I’m way overdue in posting this, but there is a large selection of my prints on display at the Langhinrichs gallery at the Fort Wayne, Indiana Unitarian Universalist church. The prints are on display every Sunday through mid-late October. Stop by and check out some of my prints in person!
5310 Old Mill Road
Fort Wayne, Indiana 46807
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.
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.
On the second trip up I captured this couple sitting by the Sierra Club Ski Hut enjoying the mountain environment.
The second ascent also yielded some nice wildflower displays
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
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.
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.
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.
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.
It was a really fun event to shoot. The light levels were really challenging and in every direction there was something to shoot.
A single captured Perseid
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.
Some beach atmosphere
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.
