Posts Tagged: Eastern Sierra

Evening Thunderstorm Surprise

Posted by & filed under nature + environment, oh, california, photos + text from the road.

1 - Thunder Storm Rolls In 2 - A Light Dusting of Snow on Mt. Laurel 3 - Thunderstorm Sunset

09.12.17 – This evening a thunderstorm crossed over the Eastern Sierra Nevada mountains and rained quite heavily at Brown’s Owen’s River Campground (photo #1), and after the clouds continued north-east, I could see a light dusting of snow on the bowl top of Mt. Laurel (photo #2)! Of course, I had to bring out the Nikon with the telezoom lens to see if I could get a good photo of it! As the sun descended minutes later in the west, the black clouds of another thunder cell framed the setting sun (photo #3). It was an exciting half hour of thunder, lightning, rain/snow, and dramatic light.

Photos taken by Ms. Jen with her Nikon D800 and a 70-200 f4 lens from the safety of her gently used little RV at the Brown’s Owens River Campground, Long Valley Caldera, Mammoth, California.

Convict Lake Defrosting

Posted by & filed under nature + environment, oh, california.

Convict Lake Defrosting

Sun. 04.02.17 – Still at least three weeks before fishing season starts and these three gentlemen are jumping the gun a bit…

On another note, there were skiers who had hiked up Mt. Laurel, skied down, and then hiked back to the Convict Lake parking lot in their Ski Boots!!! Ski boots for hiking the long trail around the lake – brave humans!

Photo taken by Ms. Jen with her Lumia 950.

The Setting New Moon and Mt. Tom

Posted by & filed under photos + text from the road.

The Setting New Moon and Mt. Tom

Tues. 02.28.17 – Last evening I went out to my photography corner of Brockman Lane and Dixon Lane*, so that I could take photos of the New Moon as it set behind Mt. Tom to the west. I used the US Navy Observatory Moon rise and set calculator to figure out when it would set and when civil twilight would be so I could take the above new moon photo and attempt to take a photo of the Mars & Uranus conjunction.

When I drove out at 6:30pm, it was approximately 42F / 5.5C and there were frogs singing their little hearts out. Odd but true. Frogs trying to get laid in February when it is still dipping below 32F / 0C at night. By the time I finished nearly 40 minutes later, it was at least 5 degrees colder, a wind had picked up, and the frogs had wisely retreated. My gloves** were not equal to the task at hand and my fingers were sending mayday alerts.

The good news is that I was able to take a series of photos of the Moon and Venus (Instagram), the Moon setting behind Mt. Tom (Flickr), three photos of Mars & Uranus.

Why no posted photos of Mars & Uranus with the used Nikon 70-200mm f4 lens taken with my Nikon D800? Post-processing is my achilles heel. I love to shoot, but I hate post-processing. Working in Lightroom and Photoshop bring out the worst of my personality and work habits. I am normally a patient person who can spend hours crafting a thing, but not in photo post-processing.

Last night, the Flickr version of the Moon Setting on Mt. Tom was my favorite of the three photos I took within a minute and then processed the RAW files to jpg. This morning, the photo I posted above is my favorite. But the truth of the matter is that only the Instagram photo that I took with my camera phone captured the color of the late dusk sky correctly.

No matter how I fiddled in Lightroom last night, I could not get the RAW files to have the right two tones of the late dusk sky. I had to resort to using split tone highlights and shadows – this feels like it is too much processing. But that is the point of shooting RAW, I get to do my own processing and not let the camera generate the jpg.

Anywhoo, forgive my grousing. If you have a clear horizon, do go look at the new moon as it sets tonight. Astro Bob has a nice blog post on the new moon for the 27th & 28th of February, as well as how to find Mars & Uranus with binoculars.

*Do you all sense a theme here? Local high point with low sagebrsuh so the view of the Eastern Sierra, the White Mtns., and the Owens Valley is good.

** I wonder how my Finnish photo friends shoot at night and dawn in winter with a tripod? I must inquire what gloves they use that allow for dexterity & flexibility but keep one’s hands warm.

Sunday Tidbits with a Photo of Melting Snow in the Sagebrush

Posted by & filed under photos + text from the road.

Snow melt in the sagebrush

Sun. 01.29.17 – Today is the last Sunday of January and life is interesting. Here are some links for your reading pleasure:

Terri Windling’s link/quote round up with beautiful illustrations on Fairy tales and fantasy, when the need is greatest

Cipher War: After a century of failing to crack an ancient script, linguists turn to machines

A lovely story of a found photo album from the mid-20th century leads to Love and Black Lives, in Pictures Found on a Brooklyn Street

A quote from an NYT Opinion column from yesterday, One Country, Two Tribes:

Jonathan Haidt, a social psychologist at New York University, calls it the clash between globalists and nationalists. The globalists, who tend to be urban and college educated, want a world like the one described in John Lennon’s song “Imagine” — no religion, walls or borders dividing people. The nationalists see that as a vision of hell. They want to defend their culture and emphasize the bonds of nationhood — flag, Constitution, patriotism. They also want to limit immigration, an instinct that globalists are often quick to condemn as racist.

It is one of the most profound fissures of the modern political era and has upended politics in Europe, too.

“Global elites feel they have more in common with their friends in Paris or New York than with their own countrymen,” said Lars Tragardh, a historian at Ersta Skondal University College in Stockholm. “In their view of the world, the centrality of citizenship gets lost, and that is very threatening to the nationalists.”

And last but not least,
This Granular Life: Is atomic theory the most important idea in human history?

Photo of the snow melting in the sagebrush above the Meadow Creek meadow overlooking the Owens Valley taken by Ms. Jen this afternoon while walking Canela with her Lumia 950.