Kurt M Lawson Photography »

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Old Baldy

In preparation for an ascent of Mount Whitney, I twice went up the summit of the local 10,000 footer, Mount San Antonio, also known as Mount Baldy or Old Baldy. This is a nice fairly demanding hike that helped me get into shape for the much larger climb I would be doing in a few months. On both trips, I brought my photo gear to capture beautiful images along the way and also just to have some extra weight for conditioning.

Old Baldy destroying clouds

Old Baldy destroying clouds

Of particular note on the first trip were the crazy cloud patterns. I watched as clouds passed over the summit and were seemingly destroyed by the crazy air currents circulating overhead. It reminded me of a photo by the famous Galen Rowell called Split Rock and Cloud (you can see a copy at amazon on a poster here). Having seen a print of this picture in person, I had always pondered the clouds, and even thought they were somehow unreal. But, here on the slopes of Mount Baldy I was witnessing the same phenomenon right before my eyes. I set up the camera on my tripod and captured a little video of the phenomenon.




The wind and cloud patterns also produced a couple of UFOs over Mount Harwood.

UFOs over Mount Harwood

UFOs over Mount Harwood

Crazy Clouds

Crazy Clouds

Looking north-ish from Old Baldy's summit

Looking north-ish from Old Baldy's summit

A Mountain Moment

A Mountain Moment

On the second trip up I captured this couple sitting by the Sierra Club Ski Hut enjoying the mountain environment.

Mountain wildflowers and creek

Mountain wildflowers and creek

The second ascent also yielded some nice wildflower displays

On the Devil's Backbone

On the Devil's Backbone

And finally a quick shot of the Devil’s Backbone section of the trail from the ski lift. Climbing Baldy allows for a diverse selection of mountain landscapes, and a big broad summit where you can hang out and eat lunch. It’s a strenuous enough workout to help get you into mountaineering shape and I will be going back again and again next summer for sure.

Some Hot Air

Heat

Heat

Let there be light! At the end of July, the town of Santa Paula, California hosted the Citrus Classic Balloon Festival. Like many people, I had never actually seen a hot air balloon up close. They were always things that I saw in the distance while driving on the highway or in pictures that other people had taken. Driving up on a Friday evening I took up my photo gear and headed into this unknown territory. It turned out to be really amazing.

View from the inside

View from the inside

Essentially, the event has a large field in which the balloons set up. Each balloon is rolled out onto the ground and carefully unfolded. To start the inflation process, large fans start blowing into the balloons on their side to get some air in there. Here you see the view of the inside of a balloon that is being inflated by fans. Once the ballon gets enough air from the fans, the basket is tilted and the burners can be fired. This is what you see in the first picture. I had no idea the burners produced such massive flames.

Bringing on the heat

Bringing on the heat

Like moths to the flame

Like moths to the flame

Going up

Going up

Mushroom cloud of flame

Mushroom cloud of flame

The main event of the evening was called the “Evening Glow.” For this event, the balloon captains fire their burners in unison to illuminate all the balloons at once. It was really quite a sight.

Evening glow I

Evening glow I

Evening glow II

Evening glow II

Standing in awe

Standing in awe

Finally, when it’s time to pack up one of the balloon captains flew his balloon into the trailer (with the help of several people holding it down). After this they would pull the balloon down with ropes so that it laid down straight to be folded up until the next time.

Flying into the trailer

Flying into the trailer

It was a really fun event to shoot. The light levels were really challenging and in every direction there was something to shoot.

September 8, 2010 - 11:04 am

Kristen - These are gorgeous, Kurt! I love the illuminated balloons against that blue, blue sky.

A single captured Perseid

Perseid Meteor over Temple Crag

Perseid Meteor over Temple Crag

The blog hasn’t seen much updating lately, but that’s because I’ve been out taking in tons of new material! A most recent example is this shot from a backpacking expedition to the Big Pine Lakes area in the Eastern Sierras. Here is a 30-minute long exposure of the incredibly beautiful Temple Crag. Despite pointing my camera in almost the exact opposite direction from the constellation of Perseus, the point from which Perseid meteors seem to originate from, I managed to capture one stray behind this striking mountain. The sole vertical line on the left side is the captured Perseid.

August 20, 2010 - 9:39 am

Freddy Oropeza - Nice Pic, you should enter one of these in the Canon in the Parks contest.

August 20, 2010 - 10:34 am

admin - Oooh thanks for reminding me of that. I will try not to miss the deadline this year. This pic unfortunately won’t qualify for that contest since it’s in the John Muir Wilderness, and not a park.

Some beach atmosphere

Three suns in the sunset

Three suns in the sunset

I went down to the beach this evening to test out a new lens I rented. I ended up not using it in favor of bringing out the beloved 100-400mm again to shoot some of the crazy atmosphere action around the pier. The backlighting was really fantastic and I kept shooting until the sun disappeared behind the Santa Monica Mountains.

Frisbee in the sand

Frisbee in the sand

Santa Monica pier and the setting summer sun

Santa Monica pier and the setting summer sun

Volumetric sun

Volumetric sun

In the spotlight

In the spotlight

A steady summer crowd by the pier

A steady summer crowd by the pier

Golden bike path

Golden bike path

July 14, 2010 - 5:16 am

Nancy Culbertson - Breath taking……dream like…..peaceful……Even your picture of the Golden bike path, wow!

What a wonderful soul.

A day at the beach

Magic hour

Magic hour

Yesterday I took a bike ride along the coast of Santa Monica Bay. While this was mostly just a recreational trip, I found that the gloomy marine layer that extended from Santa Monica to El Segundo had opened a hole over Malibu, and that this provided a stunning backdrop to some surfers that I happened to notice as I rode by on my bike. Had I not looked up at this moment I would have missed it. I hauled my bike into the sand and shot a series of pictures as the light faded. I had taken my entire photo kit sans tripod with me and was glad I did as I whipped up my new 100-400mm zoom lens to frame up these shots. This was quite a magic hour!

Surf's up under the god rays

Surf's up under the god rays

Crashing waves and god rays

Crashing waves and god rays

The waves crashing over the edge of this break wall in Venice is what caught my eye in the first place. The waves were splashing 20 feet into the air.

Two surfers

Two surfers

Crashing waves and couple

Crashing waves and couple

Waiting for the waves

Waiting for the waves

I don’t know what it was about the air – perhaps moisture content – but looking towards Malibu revealed this mirage like image of an island. The island is of course not an island, but rather the ancient rock of Point Dume at the far west end of Santa Monica Bay.

Looking to join the fun

Looking to join the fun

Big crash

Big crash

God rays over the life guard hut

God rays over the life guard hut

Not all the shots from the trip were at the one spot. Here are a few others from different parts of the coast.

Sailboat at the edge of darkness

Sailboat at the edge of darkness

This boat was right at the edge of the massive marine layer cloud, with the water in front in direct sunlight while the boat was in shadow.

Blue heron

Blue heron

These two photos are from a fenced off area that allows these birds to hang out without human and pet disturbance. I believe they are Great Blue Herons and there were four of them when I went by in Marina Del Rey. They are big, pretty birds.

Blue heron II

Blue heron II

Finally here is a little time lapse I did showing the movement of the marine layer cloud taken from the edge. This is approximately 10 minutes sped up to last only 38 seconds.

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