Painting the Aspen

One more week till Sierra Art Trails and then I'm over the Sierra mountains to photograph and paint the Fall Aspen trees on the east side. Last year was my first time visiting the area specifically for the Fall trees and I can't wait to go back and do it again.

If you look back at this blog you'll see some of the photos I took from last years three day car camping trip. There are three posts on it.

I hear the color is already starting to happen at the higher elevations and some places are already starting to peak. It may not be as spectacular as last year but I'm sure it will still be worth the trip.

I'll most likely be heading up and over Tuesday. Hoping I can meet up with some of my photographer and painting pals.

This is a 12 x 16 acrylic painting of last years trip. Available at my studio during Art Trails weekend.

Hunting for Fall Color (day 3)

My last day in Lee Vining started with a quick trip to the Exxon gas for a large coffee to go. From there I headed up north of the Mono museum where I hoped to catch some morning wildlife on the lake.  It was quite cold.  While the sand pipers shuffled around for their breakfast I sipped my warm coffee. The morning light had a beautiful golden glow to it.

 

I loved the subtle play of soft primary colors in the above shot. Blue, red and yellow. My coffee was gone about the time the sun rose so it was time to head back up to the Lundy beaver ponds and see how they looked in the morning.

The water was like glass with hardly a ripple. The sun was casting shadows from one mountainside to other as can be seen in the above pic. Not an easy shot to catch with the contrasts of light and shadow so I had to meld to separate exposures to get what I saw.

If you're really lucky you may come across a California pond turtle catching some early morning rays. If not then you bring your own and carefully place him where you want. As models go turtles are fairly cheap and rarely complain.

When I came over here the focus was fall color. But the shots I enjoyed finding the most where the reflective ones and had me reflecting on just how lucky I was to be there at that time.

 One thing I hadn't done yet was drive up to the end of the dirt road and hike up to the falls. I had heard it was a bit dicey on one area of the switch backs so having heard that you'd think I'd of paid closer attention to foot placement that the views. But the views were hard to take you eye away from and sure enough on my way back down the trail from the upper view of the falls I fell, tripod camera and all.  Stepped on a lose rock on a steep down hill switch back and landed on my butt. Fortunately there was a bush near by so I tossed my tripod and camera in it hoping it would fair better that me.

What saved my ass literally was the fact that it had heated up considerably during the climb there so I had wrapped my heavy winter coat around my butt. It was a bit embarrassing as there were some hikers climbing up the trail below me who all heard me fall. I suppose I got some fall color on my butt from that.

Met some wonderful people along my excursions and have to say it is quite beautiful over there. I will definitely be back. Easy to see why people Fall in Love with it.

 

Fall Color (day 2 continued)

Virginia Creek from 395

Lower Lundy Canyon

Before getting into day 3 I'm going to share how day 2 wrapped up. It was really nice having a whole day to myself with all these spectacular sights. Just seeing all the color of Virgina Creek from 395 was stunning. There was a constant stream of folks stopping along the freeway to take in the view. From there I headed over to Lundy Canyon another popular spot for people wanting to take in all the Fall color.

There was already a lot of leaves on the ground in some areas as can be seen in the above pic.Yet I quite a few great pics of leaves carpeting the ground.  Not having been there before I'd stop at sights that looked promising occasionally walking back disappointed.  Once I got on the dirt road things started changing for the better. The first beaver pond had me mesmerized in it's reflective beauty.

The beavers had been obviously quite busy as can be seen in this one shot of all the downed logs in the water.  There was so much to shoot. With the light constantly changing, I knew I'd have to come back here the next day for the morning light. The place was truly magical and I could see why it's so popular.  I shot til it started to get too dark to see.  The whole east side experience was inspiring and each time I go through my pics I keep seeing new favorite shots. It was near impossible to take a bad shot.

My little Cannon SX30 IS performed admirably. Yes there were times I could have used an aperture opening smaller than F/8 and yes a bigger sensor would allow me even better resolution but at 14 mega pixels it did quite well. 16 x 20 prints are going to hold up quite well.

As with all these pics clicking on them will take you to a larger slide show of them.

Fall Color (day 1)

Yosemite near 120 and 140 junction.

I've never photographed the fall color on the east side of the Sierra's. This year I was determined to go see nature's fall show. I'd seen a lot of great pics by many photographer friends so I was anxious for the fall color experience. I recently started following photographer Michael Frye's blog and joined the Yahoo Calphoto group focused on the California fall color.  These folks were really getting me excited about the whole thing. A talented photographer friend, Heidi Vetter, who lives there said it was starting to explode color wise so the time was right.

Apparently there's a very short window of opportunity to capture the fall colors. Everyone wants to get there when it's at it's peak. Some areas peak early and are over with while others are just beginning to change. I saw a bit of both.

120 Lee Vining Ravine

My first encounter with the fall color was in Yosemite near the 120 and 140 junction. The maples were just starting to turn and I expect they'll be peaking in a week or two. I didn't go into the valley because I was anxious to get down the Lee Vining grade of 120 before dusk. I also needed to see where I would be car camping for the night and hopefully do some scouting around. Seeing  this colorful stand of aspen along the steep 120 grade gave me a lot of hope for what was to come.There was a good bit of color showing down in the Lee Vining ravine campgrounds as well. I took a walk along the upper campground creek and was immediately struck by the sparkling glow of the back lit aspen. Totally magical.

Campsite Aspen

Most of my fist day was spent on the road getting to Lee Vining. There were a few aspen starting to turn along some of the Tioga pass creeks and I was really tempted to hike up the May Lake trail but maybe another time.

Just outside the east gate to Yosemite is Tioga lake where I had to good fortune to take a couple quick pics of a bald eagle before he took off. Tried to get some pics of him soaring without much luck.  He took off for Gaylor Lakes after one circle.

Campsite Creek

Walking along the creek I came upon this red leafed plant still holding onto it's late blooms. I'm guessing it was some kind of fireweed but not really sure.

With the sun going down fast I needed to make sure I had a good place to spend the night. Went to a great site my painting friend Diane told me about and had it all to myself. It seemed to cold to pitch a tent so I slept in the back of my Subaru wagon. I had set it set up with an air mattress and a few sleeping bags. It was surprisingly comfortable. A bit cold by morning but not bad and the price was right. $0