Fall Colors

[SSSdave]

Thanks for the photos. Love all those vast aspen groves in the Rockies.

Bridgeport-10-day-101722.jpg

Well if I'm going to pull the trigger, it is going to need to be tomorrow for the SR108 drive out to the Bridgeport zone and then some bumpy dirt road grove site checking. Then Wednesday and Thursday for serious work at optimal times. Like how the breezes are so uncommonly for this time of year low that will be a boon for more intimate leaf on branches subjects with my newish 85mm. But really just have one target zone that is extra special.

Wind arrives Friday when I ought be leaving while a wimpy windy fall storm looks like showers Saturday, even snow showers up high for peak coatings. Good for leaf on ground shots I don't really need any more of and not I wise target after such a droughty year with much late season brown dryness. Don't expect to stick around for that storm event so likely return Friday mid morning, dawdling on the return drive along SR108 at places Pacific dogwood and Black oak usually present leaf color. Will spend dawns at Mono Lake County Park shores that requires a lengthy walk from its parking lot. Much familiar disperse camping near a creek not far away will may the dark rise and drive possible. The drought has uncovered myriad small rock islets at that northwest end of the lake for reflection photo aesthetics with the sun rising south of due east putting it across the miles of lake. If its that quiet in Bridgeport, the same atmospheric forces are likely in the Mono Lake basin.

Unfortunately this weekend came down with an intermittent tooth ache issue that could abscess though don't expect that. Tomorrow may just get up if tooth is quiet and get it organized. The 550 miles round trip will be 22 gallons of gas or about $130. So not easy to pull a trigger on.

[SSSdave]

Still could, but not motivated enough. Life is good here in Dave's urban residence with frequent music rapidcharging me just as The Who will in a week. Just hate that 5 to 6 hour mostly monotonous familiar to this person long drive when some peanut butter fudge is a few steps away. I've got a few amazing images again this year of 2022 and numbers of strong images I'll be able to 8k exhibit soon after much computer work recently and now HTML coding, will be posting it publicly. My work up above Blue Lake was quite productive with material broadening the scope of aesthetically beautiful and interesting landscapes the Sierra Nevada contains.

The best cloud photography of the fall so far over Mono Lake both dawn and dusk, could be Friday 10/21/22 as the leading edge of the cooler trough pushes against the receding edge of the dry high pressure that has been stubbornly atop the Western USA for weeks. That airmass boundary interaction zone is where high altitude cirrus might form that early/late can receive unblocked red spectral end light filtering out blue wavelengths from miles of the Earth's outer layers of atmosphere and into one of we photographer's camera digital sensor's image memory. So yeah, I do have reasons to go belatedly tomorrow then return Saturday early. So the real thing versus post processing Saturation controls. Bridgeport at 6.5k shows 20F lows Monday that might be 12F above 9000 feet and even lower given clear night skies in cold air sinks.
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Area Forecast Discussion
National Weather Service Reno NV
148 PM PDT Tue Oct 18 2022

... The interesting portion of the forecast arrives this weekend as
it appears we will finally break out of this warm/dry trend.
Cluster analysis is now in great agreement through at least
Sunday, suggesting a longwave trough will be moving across the
western CONUS. Ahead of its associated surface front, southwest
winds look to get rather gusty. ECMWF ensemble guidance has
trended upward over the last 24 hours, and EFI hints at this as
well from a climatological perspective. Gusts between 30-50 mph
with higher ridge top winds (80-100 mph) look to be possible
early on Saturday. Snowfall looks to be a few inches on higher
passes, with a few tenths of an inch of rainfall possible across
lower elevations south of US-50 overnight into Sunday, if
moisture lingers during the drop in snow levels. We will need to
keep a close eye on both the wind and precipitation timing from a
fire weather perspective, as our region has returned to a dry
state characterized by ERC values approaching historical daily
maxima in some areas. Differences in the timing between
precipitation arrival and strongest winds will make a difference;
although, if the strongest winds occur in the morning hours, then
higher RH values will mitigate the concern somewhat.

A stark cooldown will follow after the passage of Saturday's cold
front. Temperatures will fall well below average. Sunday looks to
be the chilliest afternoon with high temperatures in the mid 50s
or colder across the region. Brrr. It will be a good time to
winterize irrigation and other exposed plumbing as western NV
valleys look to fall below freezing, with widespread hard freezes
expected in the Sierra. The cooler pattern continues into the
first part of next week. After that, there is much less model
agreement. However, the lack of a longwave blocking high will at
the very least keep us in a favorable pattern for additional
rounds of cool/wet weather as we approach the end of October.