colors themselves weren’t at their peak, we were […]
Two weeks ago I got a couple of days to myself, my girls went up to grandma and grandpa’s for half the week. As nice as it would have been to get away during my time sans kids I had a lot of work I needed to do at home. So instead I created a mini-project for myself. Three sunrises, three local spots within 40 minutes from my house. It was a much needed creative exercise to clear my head […]
If I had to pick one subject to photograph my whole life I would be quite happy choosing these rugged, beautifully ancient trees. Thankfully I don’t have to make that decision. The dichotomy of the scene, with the harsh lighting of the midday sun and the clouds dissipating over the White Mountains made this moment an apt time for doing a black & white composition. I was both delighted and disheartened to find out I was able to drive up […]
When I was planning my trip through the Eastern Sierra Nevada this was high on the list of places to revisit. The whole week leading up I watched the weather forecast frequently hoping for a storm or clouds of any kind. But after the trip started chances of any clouds were getting slimmer by the hour. The night preceding this shot I saw all the clouds blow away as I sat on the Eureka Sand Dunes waiting for a sunset […]
Last weekend I got to do a little getaway to one of my favorite places to explore, the Eastern Sierra portion of Highway 395. My first night out I stayed at the Eureka Sand Dunes in Death Valley National Park. I have long wanted to experience the dunes and the nearby mountains, the Last Chance Range, at sunset. It wasn’t the dramatic sunset sky experience I had hoped for, but I did have the unexpected pleasure of hiking through a […]
This image was taken on the first night of our trip a little over a week ago while we watch to last light on Fire Canyon fade away. We definitely had no trouble with the smoke from all the wild fires that were raging in the west. We had very strong winds from the east, so strong that it blew over semi-trucks on I-15 in Utah. Where we were I had to hold onto my camera tripod to make sure […]
Summer is one of my favorite seasons to visit the eastern side of California when you can see dramatic weather like this summer storm in the Sierra Nevada. Your morning could be completely clear and by lunchtime the day may look like this. I just got back from a backpacking trip with my brothers to the Big Pine Lakes/Temple Crag part of the Inyo National Forest. It was an incredible trip even if it was a bit soggy and mosquito-filled. […]
Capital Reef may not get the attention it’s fellow ‘Big 5’ Utah parks (Zion, Bryce Canyon, Arches, and Canyonlands) but it’s still a sight to behold. It’s also off the beaten path in central Utah, so it’s not one of the places you go see while going somewhere else (though that’s what we did en-route to Goblin Valley). We also experienced some dramatic spring weather on our drive to the park getting sleet and rain while driving through the mountains […]
Factory Butte in Utah stands out from it’s neighboring landmarks (Capital Reef NP and Goblin Valley) because it doesn’t have that red-hued rock permeating the landscape. In fact it’s distinctive color palette, a gray landscape highlighted with a yellow that sometimes neared a sufur-yellow, made a lot of my photos from the area look unrealistic. They look like those vintage hand-painted photos from the early 20th century. These badlands are beautiful to explore but visitors need to be aware this […]
Goblin Valley State Park has such other-worldly features it was hard to take it all in and figure how I was going to photograph it. I can only think of two other places where I have had same sense of visual overload (one being White Pocket and the other being the coastal Redwoods). From those past experiences I learned not try and take it all in, or attempt to document it all photographically. Rather just focus on a couple key […]