Eastern Sierra weather. Sun, rain, hail, heat, cloud filled days and clear nights.

Four days on the Eastern Sierra slopes in late July with every type of weather. From Bridgeport south to the mojave.

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Clear skies and the milky way above the Northern Sierra

Stars, stars, stars

Another brilliant Eastern Sierra sunrise

Summer aspen slopes above Conway Summit

A lightning strike from a Summer squall

The black and white version of Green Lake

The Green Version

Red Fir

Ranch house, Big Pine

Mt. Williamson, Onion Valley

Mojave Desert

Southern Big Sur Coast

Another round of evening spectacle, this time along the southern Big Sur coast. Once again I stayed until after dark in the calm and warm Summer evening.

Southern Big Sur Coast 

The Pacific Edge

San Simeon Glow and Moonlight

Monsoon Clouds

Monsoon clouds made for spectacular evening light Wednesday. I stopped at the North end of Estero Bay, walked out to the bluffs and stayed from 6:30 to after 9pm. I can't say that I caught the mood, but the light and color was really special. To get the full effect open each image to full resolution.

The clouds streaming northward over Cayucos

A small shrine above Estero Bluffs

Looking Northwest at the painted sky from Estero Bluffs

Even the tide pools had unusual colors

A rare sunset rainbow over the bay

The colors went from subdued to vivid oranges and reds.

Is Calm Pacific an oxymoron?

Lake Tahoe Basin, Summer Storms and Valley Heat

A quick early Summer trip to the Lake Tahoe Basin surprised us with cool, wet weather, spectacular cloudy days, some wildlife, and extreme heat through the Central Valley. The difficulty photographing the area is the number of visitors prowling around. Perhaps due to the weather, or the one-week-before-the-fourth-of-July the crowds were avoidable. Early mornings on the lake are always a treat, as were the views between storms. The Central Valley was cooking as we passed through.

Full super moon rising over the Sierra

Light playing through a clearing storm across the lake

Pier posts from the past.

Layers of Pine Trees

Hiding from the dogs, a yearling black bear waits us out.

Scratching for grubs in the rain

Flicker feeding in the forest service building

Skunk Harbor window detail

Some fine Truckee accommodations

An afternoon storm builds above the Tahoe Meadows lupines

Pier, King's Beach

Secret beach, that's the name, and there are 100 people here by midday

Sunrise Calm

Four Rocks, Sunday Morning

Granite and Blue Water

6 AM, Northeast shore

Three Pines

106 degrees near Stockton

Highway 5

Salinas Valley Barns

Inspired by a request from my friend Terry DeLapp to get some photographs of the farms and farmland of the Salinas Valley, a series of new imagery is emerging. The photographer Dorothea Lange called it "The New California - The Unfinished Business".
Thriving small family farms are mixed in with corporate agribusiness across the open plains of the Salinas River watershed, an arid, windswept corridor mostly irrigated by man's engineering possibilities. Missionary priests walked through this valley three centuries ago and brought with them varieties of food crops that resemble some still growing here. Their language flourishes here as their ancestors live and work and feed us continuing the work of characters in Steinbeck's novels.

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