Storm in the Pass

After sleeping in and lazying around most of the day, I went out to grab a bite to eat. When I did, I saw how low the clouds were and how visually stunning they were as they hit the mountains. So I quickly ran back in, snatched my camera, and drove to my favorite spot where I took this photo. As I attempted to get my footing, I realized how windy it was as I was almost blown away! Consequently, though I took dozens of photos, only one or two were not blurry and good enough to share and sell. This is one of those few photos. Please tell me what you think! I hope you like it!

And again, this, as every photo, is available for purchase at 

My Favorite Spots Near My New Home

When I moved back down to Southern California from Bishop in the Eastern-High Sierra, I thought I would not like it very much because of how developed it was. In Bishop I was used to walking just a few blocks from my house to the countryside. For a nature/landscape photographer like me, it was a perfect place to live because places to shoot such pictures were so close. In So Cal, in most areas, you have to drive a while, sometimes hours, to find a wild or rural area. And if you didn't have a car or it was broken down, you'd have to take a bus which aren't always reliable.

Alas, I found myself settled in the city of Banning because of a job I got there and a place I could afford. It is off the I-10 between Redlands and Palm Springs. At first, I didn't much care for it. It was a So Cal city like any other So Cal city: an area still rural but was in the process of becoming covered with suburban sprawl, and full of its share of gangs and other types of criminal elements and crimes. Slowly, I began to explore my new home and after months of living there discovered open areas that remind me of Bishop, remind me of home. And while,sadly, I know some of that open area will be eventually and inevitably developed with cookie-cutter housing tracts and bland strip malls, some of it is protected or owned by utility companies and kept undeveloped for their own reasons.That, along with the fact that the "big city," malls, and the beach are relatively close (just a few hours drive at most), is making Banning my second love, though  my heart still and will always belong to and in Bishop. After a year of debating it, I've decided I could make it here after all. Though returning to Bishop will always be my real goal.

My favorite spot I recently discovered is an area of rock outcroppings right at the foot of the San Jacinto Mountains just a few minutes from my house (to the south). And I've taken many pictures there. While sitting at the rocks, I've always noticed the open grassland and dry wash below me and planned to one day explore it. Today, on Monday, March 29, I impulsively decided to do so. I say impulsively because I didn't actually plan it. I just said, "I want to explore that spot," and walked off. I must have walked miles, beginning by descending a steep hill that I warned myself I'd have to climb back up to get back to my car, so not to get too tired or sore. I've done this before: impulsively exploring, sometimes even without taking water. I just get so excited and so caught up in the moment that I forget some important things, like the fact that soon I would be thirsty, and the time flies by very quickly. This was one of those situations.

Thankfully, this time I had water with me and wisely decided not too go too far. I followed a branch of the wash a little ways to a lone tree creating a cool, shady spot to rest and take pictures in and from (it was 80 degrees, but after walking a ways, it felt warmer.). I took these pictures there.
  

While this whole area of the San Gorgonio Pass from Calimesa to Palm Springs reminds me of the Owens Valley; a narrow desert valley that has some wild grassy areas and sparse, lonely trees with tall, forested alpine  peaks surrounding it, a major difference is how dry the pass area, Banning is. While Bishop lies in the High Desert, it sits literally at the foot of the 14,000-foot Sierra Nevada Mountains, where snow can linger for months into the summer and the glaciers, of course, are there year-round, allowing cold creeks and rivers to flow in to and through out the valley all year. Meanwhile, Banning sits in So Cal where it only rains and snows a few months during the winters and the snow that does fall melts very quickly because the mountains are no higher than 11,000 feet and there are no glaciers. Consequently, the majority of the creeks and rivers only flow periodically through-out the year and only during good storms.

Such is the fact with the wash I was exploring as shown in these pictures. Water or not, however, it was still a peaceful spot, a good spot for wild photography, and one that I will frequent quite regularly.

The Story Behind the Highway to Heaven

The Owens Valley is basically the border between the arid high-desert and the cooler, wetter High Sierra, and is itself surrounded and therefore protected by two 14,000-foot mountain ranges. These facts are why the valley rarely has fog, so when it does happen it is quite a treat for those living there. Because of the geography of the area, it also makes for an interesting picture.

In this case, I drove a mile or so up Highway 168 just east out of Big Pine and stopped along the road at an elevation of just over 4,000 feet and at the mouth of a narrow canyon. When I stepped out of my car and saw this, I was frozen in place because of the beauty of it and thought I was looking at a road or highway to Heaven, what with bottom (the valley) obscured in fog and the tops of the mountains covered in snow peaking out above it as if they were floating. This is one of my favorite and best photos in my portfolio.

The Home I Miss

I took this photo just half a mile from my old home. Mt. Tom and Basin Mountain tower over the green Owens Valley in the foreground and the barren Tungsten Hills and Buttermilk Rocks in the background early in the morning. Though there is still some snow left on the tops of the mountains, this photo was taken in summer time, if I remember correctly. I sure do miss it up there, in the Eastern-High Sierra, as I now live 300 miles south near Palm Springs, and plan to go back. It was not only my home, where I grew up, but is also a nature/landscape photographer's paradise.