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We always seem to be lucky.

On the day before our first big hike into the high country of the Sierras we decided to drive up to the Mt. Whitney trailhead to scout our hike for the next day. As we were wandering around, we bumped into someone who asked us if we were going to hike Mount Whitney today.  We said no but we are going to hike the Mount Whitney Trail tomorrow to Lone Pine Lake.  He told us to check the weather because it's supposed to rain and snow in the mountains tomorrow.  We said whaaaat?

Without really giving it a lot of thought we decided to trust this stranger and do our hike to Lone Pine Lake today, in the beautiful alpine sunshine. We spent many hours that afternoon hiking through beautiful gray granite peaks, surrounded by golden autumn color, and topping out at over 10,000 feet at the lake where there was snow on the ground from the previous week's storm.  After seven miles and two thousand vertical feet of hiking, we emerged from the trail late in the day... tired, hungry, thirsty, and cramping from our change of plans.  But it was such a great day!

The next morning before sunrise, we entered the Alabama Hills to do some photography of the Sierra Crest. We could tell it was cloudy because we couldn’t see any stars in the pre-dawn sky. As the daylight grew, we could see there were ominous clouds above the Sierras that quickly turned into a storm.  We were comfortable in the warm weather down on the desert valley floor. But minutes later, in the mountains, a storm was raging with lightning, thunder, rain, and snow. We saw lightning strike from one granite peak to another and we heard crashing thunder echo down the peaks.

And, we counted ourselves lucky that we had decided to do our high mountain hike yesterday, instead of today.

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Yes, I know it's just a postcard photo and that many people have taken this same image.  But so what... I enjoyed the entire process of making the photo - getting up before sunrise, hiking to this location and scrambling to sit in the exact one spot that would get the arch with the snow-covered Lone Pine Peak centered beneath it.  And I loved watching the light change... the magentas and blues of the dawn hour followed by the alpenglow on the peaks at sunrise.

I just came back from a week of hiking and photographing in the Eastern Sierras in California.  These are the same mountains that hold incredible places like Yosemite NP, Kings Canyon NP, and Sequioia NP.  And on the eastern side where I was, they present a formidable, steep, rugged range of mountain faces to the valley below.

We explored the Alabama Hills... a unique rocky landscape so beautiful it has been the setting for more than one hundred movies (mostly westerns).  We hiked long trails to beautiful alpine lakes over 10,000 feet.  We drove the Jeep over a narrow twisting mountain pass deep into the Sierras.  And we witnessed stunning bright yellow cottonwood and aspen trees in full autumn color.

And, to make the trip just simply perfect, it had snowed a week before we arrived.  It was the largest October snow in the Sierras in a decade.  It made the photography even more enjoyable!  Look for a few more images from the trip in the coming months!

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Several months have passed since my last newsletter.  I still enjoy photography as much as I ever have.  I just don't need it as much, now that I am retired.  I have learned there is a big difference.  When I was working, I needed photography as a balance to a demanding career.  Photography was a nice refuge, away from work and people and deadlines.  But now I spend my days doing largely what I want to do... and the need to photograph has diminished.  But not my enjoyment of it.

The grand scenes and large vistas get all the likes.  It's what everyone wants to see.  But I like the smaller scenes.  Don't get me wrong... I love being in those grand vistas and seeing them live.  But I enjoy making photographs of the smaller scenes... the overlooked, quiet images by the side of a trail.  Just a few plants... and rocks... and a splash of late day sunlight and shadow.  The spotlight of sun on the cactus is what made me stop and take notice in the image above.  And I composed it trying to create a feeling of calm in the late day light.

Who knows when you will see the next newsletter.  I have taken a good start though... I leave in seven days for a week of hiking and photography in the Eastern Sierras of California.  I may be out of practice, but I will give it my best and hopefully be able to send out something nice... not too long from now.

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As I write this, it is our fifth straight day of cloudy, damp, drizzly, rainy weather.  I heard that we have had measurable rain on twelve of the last fifteen weekends.  You would think we live in the Pacific Northwest!  It has been the rainiest spring I can remember.  I went to Scotland in May for a week of golfing... it was sunny and in the upper 60's and low 70's every day... we played in shorts every day... and it rained back home!

I made this image the morning after we attended a concert with good friends.  It was an outdoor concert.  It rained.  It seemed like a good idea when we first heard about it... go see a concert in Hershey, have a nice dinner, stay at the Hershey Hotel and enjoy the company of our friends.  But... it rained.  All day, and all night.  We wore all the rain gear we had, sat on cold metal bleachers, and got wet.  But we still enjoyed the company of our friends!

As I walked around the grounds of the hotel the next morning, everything was soggy (including me).  I saw the raindrops clinging to the leaves of this tree and it seemed to summarize both the day we had and the spring we are having.

But fear not, I hear the sun is coming out in a few days and it is supposed to be 95 degrees and humid for many days in a row!  :(

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Cherry blossoms and marble...  

...That is what I think of when I think of Washington DC in the spring. The bright clear sun, cherry blossoms at peak bloom, and the clean look of polished marble on the federal buildings.

I used to travel to the DC area regularly for work for more than twenty years and I vividly remember the spring taxi rides from Union Station.  I'd watch the buildings roll by in dappled sunlight.  I'd see the school buses emptying hundreds of kids onto the Mall for the annual spring field trips.  I'd see cherry blossoms merging with daffodils merging with tulips and all kinds of color blurring together under a clear blue sky as the taxi crossed the bridge into Virginia.

For the last five years, we have also made a spring cherry blossom pilgrimage to DC while visiting our daughter.  Forget about politics... Washington DC in the spring on a sunny afternoon is hard to beat.  It just may be the nicest city to spend a spring afternoon!

This year, we timed it perfectly… a very warm spring weekend in DC at exactly peak bloom.  We joined a hundred thousand of our closest friends and all tried to squeeze onto a narrow footpath around the tidal basin ringed by perfectly blooming pink and white cherry trees.

I made many unremarkable postcard images that day.  But the one that stands out for me is this simple scene of cherry blossoms against the back of the National Gallery of Art.  The pink of the blossoms is echoed in the pink of the granite and I love the contrast of the organic shape of the cherry tree branch against the rigid marble wall.

Happy Spring... finally!

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Joshua Tree National Park should really be called Great Rocks National Park. Sure, there are Joshua Trees there, but you can find them in other places in the Southwest. The biggest draw for me at this park are the incredible rock formations. They are unlike anything I have seen anywhere else... smooth and rough at the same time… interesting lines and cracks… and fantastic colors. There is even one section of the park called the Wonderland of Rocks!

We spent three weeks in Palm Springs California escaping the winter’s cold back east. It was a great way to spend late February and early March. Every day was sunny, warm, and beautiful! We spent a full day hiking in Great Rocks National Park (aka Joshua Tree) and I can’t wait to go back. Towards the end of the day, I took the big camera out and spent time walking around some big rocks. I came to this scene above, fully cloaked in shadow because of the lowering sun. There were no sunny highlights and so I almost didn't make an image. But I couldn't resist the shapes and colors of the rocks, even in the full shade. And that tree was the crowning touch.  How does it grow out of rock?  I can't get grass to grow in ideal conditions!

Back home, as I started reviewing the images from the trip, this one quickly jumped out to me as one of my favorites.  I had been to Joshua Tree thirteen years ago and the rocks were a main subject of my photographs even back then. We are going back to Palm Springs next February and I will spend even more time here making images. And hopefully by then, my campaign to rename this park as Great Rocks National Park (GRNP) will be complete. 

Does anyone know who I can call to have the name of a well-known area of the country changed? Has it ever been done? :)

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Happy New Year everyone!

Last summer, Marilyn and I spent two weeks in England and Scotland and we absolutely loved it. We visited London, The Cotswolds, The Lake District, and Edinburgh. And while I really enjoyed all the places we visited, my personal favorite was The Lake District in Northwest England. I had seen many photos and videos from the area and the real life experience exceeded my expectations. I loved it on the warm sunny days and I especially loved it on the cloudy, damp days as in the image above!

William Wordsworth was a 19th century English romantic poet who is most known for drawing inspiration from the natural environment, and especially from the Lake District of England. He was born in the Lake District and eventually lived near Grasmere, at Rydal Water.

The image above was made early one drizzly morning as I wondered around Rydal Water. It was quiet, except for the sound of the rain hitting the leaves and the water. Not another soul was out this morning during these conditions… exactly how I liked it. I was drawn to the long stretching branches of this tree over the water and the deep color of the wet bark against the green leaves.

I made many exposures from different angles but really liked this one in panorama format because it emphasizes the width of the tree… showing the branches reaching out more horizontally than vertically.