Half Dome from a different angle

Oroville...

I'm watching the disaster in northern California with great interest this week. I plan to be on the northern California coast sometime in early April so the impact of this flooding on my plans may be major. If the place is stable I may divert to the dam and see if there are any interesting images.

I did want to inject my take on what is happening. California has always had swings in the climate but nothing like this. 5 years of extreme drought followed by biblical rains is not how things are supposed to be. I know many of you don't believe in global warming but this is what one can expect as the atmosphere warms up. Warmer air means more moisture and water is the engine driving the climate and weather. More water means more damaging and extreme events and Oroville is just the tip of a huge problem. How can humanity plan for even more extremes? I don't know. This dam is already huge (the largest in North America) and yet it is being overwhelmed by so much rain. The only way to cope with this is to open the flood gates and then deal with all the damage downstream. I don't know how they deal with this as the rain isn't finished yet and there's almost historic levels of snow in the mountains which has to melt in the spring. They'll be lucky to save the dam and the damage just to the spillways is going to cost a lot of money to fix. And this is just one of many dams in the West. I'll be interested to see how the Colorado River is doing and how the big dams there are handling the water. Should be an interesting spring for sure.

Half Dome from a different angle

If you head south out of Yosemite on the El Portal Road (RT. 140), there's an overlook that provides stunning views of the Foresta Valley and Half Dome in the distance. I was fortunate to be on that road at dusk and to have the opportunity to get some amazing sunset shots. My visit last year came during a stormy period and I had several days of low clouds and rain ... my favorite type of weather for getting really dramatic shots. I had both cameras going, taking both wide angle images of the valley and telephoto shots of the dome shrouded in clouds. This image was captured just as the sun broke through the clouds and lit up the dome which was skirted by a beautiful layer of clouds. An amazing shot for sure.

Half Dome - 200mm(1.6 crop),f/18,HDR,ISO 100,license CC BY-NC 4.0

Kodachrome Basin State Park

Trip is on...

Cycle #3 is about to become a reality. In process of getting plane tickets and planning my itinerary. Looks like I'll hit Albuquerque on March 13th and return home to Crimea on May 30. That's 2 1/2 months. Plan is to hit my old standby, Grand Canyon, followed by Joshua Tree NP near LA and then head north to the Pacific Coast Highway and Julia Pfeiffer Burns SP. I'll work north along the California coast with a several day stop in San Francisco. I want to shoot the Golden Gate at low tide at both sunset and sunrise which means I have to be there on March 29th. I want to get out on the tidal flats near the south pier, ocean side and see what kind of images I can get. It's a bit risky as the place I want to go is under water except at low tide but I am devising a plan so I won't be in trouble. I plan to get shots of the gate from as many angles as I can before heading further up the coast. The intention is to work the coast all the way to Seattle and then head east into the Rocky Mountains and both Glacier and Yellowstone. Not sure if the weather will cooperate but that's the plan. Getting good chains for the truck as a precaution and may also hit REI to buy a good pair of snowshoes just in case. It's going to be a very intense trip but I hope to get a ton of great images to work on when I get back in late May. We'll keep our fingers crossed all goes well and I return safely home. Wish me luck.

Kodachrome Basin State Park

This isn't the most popular place in Utah but it's certainly interesting. I had some time to spare and was in the area so I drove to this small park to spend a few hours. It"s not nearly as dramatic as Zion or Bryce or Arches but there's certainly some pleasant scenery to capture. This image is of a dead pinon (I think) and it was just so nice to look at. Because the air is so dry these trees last for a long time and they take on such a wonderful patina. The sky also cooperated. This is a 5 image sequence, run through Photomatix and then Lightroom to finish.

Kodachrome Basin - 24mm,f/11,HDR,ISO 100,license CC BY-NC 4.0