A visit to the Santa Rosa Plateau

One of my family's favorite places to hike is the Santa Rosa Plateau Ecological Reserve, near Temecula. Located in the southern Santa Ana mountains at 8300 acres, the Plateau protects unique ecosystems like Engelmann oak woodlands, riparian wetlands, coastal sage scrub, chaparral, bunchgrass prairie and vernal pools.

We had a visit down there in hopes of finding tarantulas on Sunday afternoon (unsuccessful), and I was able to capture this moonrise.



You can view more images from the Plateau by visiting my website here.

Mountain Light

Owens River Alpenglow, California

You can add me to the Galen Rowell school of photography camp. I had never even heard of the Eastern Sierras before discovering Galen's work in 2001. I made my first trip in 2004 and have been going there ever since. Having no interest in mountaineering, I can spend hours just wandering Bishop Creek or the Owens river. Like Galen said, just go where the light is and find some earthbound to match it with. The light doesn't get any better than it does here in the Owens Valley. Though on this morning in September, there were no clouds, the alpenglow on Wheeler Crest was in full effect.

See more of my Eastern Sierra pictures.

The Mountain Photographer

One of my very first photographic inspirations was Galen Rowell. Before I was a photographer, I knew who Galen was, and I greatly admired his work. I was always impressed by the intimate way in which he connected the viewer to the subjects in his images. On top of that, I have always looked up to him as a human being as well. For lack of better words, he just seemed like a good guy. Those who knew him seem to be able to attest to that.

Galen and his wife Barbara lost their lives on the day my wife and I moved to California--August 11, 2002. I remember moving into our apartment in 115 degree heat, turning on NPR that evening, and hearing about the loss. It really was just that: a loss to the photographic community, environmental community, climbing community, and global community. However, I think we're fortunate that Galen's photographs continue to bring us closer to our world. This is due to a lot of hard work by his friend and family, and the brilliance of his photographs becomes quickly evident when you walk through his gallery in Bishop, CA. People walk around silent, in awe...inspired.

On my recent Sierra trip, I was able to visit Mobius Arch for the first time. Located in the Alabama Hills outside of Lone Pine, CA, Mobius frames the tallest peak in the contiguous U.S.--Mt. Whitney--perfectly. Although Mobius has many alternative names, my favorite is "Galen's Arch" as a tribute to Galen Rowell.

Making these images and thinking about my motivation for taking photos, I'm reminded of part of Galen's writing:

The Mountain Photographer

My interest in photography did not begin with books or mentors, or with any burning desire to see the world through a camera. It evolved from an intense devotion to mountains and wilderness that eventually shaped all parts of my life and brought them together. Photography was never simply a hobby or a profession for me. Once I began taking pictures, it became an integral part of my life.

Despite the occasional frustration, that's how I view my photography. I am grateful to have Galen Rowell to thank for both my early and continued inspiration.

These, and other images of the Sierra can be seen on my website, and on my blog.

Yosemite Fall Colors October 17, 2009

I have a fall color blog post for Yosemite on line here:
Yosemite Fall Colors October 17

Sugar Maple – October 17, 2009. © Copyright Inge Fernau .

Please visit my website for this and more. All images may be purchased or licensed in a range of sizes.


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Tarantula Season in California

Creepin', originally uploaded by ParsecTraveller.

Head into the hills this month and you just may see one of these large arachnids moving through the grass.

It's mating season for the tarantulas, and the males are out and about in search of mates. I found this guy on the trail to the top of Poly Mountain in San Luis Obispo.

Brizzolara Creek

Brizzolara Creek , originally uploaded by ParsecTraveller.

As many of you are well aware, October is typically a dry month in California.

Well that certainly wasn't the case with this October.

The powerful storm that hit the state on Tuesday dropped 7.5 inches of rain here in San Luis Obispo. Creeks that were dry on Monday were flowing at winter levels by Wednesday.

This is Brizzolara Creek, which flows through the Cal Poly campus. Despite being dry a few days ago, there are now fish in this creek. Wow, it's incredible what a single storm can do.

Aspens Close Up

One thing about photographing natural phenomena such as fall color... you almost never know what will actually happen. There are so many variables of time and place and weather and so forth. Sometimes things just don't work out the way you imagine. (But you still need to "be there" when they do!)



In the wake of this somewhat disappointing eastern Sierra aspen color season, I continue to go through the large number of photographs that I did manage to capture despite the challenges of weather, some trees going straight from green to brown to no leaves, and others that seemingly never changed at all. (The latter encourage a tiny bit of hope that there might still be a few opportunities to shoot aspen color if they do change soon - though yesterday's historic storm probably did not help things at all.)



In addition to being open to new and unexpected views of a subject (and to seeing different subjects than the one I am looking for), I do often carry a sort of mental library of images that I'd love to find or that I think might work. When it comes to aspens I have quite a collection! They include groves of trees extending into the distance, trees next to creeks and lakes, tree trunks catching the light in all sorts of interesting ways, trees set against alpine backgrounds, leaves on the ground, colorful canopies, bare trees with only a few leaves, and much more.



Among these is one particular sort of image that I often look for, especially when the light is right and/or the "big picture" shots aren't going to work: I like to explore close up photographs of small numbers of aspen leaves in low and/or diffused light, perhaps shot in the very early or late hours or even in cloudy conditions.

Besides the obvious photographic attractions of this subject, there are practical reasons to try this. For one - and this was important this year! - even when you don't encounter the imagined vast groves of astonishingly intense color you can almost always find a few beautiful leaves if you spend some quiet time wandering around in a grove looking carefully.

G Dan Mitchell

Eastern Sierra Fall Colors October 10, 2009

I send the following Eastern Sierra Fall color report to the CalPhoto Website:

JUNE LAKE LOOP: This one has promise. The shores along June Lake have yellow Aspen, but the rim has a lot of brown leaved trees. Shooting down from the beach is most likely best. All along the loop there are more and more yellow trees vs. lime green or green. Silver Lake picnic area and around the lake are more yellow than lime green. On close-up the yellow leaves have a lot of brown spots. Between Silver Lake and Grant Lake I saw 4 different stands of Aspen in bright yellow. Aerie Crag is also yellow and lime green. Along Grant Lake are groves in orange/brown, yellow, lime green, green and bare.

LEE VINING AREA: Looking down from Lee Vining to the creek trail (this trail starts in the town of Lee Vining), the Aspen are yellow. Just outside of town along US 395 are a couple of small groves turning yellow.

MONITOR PASS: The big grove east from top of the pass is yellow, lime green and bare as well. Other groves are still green and bare. The grove on top of the pass is yellow, lime green and bare. Driving west on hwy 89 before it intersects with hwy 4, I saw a few nice yellow Aspen stands.

HWY 89 to HWY 88: The East Carson River Valley has some really nice sections with very yellow trees.

HWY 88, HOPE VALLEY, CARSON PASS: The trees at Soresens’s Resort finally starting to turn, and the trees between here and Picket junction are either bare, lime green or yellow. On close-up the yellow leaves have brown spots. Other areas around Hope Valley are yellow, lime green, brown, bare and some have an orange tint (can’t tell from afar if is orange/brown). The trees by the cabins that had color last week are bare now. Up towards the Carson Pass the trees are lime green or bare. Hwy 88 western side is mostly green, lime green, yellow w/brown spots or bare.

There is hope for a 2nd season, as long as this next storm is not taking down what is left. I am working on my summery right now and will post it in a few days with images.


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An unusual eastern Sierra aspen season

The aspen color season in the eastern Sierra (and a few spots west of the crest) typically begins in late September and lasts into the middle of October with the peak often occurring right around the first week of October of so. (Note that the timing can vary a bit depending upon a number of factors including elevations, exposure, fall weather, and more.) Each fall those who follow the aspen color begin planning their visits, speculating about the timing of the color change and where the best color might be at various times. I'm one of those people!

My first visit this season was during the last weekend of September. Following a short pack trip into Cathedral Lakes I dropped over the crest in the Lee Vining area to see what was developing. I ended up on the road to Virginia Lake, where in the past it has seemed that the color occurred a bit sooner than elsewhere. This year it seemed to be to be changing just a bit later than I would have expected, but I did find some great color up high.

The following weekend I made it over to the Bishop Creek area for a few days. For those who may not be familiar with the sport of "aspen hunting" in the eastern Sierra, the area above Bishop on highway 168 to North Lake, Sabrina Lake, and South Lake is more or less "ground zero" for aspen color - this can be a tremendous area for finding great color and it often takes place over a relatively long period given that the elevations here cover almost the full range for the aspens. A usual pattern might be for the highest groves to change color in late September, and then for the color change to work its way gradually down to lower elevations during the first couple weeks of October.

This year, from the get-go, it seemed like something was different. In general, it seemed to me that the color change was a bit late, though some of the higher groves did change roughly when I would have expected. But down lower the trees seemed to remain green - and are still green in many areas, from what I hear this weekend - much longer than usual. Then there was some "interesting" weather last weekend when a cold storm came through and dropped a bit more snow that we might typically see.

I don't know if it was that front or something else, but the result seems to be a less-than-wonderful aspen season, and some odd conditions. I decided not to go again this weekend, but what I'm hearing from folks who went this week, like our own Inge Fernau, the current conditions are "difficult." While there are some isolated examples of fine color many trees are in one of three states: up high the leaves are gone, down low the trees are green, and in between many seem to be going very quickly from green to brown.

Being the philosophical type, I think there are a few things to take away from all of this:

• Every season is different. If you have experienced one or two that surpassed expectations, I suppose it is natural to expect an occasional aspen season that doesn't quite fulfill them.
• Persistence pays off. If this year did not work for you, I'll bet you learned more about the aspens, about other eastern Sierra subjects, and you can come back and do an even better job next time. And the odd are that in the next few seasons you'll again encounter better conditions.
• Flexibility is important. When the color isn't happening in the places where you looked for it, look somewhere else - go north or south, higher or lower. Even when the whole range fails to light up with glorious color, if you find one grove with great color you can come back with wonderful photographs.
• There are other subjects. On one morning this seasons I was fixated on getting to a particular grove for sunrise, and I almost passed up an opportunity to shoot a non-aspen subject that I came upon. But I stopped and shot the other subject... and came back with some of my favorite shots of the trip.

What are the prospects for more fall color this season? I can't answer that for certain, but I'm guessing that some other good opportunities remain. The aspens have not all lost their leaves yet, so something could yet come from those trees that are still green, especially the trees at lower elevations and those in more sheltered canyons. (But keep an eye on the storm scheduled to pass through early this week.) And keep in mind that aspens are not the only source of fall color, even in the eastern Sierra. The trees and grasses of Owens Valley provide many great fall shooting opportunities even after the aspens are spent. And the eastern Sierra is not the only source of fall color. There are many other places to shoot. One of my favorite is Yosemite Valley right around the first of November. I also like to photograph fall conditions in the central and northern California oak/grassland areas.

Sunrise in San Luis Obispo

Poly Mountain Sunrise
Originally uploaded by ParsecTraveller

As a college student, sleep is a necessity. However, when a sunrise hike is in the cards, all college instinct goes out the window.

On October 4, I got up at 5:50 A.M. to hike to the top of nearby Poly Mountain and watch the sunrise. Quick-moving clouds were coming in from the Pacific, and I was hopeful the sunrise would be colorful. Indeed, it was.

The yucca plant in the foreground is one of thousands covering Poly Mountain. With stiff, sharp leaves, the yuccas can inflict painful jabs to the legs. They are interesting plants though, with a beautiful blue-green color and flowering stalks as tall as a person.

No HDR processing was used in this image.

Eastern Sierra Fall Colors September 29/30

I have a new fall color report on line here:
Eastern Sierra Fall Colors September 29 and 30

Color along North Lake Road – September 30, 2009. © Copyright Inge Fernau .

Please visit my website for this and more. All images may be purchased or licensed in a range of sizes.


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Torch-Passing

Calling all administrators: If anyone among the 25 folks who signed up to contribute to this blog would like to take over its administration, please let me know!

Quick Report on a Quick Trip to Photograph Aspens

(The following is basically a quote from my blog entry on this topic.)

Although my main weekend photographic activity involved a short pack trip into the Cathedral Lakes in Yosemite on Saturday/Sunday (9/26-27), I did manage a quick Sunday afternoon visit to some aspens in the Tioga Pass, Lee Vining, Conway Summit area. With that in mind, here is a short report on what I saw.

• Tioga Pass – As you head east over Tioga Pass you begin to enter the “aspen zone” of the eastern Sierra. (There are aspens west of the crest, but very few in this area and fewer still along the road.) There are some specimens turning colors in roughly the Ellery Lake area, but the first really colorful trees are near the far end of the section of the road the traverses the headwall of Lee Vining Canyon. These are small trees, but some are quite colorful right now – with other still-green trees promising a bit more color yet to come. From this area I could also see more aspens (and other fall foliage) on higher ridges above the canyon.
• Lee Vining Canyon – A bit later the large aspen groves down in Lee Vining Canyon will usually put on quite a show – and many of the trees growing in this lower elevation protected area are quite large. However, yesterday there was very little color down in the canyon. I could see a very few trees starting to turn, but that was about it.
• Lundy Canyon – I did not enter Lundy Canyon on this trip since I had another goal in mind – so what I can report is based entirely on what I could see while driving by on highway 395. High on the ridges above Lundy Canyon there are some very colorful groves of trees. There appeared to also be some down closer to the entrance of the canyon. (I’ll post more concrete information about Lundy as soon as I can find it. Typically Lundy Canyon peaks a bit later than some of the other areas.)
• Conway Summit – The huge groves of aspens right below the highway to the north of Conway Summit are barely starting to turn colors. I saw a very small number of yellow trees right near the road but the vast majority of the trees here still appear to be green. This bodes well for conditions in a week or so. However, the long view toward Dunderberg Meadow from here shows that the higher trees are changing and colors there may be peaking. (I could not investigate these upper groves more closely since the car I was driving is not equipped for travel on rough gravel roads.) South of Conway Summit there are some large and not very accessible groves that are turning colors quite dramatically, but it is next to impossible to find a place to pull over and photograph them.
• Virginia Lake – The road to Virginia Lake leaves right from Conway Summit. Based on my visits in previous seasons, the trees along this road, especially up higher, tend to be among earliest to show color and then drop their leaves. I have arrived too late more than once! Yesterday, however, there were many trees showing very good color even along the upper sections of the road. There are also still a good number of green trees, so this show is probably not quite over. The first groves you come to shortly after leaving Conway Summit are currently at different stages of color. There is a parking area along the right side of the road in this area, and the trees parallel to the turnout on the right as you ascend are almost entirely green. However, across the road and just a bit further up there is a large and colorful grove where I photographed. Although there are still green trees here, there are also a few trees that have lost quite a few leaves. Another grove a bit higher alongside a creek at an obvious bend in the road is starting to look quite colorful, though the number of green trees suggests that there is still some good color to come.

Bishop Creek Canyon Fall Color

I just got back from Bishop and wanted to share a few thoughts on the fall conditions -

North Lake - Reds and Oranges but also quite a bit of green oddly enough.

Middle Fork Bishop Creek - A lot of greens and yellow still with a few colorful trees.



South Lake Road - Probably the best fall color at this point as it has a lot of oranges and yellows.

I spoke with a guy who had been up the other canyons and he said Bishop Creek was by far the best.

See more of my Eastern Sierra pictures.

Eastern Sierra Fall Colors September 23, 2009

I just posted a report on Eastern Sierra Fall Colors on my blog:

Eastern Sierra Fall Colors – September 23, 2009.

As the Sun crests over the mountains, it lights up an Aspen Tree – September 23, 2009. © Copyright Inge Fernau .

This (digital) photograph is not in the public domain! It may not be used on websites, blogs, or in any other media, it may not be copied, printed or otherwise reproduced in any manner or form, whether in whole or in part without explicit advance written permission from Inge Fernau

Please visit my website for this and more. All images may be purchased or licensed in a range of sizes.


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