As we drove down to Bishop we kept passing some amazing clouds. We basically had lenticulars the entire drive! We stopped in Lee Vining to snap these clouds -- they were so layered and awesome.

Over at the petroglyphs we found some amazing clouds. Too bad they fizzled out before sunset :(

Over at the petroglyphs we found some amazing clouds. Too bad they fizzled out before sunset :(

The awesome letnricular's over the petroglyphs

We woke up Saturday morning and everything was covered in snow ... actually, it was snowing. We tried to go shoot sunrise but it was snowing too hard so we went back and had breakfast. Afterwards it cleared up and we went searching for views. I took this 95 megapixel pano while stopped on the road somewhere.

Sammi's excited to be out in the sun and playing in the snow. She's dressed all in white (mostly)!

Sammi's excited to be out in the sun and playing in the snow. She's dressed all in white (mostly)! She borrowed my shades while I shot, cuz I didn't need em.

Sammi's excited to be out in the sun and playing in the snow. She's dressed all in white (mostly)! She borrowed my shades while I shot, cuz I didn't need em.

The fog rolled into the mountains behind us and I loved how there appeared to be layers here.

I spent a weekend in the Eastern Sierras with Willie and Sammi trying to find some snowy scenes to photograph. We had a pretty good idea of where we wanted to shoot but sometimes even with all the planning and scouting you just happen upon a beautiful scene. It’s even better when you don’t sleep through it! The benefits of keeping an open eye while in beautiful places ... I was driving down CA-395 on our way to the Alabama Hills when I looked to my right and saw snow blowing off Mt. Williamson and creating this awesome scene. I slowed the car down and looked back at Willie to see if he had noticed. He was fast asleep … mouth open, head back, practically in a snore. “Willie, look to your right!” I screamed, waking him up. He response was “woah, yea, pull over.” Pull-over I did and we spent about 30 minutes watching the wind blow the snow off the mountain and snapped photos the entire time. I just loved the way the wind created a lot of motion, even in a still photograph. The combination of shadow, wind, and light-rays all made for a gorgeous scene! For this pano I took 6 shots and blended them into this 2x1 panoramic view, then converted to black and white in Adobe Lightroom. This resulted in an 100 megapixel image. Nikon D800 w/Nikkor 80-200mm f/2.8D ED AF: 175mm, f/11, 1/125 sec, ISO 125 6 image blend using Autopano Giga

Unsleeping Beauty

I spent a weekend in the Eastern Sierras with Willie and Sammi trying to find some snowy scenes to photograph. We had a pretty good idea of where we wanted to shoot but sometimes even with all the planning and scouting you just happen upon a beautiful scene. It’s even better when you don’t sleep through it! The benefits of keeping an open eye while in beautiful places ... I was driving down CA-395 on our way to the Alabama Hills when I looked to my right and saw snow blowing off Mt. Williamson and creating this awesome scene. I slowed the car down and looked back at Willie to see if he had noticed. He was fast asleep … mouth open, head back, practically in a snore. “Willie, look to your right!” I screamed, waking him up. He response was “woah, yea, pull over.” Pull-over I did and we spent about 30 minutes watching the wind blow the snow off the mountain and snapped photos the entire time. I just loved the way the wind created a lot of motion, even in a still photograph. The combination of shadow, wind, and light-rays all made for a gorgeous scene! Nikon D800 w/Nikkor 80-200mm f/2.8D ED AF: 190mm, f/11, 1/125 sec, ISO 125

Unsleeping Beauty

I spent a weekend in the Eastern Sierras with Willie and Sammi trying to find some snowy scenes to photograph. We had a pretty good idea of where we wanted to shoot but sometimes even with all the planning and scouting you just happen upon a beautiful scene. It’s even better when you don’t sleep through it! The benefits of keeping an open eye while in beautiful places ... I was driving down CA-395 on our way to the Alabama Hills when I looked to my right and saw snow blowing off Mt. Williamson and creating this awesome scene. I slowed the car down and looked back at Willie to see if he had noticed. He was fast asleep … mouth open, head back, practically in a snore. “Willie, look to your right!” I screamed, waking him up. He response was “woah, yea, pull over.” Pull-over I did and we spent about 30 minutes watching the wind blow the snow off the mountain and snapped photos the entire time. I just loved the way the wind created a lot of motion, even in a still photograph. The combination of shadow, wind, and light-rays all made for a gorgeous scene! Nikon D800 w/Nikkor 80-200mm f/2.8D ED AF: 190mm, f/11, 1/125 sec, ISO 125

6 second view of Mt. Williamson showing the snow blowing all over

When we finally made it to the Alabama Hills we stopped at the Eye of Alabama to photograph it with a barrel cactus in front. There was only room for 1 camera, to be in the right position, so Willie's camera was used because he setup first and hogged the space. Here's a photo of the setup

Barrel Eye

Thanks to a very dry winter last year, Willie and I eagerly awaited the snow so we could get back out with our cameras and head to the Eastern Sierras. Almost 3 months earlier we had saved the first weekend in December for a photo trip. We woke up to a beautiful snowy scene and eventually made our way south to the Alabama Hills When in Alabama Hills, most people shoot “Mobius Arch” but we decided we wanted to mix it up and shoot the “Eye of Alabama”. A small barrel cactus lives at the bottom of the eye and we used that as a foreground element. There were no clouds in sight and it was quickly decided that the beautiful blue hour color in the sky as the sun fades and the stars come out would add the perfect blue color to contrast with the red rock and cactus. The Moon and Venus rose behind us as soon as the sun set and created enough light for our compositions. Later we played around with shining our flashlights into the air and taking self-portraits. Man is it hard to hold a flashlight in the air, without moving, for 25 seconds! Canon 5D Mark II w/Canon 16-35mm f/2.8L II USM: 24mm, f/11, 5.0 sec, ISO 100

The moon and venus came out for us, in front of the Eastern Sierras

Doing the "Toby Harriman" and holding my flashlight up in the sky. Selfie!

Frozen Tom

One scene that Willie and I knew we wanted to photograph in the Eastern Sierras was sunrise at Mt. Tom. One of the most iconic and largest peaks in the Owens Valley region, there are many ways to photograph Mt. Tom but we felt this angle showed off its best side. The combination of trees, meadow, and mountains, along with the line running up Mt. Tom, make for a spectacular scene. It was freezing when we woke up. Let me correct myself ... it was *well* below freezing. It was barely over 5°F when we set out and on that day we didn’t see above freezing temperatures for many hours. This morning was also cloudy and as we drove to our spot we started to get really excited — there was going to be a ton of color in the sky. Willie and Alan had scouted this location a month or two previously but Willie’s GPS unit somehow deleted the coordinates. Alan’s attempt to remind us of the spot resulted in the wrong location. I think we did 4 U-Turns on CA-395 before finally getting to the spot we wanted! The light to our east was going crazy and as soon as I put the car in “Park” we were grabbing our gear and running through the snow to setup our tripods. To the east the color in the sky looked like a giant explosion — massive oranges filled the sky and slowly faded to pink. To the east, in the direction we were shooting, the sky filled up with wonderful streaks of pink. The clouds provided a nice amount of layers to contrast the sky with pink and purple lines. We came home cold, but happy campers! Nikon D800 w/Nikkor 80-200mm f/2.8D ED AF: 80mm, f/11, ISO 100, 0.4 sec

Frozen Tom

One scene that Willie and I knew we wanted to photograph in the Eastern Sierras was sunrise at Mt. Tom. One of the most iconic and largest peaks in the Owens Valley region, there are many ways to photograph Mt. Tom but we felt this angle showed off its best side. The combination of trees, meadow, and mountains, along with the line running up Mt. Tom, make for a spectacular scene. It was freezing when we woke up. Let me correct myself ... it was *well* below freezing. It was barely over 5°F when we set out and on that day we didn’t see above freezing temperatures for many hours. This morning was also cloudy and as we drove to our spot we started to get really excited — there was going to be a ton of color in the sky. Willie and Alan had scouted this location a month or two previously but Willie’s GPS unit somehow deleted the coordinates. Alan’s attempt to remind us of the spot resulted in the wrong location. I think we did 4 U-Turns on CA-395 before finally getting to the spot we wanted! The light to our east was going crazy and as soon as I put the car in “Park” we were grabbing our gear and running through the snow to setup our tripods. To the east the color in the sky looked like a giant explosion — massive oranges filled the sky and slowly faded to pink. To the east, in the direction we were shooting, the sky filled up with wonderful streaks of pink. The clouds provided a nice amount of layers to contrast the sky with pink and purple lines. We came home cold, but happy campers! Nikon D800 w/Nikkor 80-200mm f/2.8D ED AF: 80mm, f/11, ISO 100, 0.4 sec

Frozen Tom

One scene that Willie and I knew we wanted to photograph in the Eastern Sierras was sunrise at Mt. Tom. One of the most iconic and largest peaks in the Owens Valley region, there are many ways to photograph Mt. Tom but we felt this angle showed off its best side. The combination of trees, meadow, and mountains, along with the line running up Mt. Tom, make for a spectacular scene. It was freezing when we woke up. Let me correct myself ... it was *well* below freezing. It was barely over 5°F when we set out and on that day we didn’t see above freezing temperatures for many hours. This morning was also cloudy and as we drove to our spot we started to get really excited — there was going to be a ton of color in the sky. Willie and Alan had scouted this location a month or two previously but Willie’s GPS unit somehow deleted the coordinates. Alan’s attempt to remind us of the spot resulted in the wrong location. I think we did 4 U-Turns on CA-395 before finally getting to the spot we wanted! The light to our east was going crazy and as soon as I put the car in “Park” we were grabbing our gear and running through the snow to setup our tripods. To the east the color in the sky looked like a giant explosion — massive oranges filled the sky and slowly faded to pink. To the east, in the direction we were shooting, the sky filled up with wonderful streaks of pink. The clouds provided a nice amount of layers to contrast the sky with pink and purple lines. We came home cold, but happy campers! Nikon D800 w/Nikkor 80-200mm f/2.8D ED AF: 80mm, f/11, ISO 100, 0.4 sec

Frozen Tom

One scene that Willie and I knew we wanted to photograph in the Eastern Sierras was sunrise at Mt. Tom. One of the most iconic and largest peaks in the Owens Valley region, there are many ways to photograph Mt. Tom but we felt this angle showed off its best side. The combination of trees, meadow, and mountains, along with the line running up Mt. Tom, make for a spectacular scene. It was freezing when we woke up. Let me correct myself ... it was *well* below freezing. It was barely over 5°F when we set out and on that day we didn’t see above freezing temperatures for many hours. This morning was also cloudy and as we drove to our spot we started to get really excited — there was going to be a ton of color in the sky. Willie and Alan had scouted this location a month or two previously but Willie’s GPS unit somehow deleted the coordinates. Alan’s attempt to remind us of the spot resulted in the wrong location. I think we did 4 U-Turns on CA-395 before finally getting to the spot we wanted! The light to our east was going crazy and as soon as I put the car in “Park” we were grabbing our gear and running through the snow to setup our tripods. To the east the color in the sky looked like a giant explosion — massive oranges filled the sky and slowly faded to pink. To the east, in the direction we were shooting, the sky filled up with wonderful streaks of pink. The clouds provided a nice amount of layers to contrast the sky with pink and purple lines. We came home cold, but happy campers! Nikon D800 w/Nikkor 80-200mm f/2.8D ED AF: 80mm, f/11, ISO 100, 0.4 sec

We were shooting to the west to photograph Mt. Tom, but the sunrise to the east was SPECTACULAR. I moved the camera to snap a shot because it was just too beautiful!