Temple Crag
Posted: Mon Aug 14, 2017 3:16 pm
This beautiful and extremely impressive piece of granite, towering over Second Lake at 12,999 ft, is a rock climbers mecca, with exotic route names, such as Contact Crack, Moon Goddess Arete, Eclipsed Arete, and Venusian Blind Arete to just name a few.
The North Fork of Big Pine Creek is famous, not only for Temple Crag alone, but also the Palisade Range, Palisade Glacier, and last, but definitely not least, the exquisite emerald green colors of First, Second, and Third Lakes.
The goal of my photo outings as a professional photographer, as with all my outings, is to capture something that sufficiently represents the beauty of the area (as tried on 5 previous outings to this area), and to capture something worthy to be placed into my purchasing/investment gallery.
Spent the first night at Second Lake (most photogenic IMO), second at Forth Lake (on the cliffs), and then the next two nights back at Second Lake, dates 8/2-8/6.
With the monsoonal flow in full force, 3 hours of heavy rain on Thursday night, and then a lighter storm on Saturday night, there was a constant threat of rain, with early morning build ups of cumulus clouds, which later boiled into cumulusnimbus clouds by the afternoon and into the evenings.
Sunset colors were muted by the heavy, low level stratus clouds, the sun rays couldn't penetrate these clouds with color, none of the alto or cirrus level clouds could show off their full displays in full glory. The sunrise colors were also muted because of the clouds on the horizon and smoke present in Owen Valley.
So, with all this going on, had to rethink my plan of approach, mother nature sometime gives me ways to work around problems or hindrances such these, decided to focus on Second Lake, which was the lake that I had previsualized as being the one that represented this beautiful part of the Sierra the best.
This piece of granite is truly mesmerizing, it demands the viewers attention, similar to when one sits in a church in France, Sainte-Chapelle, and admires and studies all its details for hours, its stained glass or the Gothic style architecture of the building.
One can only imagine climbing the exotic named routes, as you look at the fluted faces and massive cracks on this enormous piece of sculpted rock, a true testament to mother natures strength and power.
After scouting locations along the cliffs on the eastern and northeastern side of the lake, found the spot that gave an unhindered, full view of the face of Temple Crag and was at the perfect angle to the surface of the lake.
Proceeded to the my predetermined location, the clouds were threatening, stratus clouds were covering up the views of the higher alto and cirrus clouds, but for a 15 minute period, close to sunset, somewhere, far from my view, there was a break between the clouds, which allowed some of the suns rays to illuminate the clouds above Temple Crag, at the same time, a break in some of the stratus clouds, allowed some of the blue skies to peak out between the could cover, which added further color to the over-all flavor of the scenery opening up before my eyes.
The soft, diffused light from the cloud cover, reflecting off the emerald green surface of Second Lake, and the small swat of blue from the sky, created a beautiful, soothing, and inter-mingling of colors and tint, elevating this to a very special piece, that I am proud of, and which I hope you agree, really does justice to the beauty of this special section place in the Sierra.
Any inquires about purchasing/investing in my art pieces and to view my gallery, please contact my via PM, only serious inquires please. Thanks
Click on piece once to get larger view, enjoy.
The North Fork of Big Pine Creek is famous, not only for Temple Crag alone, but also the Palisade Range, Palisade Glacier, and last, but definitely not least, the exquisite emerald green colors of First, Second, and Third Lakes.
The goal of my photo outings as a professional photographer, as with all my outings, is to capture something that sufficiently represents the beauty of the area (as tried on 5 previous outings to this area), and to capture something worthy to be placed into my purchasing/investment gallery.
Spent the first night at Second Lake (most photogenic IMO), second at Forth Lake (on the cliffs), and then the next two nights back at Second Lake, dates 8/2-8/6.
With the monsoonal flow in full force, 3 hours of heavy rain on Thursday night, and then a lighter storm on Saturday night, there was a constant threat of rain, with early morning build ups of cumulus clouds, which later boiled into cumulusnimbus clouds by the afternoon and into the evenings.
Sunset colors were muted by the heavy, low level stratus clouds, the sun rays couldn't penetrate these clouds with color, none of the alto or cirrus level clouds could show off their full displays in full glory. The sunrise colors were also muted because of the clouds on the horizon and smoke present in Owen Valley.
So, with all this going on, had to rethink my plan of approach, mother nature sometime gives me ways to work around problems or hindrances such these, decided to focus on Second Lake, which was the lake that I had previsualized as being the one that represented this beautiful part of the Sierra the best.
This piece of granite is truly mesmerizing, it demands the viewers attention, similar to when one sits in a church in France, Sainte-Chapelle, and admires and studies all its details for hours, its stained glass or the Gothic style architecture of the building.
One can only imagine climbing the exotic named routes, as you look at the fluted faces and massive cracks on this enormous piece of sculpted rock, a true testament to mother natures strength and power.
After scouting locations along the cliffs on the eastern and northeastern side of the lake, found the spot that gave an unhindered, full view of the face of Temple Crag and was at the perfect angle to the surface of the lake.
Proceeded to the my predetermined location, the clouds were threatening, stratus clouds were covering up the views of the higher alto and cirrus clouds, but for a 15 minute period, close to sunset, somewhere, far from my view, there was a break between the clouds, which allowed some of the suns rays to illuminate the clouds above Temple Crag, at the same time, a break in some of the stratus clouds, allowed some of the blue skies to peak out between the could cover, which added further color to the over-all flavor of the scenery opening up before my eyes.
The soft, diffused light from the cloud cover, reflecting off the emerald green surface of Second Lake, and the small swat of blue from the sky, created a beautiful, soothing, and inter-mingling of colors and tint, elevating this to a very special piece, that I am proud of, and which I hope you agree, really does justice to the beauty of this special section place in the Sierra.
Any inquires about purchasing/investing in my art pieces and to view my gallery, please contact my via PM, only serious inquires please. Thanks
Click on piece once to get larger view, enjoy.