Near the end of October last year, while returning from a fall color visit to the Western Sierra Nevada, I decided to make a stop at a Central Valley location where I have photographed migratory birds in the past. I wasn’t expecting to find the winter birds that I usually see there, but I was surprised to find large numbers of other birds that usually diminish at this spot later in the season. Among them were large groups of great egrets.
Continue reading Egret and Chick, Evening
We arrived at Salt Creek before sunrise, planning to walk down to the end of the boardwalk and photograph some further areas at dawn. It used to be that you could continue on from there and investigate other interesting terrain, but there is now no obvious way off the boardwalk, likely because the park service is trying to protect those areas. So we photographed from the boardwalk as the sun came up.
Continue reading Boardwalk, Morning
This photograph includes a short list of superlative features. Telescope Peak, at just over 11,000′, is the highest point in Death Valley National park. From the peak one can see the highest point in California, Mt. Whitney (in the Sierra Nevada) and the lowest point (Badwater Basin). In the photograph Badwater Basin is submerged beneath Lake Manly, which forms only in very wet years and generally evaporates quickly. Snow on Telescope Peak and the Panamint Range is not unusual in winter, but in this photograph it has reached a rather low elevation.
Continue reading Lake Manly and Telescope Peak, Dawn
Yes, more dried mud! As I have written before, for reasons that still mystify me, this is an irresistible subject for many landscape photographers… and I’m no exception. What explains it? The colors? The contrast with surroundings? The fractal shapes?
Continue reading Fractured Surface