Eastern Sierra Friday & Saturday

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SSSdave
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Eastern Sierra Friday & Saturday

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With drought conditions this fall had not expected to bother making a fall leaf photography road trip over to the Eastern Sierra. But the current low pressure system over the state offers some unique conditions. Thus will get a couple fall days in after all as pulled the trigger this morning on PTO from my m-f 8-5 job so will be on the road this evening. The latest weather.gov graphic forecast charts show the current low pressure system over Southern and Central California will slowly move east keeping Mono County areas mostly cloudy at least through Saturday morning so potential diffuse lighting. Charts also show relatively light breezes that is of course important for lower ISO slower shutter speeds and Friday is looking calmest. By Saturday pm and into Sunday breezes pick up. Snow levels are high at 12k so above passes. Latest leaf reports and pics show higher and mid Inyo areas on the wane while mid and lower Mono areas nearing peak.

Sunny blue skies with lower to mid sun altitudes are fine for fall leaf work of external front lit canopies at a distance. However for more intimate forest landscapes, sunny is impossibly contrasty while the right type of clouds can provide even diffuse light conditions. Optimal cloud conditions are with higher sun altitudes of mid morning through noon through mid afternoon when the sun illuminates not too thin nor too thick clouds above such that the cloud deck is evenly brightly illuminated with stronger light more perpendicular to get down into a forest between trees. Optimally when sun shadows are barely noticeable about EV13 down to EV10 or in other words with still enough light for faster shutter speeds. With cumulus build ups the dense clouds cause low EV levels that are difficult to work with.

The current low pressure system over the state is the same relatively dry cool continental one that dropped down due south from British Columbia over a week ago and brought minor rains to much of the state and good snows in the Southern Sierra above 9k. The system then moved east into the Four Corners region of the Southwest and then did something rare. Instead of continuing east, it moved southwest into Mexico, across Baja California and back out over the Pacific where it picked up a new supply of tropical moisture and intensified again before moving north back to California. As a result the current clouds are more scattered and higher than those a week ago. That does offer possibilities for some early and late warm dawn and dusk light and I will probably be set up digitally at Conway for dawn. We often see cold fronts with snow dustings during our Sierra aspen falls but rarely a semi tropical system like this so this is rather novel.

David
http://www.davidsenesac.com/2015_Trip_C ... les-0.html
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SSSdave
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Re: Eastern Sierra Friday & Saturday

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Image

Turned out to be more productive than expected and there were far more fine shots potentially that I had to leave as mere memories since the breezy stormy weather was not all that cooperative. The following feature story link of that trip contains the above and 19 other images.

http://www.davidsenesac.com/2015_Trip_C ... 15-13.html
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cslaght
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Re: Eastern Sierra Friday & Saturday

Post by cslaght »

Incredible work! The one you have featured and a couple of the others with the leaves almost looks like a pointillism painting. The wildness of the colors and the great shots over Mono Lake are awesome. Love the colors!
"The mountains are calling, but can't find my phone"

Charles
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Re: Eastern Sierra Friday & Saturday

Post by Rockyroad »

Beautiful photos! You had a very productive long weekend.
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tie
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Re: Eastern Sierra Friday & Saturday

Post by tie »

Very nice! Thanks also for the detailed report.
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