Eastern Sierra Workshop part 8

Between returning from Lundy Canyon and going to Bodie, CA we stopped for lunch.  We stood in line at Mono Cone a small drive up which makes burgers of many different types, and ice cream cones.  The food was good but you have to plan when you go because this day in mid October was their last for the season.

Bodie State Historic Park is the original 1860’s – 1880’s mining town of Bodie.  In the early 1900’s the gold boom had run its course and Bodie soon became a ‘ghost town’.

Snowshoeing at the Valles Caldera

South Mountain trail

I have been going up to the Valles Caldera National Preserve, VC, a few times each year for the past several years.  I’ve taken a few of their guided tours and hiked around a bit on my own.  When I received an email announcing a ‘Guided Winter Wildlife Adaptations Snowshoeing Adventure’ I marked my calendar with the hope of snowshoeing.  I have never snowshoed before so this will be an adventure.  Now all we need is snow.

  

Eastern Sierra Workshop part 7

North of Lee Vining and the Mono Lake area is Lundy Canyon.  In fact the stream flowing through Lundy Canyon is one of the feeder streams for Mono Lake.  This canyon is known for fall colors and a pond that reflects the great fall colors and the mountainsides.

Eastern Sierra Workshop part 6

Since ‘our spots’ on Mono Lake are only about 20 minutes away we get to sleep in.  We are on the road by 515.  It is not nearly as crowded as last night.  In fact there are fewer than 10 vehicles in the parking lot with our group making up 5 of them.

Eastern Sierra Workshop part 5

This morning our destination is North Lake for another sunrise.  It is only our second full day of the workshop, it seems longer with all the different destinations we visited our first day.  We are approximately in the same location as South Lake, which we visited yesterday; just one valley over.

Jack wants us on the road by 5 today.  “There are not many prime photo spots, and we need to get there early”.

Eastern Sierra Workshop part 4

After returning from the South Lake area we stopped for lunch at Schat’s bakery, in Bishop.  It is a huge bakery making sandwiches, cakes, cookies and all sorts of breakfast goodies.  We picked up sandwiches, relaxed a bit before starting on the road to our next destination; the Ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest.

Eastern Sierra Workshop part 3

After the early morning shooting at the Alabama Hills we stopped for breakfast.  While it was not cold this morning it still felt good to stop, sit down and have something warm to eat and drink.  From there we returned to Bishop, our home base for the night.  After a short break to get our stuff together we went into the South Lake area of the Inyo National Forest.

Eastern Sierra Workshop part 2

Mobius Arch

The first afternoon we met Jack and Guy Tal, accomplished landscape photographer and second instructor for this workshop.

After introductions we started learning about landscape photography, composition, becoming familiar with your location, tell stories with your images along with many other topics.  This is not an “Okay everybody set your aperture to XXX and shutter to XXX and shoot” workshop.

Eastern Sierra Landscape Photography Workshop (part 1 of ??)

For those of you that have been following this blog, just a few, and I thank you, I will be including photos from the landscape photography workshop I took in mid October.  In addition to the course content I was hoping for fall color, and got it!  As usual I will incorporate some history and geography or general insight along with the images.

I have been adding photos of my hikes around north central New Mexico for quite some time showing some of the beauty and diverse landscape.  I certainly have not seen very much of New Mexico at this point but I am having fun making the effort.  I have always felt that I am and adequate photographer.  My images seem to ‘document’ NM with little artistic style.  I have been following different photography blogs for some time, see all kinds of spectacular landscape photography and wish to advance my photography.  While I may not approach the talent of these photographers I have a lot of room for improvement, hence the workshop.

I am a regular subscriber to Outdoor Photographer magazine, which inspires me every time I open the cover.  In the back there are many experienced photographers offering workshops.  I looked through many ads and websites looking for the one that suited my interest.  Jack Graham’s 20^th Annual Eastern Sierra Photo Workshop caught my eye.  His website and subsequent talking with him made my decision on a workshop easy.  The small class, 14, with two instructors and his mantra; Learn to See, Learn to Think, Learn to Create are what I am looking for.  I am not compensated for my plug of the workshop, I am a very satisfied student and if you are on the fence regarding a photo workshop I heartily suggest going, but definitely research first.

Alabama Hills

The first image is from the Alabama Hills Recreation Area outside of Lone Pine, CA.  We started early that day to be in position to catch sunrise on Mt. Whitney, the highest summit in the contiguous United States.

I will be adding stories about my experiences along with a few images.

Enjoy

Thank you for stopping by,

Mark

San Pedro Parks Wilderness Area, Rio Puerco, June 20

San Gregorio Reservoir

After hearing about the good fishing from one of our co-workers Byron and I decided to make the drive to the San Pedro Parks Wilderness Area.  It’s an easy but slightly long drive, divided highway almost the entire way until you turn off on SR 126 in Cuba.  We went on a Friday to avoid whatever crowds there may be, once we hiked past the San Gregorio Reservoir, about ¾ of a mile in, we didn't run into anybody until we were hiking back out mid-afternoon...

Pecos Wilderness, Rio Mora, Aug. 1

Rio Mora

We know we are taking a chance on hiking today.  The monsoon has appeared this July.  I hope I am not jinxing the balance of the year, but I think it may be wet enough that we will not have the widespread forest closure we have had the past several years due to the drought and subsequent fires.

Rio Cebolla,June 7

This time Byron came with me to catch some native cutthroat trout.

When I told him about running into a fly fisherman on my previous trip and learning about the cutthroats being up above the pond he was all over it.  He had to catch....

Rio Cebolla April 25

The Rio Cebolla Valley is one of my favorite places to hike.  After a lot of debate I found out that it is pronounced “See-boy’-a”, onion, in Spanish.  Evidently there were a lot of onions that grew there at one time.  I have not found any.....

Ojito Wilderness March 28

You are probably wondering what we are doing here yet again.  Well as I mentioned earlier this hike is close.  I’m certain that you have noticed from the pictures it is desolate, sun scorched and more than likely hot during the summer.  So we ...

Ojito Wilderness, Feb 28

I returned to Ojito again the end of February.  The first time I visited Ojito was April of 2013.  With the addition of my GPS I feel a little more comfortable with wandering farther into the wilderness.  I still have ...

Catching up

I knew it had been a while since I updated this blog, I didn't realize that it has been six months.  I’m sure I have lost a lot of readers, if I ever had that many.

To start off I’m including images from one of the few winter storms that passed through Albuquerque this year.

New Year 2014 Hike

Pecos Wilderness

January 1, 2014

We had to get out of our respective houses this day!  Neither Byron nor I are big college football fans so we threw out the prospective date of January 1 for a hiking/photo and or fishing day.  We did both, Byron fishing with his new fly fishing rod and I did the photography.

El Malpais part 3

December 28, 2013

La Ventana Arch

We went farther south from the Sandstone Bluff to see what else there is to see.  It was a cold and windy day with temperatures around freezing at 9AM and a strong wind making it even colder.

El Malpais part 2

December 28, 2013

Sandstone Bluffs part 2

This was my return trip to the El Malpais, the first part was posted Jan 5.

El Malpais hike

November 29, 2013

Mt. Taylor in the background

This is how I spent my Black Friday.  No shopping, elbowing, running over other shoppers when the store doors open for me.  El Malpais National Conservation Area is about an hour west of Albuquerque and just east of Grants, NM within 20 miles of the exit from Interstate 40.