High Sierra Topix

From the backpacking/h/c forum my recent trip planning thread on the SF of the San Joaquin. Thanks to hikerduane who got me to think about Desolation where I'd taken some images of sierra junipers way back in 1982 and 1984. Thus went out in last Wednesday's snow squalls where I camped 3 nights before returning late Saturday morning. I tented well away from any trail or lakes Wednesay night at an obscure area of junipers. The storm ended by sunset and skies cleared to stars.

Thursday dawn, my inside the tent thermometer showed 22 degrees and it was no doubt at least a couple degrees colder outside. I woke up at 4:30am at earliest dawn and made some hot chocolate reaching out my tent door while still in my REI -5 EL down bag, Everything was covered with ice including all the rocks so I was a bit conservative in my plans early on. Headlamp on and winter clothing on, I hiked up the Pacific Crest Trail then climbed up the icy talus where I noticed some junipers high above this lake inlet whereI thought I might be able to image them in a frame that included the lake and snowy Mount Price of the Crystal Range at center. I didn't want to have to climb up steep icy rocks in freezing temps but wanted the pic more. A fair amount of the snow in this shot was just inches deep and melted back by the end of the day. One can see the lake though relatively calm has a shimmer on the water indicating what was a constant slight breeze. Enough so that I didn't choose to waste any film on any lake reflections. Note Friday morning was quite calm and I did capture some nice reflections then.



This next image that I exposed Friday afternoon is the identical subject to one of the 1982 pics I'd posted in the other thread. I actually did not know where those trees were exactly but like an ant that must explore every nook and cranny, I stumbled upon them eventually. Was rather difficult to fully frame the three trees with my 150mm Nikkor lens as I was backed up against the base of another large tree smack dab in a bunch of brush. So I couldn't give the composition the space that would have looked better.. A 135mm large format 4x5 lens would be about right but that's not one I carry. I did capture a few other rather impressive trees in that zone too. ...David

Some beautiful shots David.

Nice shots Dave. I really like the one looking down to the lake. Looks like you got some nice storm clouds. Makes for some nice drama in the sky.

Which lake is this in the shot?

I am heading up to Desolation first week in July for a quick over nighter.

Dave, very nice. Great job! Love them. Did I say they are fairly nice?

Great job Dave!

David...those are very beautiful! I love those old trees in that area. There are some nice ones too along that section of trail from Gilmore up to Dicks pass.
Thank you for posting...glad you had a nice trip!

The below is a small crop from the top 4x5 transparency I scanned on my cheapo flatbed this morning at a higher resolution. The resulting image ought to display at about 4 inches on typical monitors browsers. Since that is less than a twelth the full image width, the full image would be aboutr 50 inches wide. Of course a drum scan would show even more detail though even with a flatbed scan, one can see the considerable detail available for printing large. The crop includes the edge of the right juniper and distant areas of snow and trees.