Big Pine

• Albert Camus.

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This is a shot I made during our trip to Big Pine, California. We were coming back from a short hike at the Bristlecone pine forest and I noticed the epic sunset happening in front of us. There was rain cover right in front of us but sunset colors on both peripherals. I wanted to use the road as a leading line into scene and create a stitch panorama.

This was one of the best sunsets I have seen in a long time, hope you all enjoy it. And thanks for visiting..

• Elizabeth Bowen

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Another shot from Big Pine, California. This one was taken after our ill timed hike to Mt. Whitney. We abandoned our hike as soon as the rain started and lightning strikes started to hit the mountain, and planned to get to a location we had been to before that had a good view of the Sierra Nevada mountains. I had noticed this location when we were coming back from the Methuselah grove hike at the ancient Bristlecone pine hikes.

Thanks for visiting hope you like this image.

• Ralph Waldo Emerson.

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Since the first time I have been to Owens valley, I have been a bit obsessed with the beautiful meandering Owens river. Finally during our last trip, I found a location which is quire photogenic and quite close to the main road near Lone Pine. So I woke my wife up around 4am and we headed around to the location.

At this location the river forms a set of u-turns with the Sierra Nevada mountains in the background. As we were waiting for sunrise, I observed that the moon was about to set too, so we waited for the moon to come close enough. I kept on taking images as I didn’t know when the perfect alignment was gonna happen. This was the best of the bunch, hope you all enjoy this. Thanks for visiting..

• Albert Einstein.

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I have been going through my pics for the past three weekends in a desperate attempt to streamline and catalog my images properly and came across some images that missed my review and were not posted here. This one particularly struck me and brought back a lot of memories from an amazing trip we completed in the Eastern Sierras.

On this particular day, we drove up to Whitney Portal, which is sort of a base camp for Mt. Whitney climbers and John Muir trail thru-hikers. Our intention was to scope the place out but on a whim, we decided to hike the trail up to the spot that you can access without a permit. After a bit into the hike, we discovered how woefully underprepared we were for the hike. We had sandals on and thought that would be great on this particularly hot summer day, but soon the granite chips started to get inside and cut our foot. Also, we had completely miscalculated about the cold and thunderstorms that roll through these mountain peaks. After we saw what looked like the mother of all storms brewing, we decided to bail on the hike and head back to the car.

Once back we took care of our battered feet and headed back to Big Pine to see if can salvage a sunset shot. It looked like the sunset was going to be a washout with the storm clouds covering the mountain peaks that day, but I decided to try my luck and head to an outlook pointy I scouted earlier. And I was in luck, about 30-45 minutes before the sun was going down, the sky opened up and we had one of the most spectacular light shows I have ever seen happen in front of us. This shot I made required not much from me other than aiming the camera at the right spot but came out as one of the best shots of the trip.

• Edouard Manet

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I didn’t realize it at the time, but we moved to California right in the middle of one of the most prolonged droughts the state has ever experienced. Our first trip to the easter sierras was in 2013, and there was very little snow even on some of the tallest mountains. By 2015 the effects of the drought were being felt everywhere n Cali. There were PSAs about conserving water. Dealerships stopped offering free car washes, and even at restaurants, water was only available after a customer made a specific request.

We had a summer trip planned for 2015, and I planned to keep the little town of Bishop as our basecamp and photograph the beautiful scenery near it, especially the meandering Owens river. I was a bit worried when we reached the sierras as we hardly saw any snow on any of the tall peaks that line the Sierra Nevada mountain range. Since the Owens river is mainly fed by the melting snow pack of the Sierra, I feared the river would be empty. Thankfully I was proven wrong; the river still had a decent amount of water. The same could not be said about the mountains, though. There was hardly any snow. I had scoured Google maps to find an accessible location for the sunrise shot near the river bank with a good view of the peaks. Luck shined on me that day as the moon started to set just as the sunlight began to pour in from behind.

• Lao Tzu.

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In my limited time of experience as a landscape photographer, I have realized that going on a road trip is the best way to photograph location far from one’s home base. But having a regular 9-5 job means that the opportunities to step away from those responsibilities are far and few in between. Add to that the unpredictability of weather, and it makes for a fascinating dynamic. So naturally, locations, where you have favorable results, tend to be your favorites. And the places that consistently delivered one spectacular scene after another has been the eastern side of California. Especially those fantastic landscapes along the highway 395.

During this trip to the Eastern Sierras, we first stopped at Lone Pine and visited Whitney portal. Our original plan was to do a small hike but while we were hiking the clouds started to come in, and it started to rain. So, we made a hasty retreat and decided to continue on our way north. As we got back on 395, clouds covered most of the Sierras and doused any hopes of a colorful sunset. But as we approached Bishop, I noticed that the clouds started to get some color. I knew this scenic vista point nearby and decided to try our luck. My luck was strong that day, and as we got out of the car and finished setting up, the sunset has morphed over to a spectacular scene with the mountains and the clouds bathed in stunning colors. I rank this among my best sunsets and views like these are the reason why I love eastern California.

• Frank Lloyd Wright.

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Another panorama shot I made near the Owen's River near Big Pine, California. I took this shot just after sunrise and really loved the streak of light that was hitting sierra mountains. The clouds also had some nice colors and I really loved how the river forms a nice leading line to the mountains.

Thanks for visiting, hope everyone likes it.

• David Viscott.

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I can say with confidence that I had this shot in my mind ever since the first time I drove on rt 395 and witnessed the Sierra Nevada range during a sunrise. The problem was finding a good outlook point to see the wide panorama. I tried the sierra outlook along the white mountain road but didn’t like the view, so while we were coming back from the hike at the Bristlecone pine forest I noticed this location along rt 168 just before it reached 395.

The day actually started pretty promising with us deciding to hit the Mt Whitney trail to Lone Pine lake after a hearty breakfast. Unfortunately we learned how important hiking footwear is on a rocky hiking path as our sandals were soon overwhelmed by small sharp pebbles. Also as we neared the lake we got caught in a sudden thunderstorm, so we decided to turn around and go back before the rain overwhelmed us. I was ready to write off the day but we decided to hit the outlook point we marked earlier on rt 168. We reached just in time for sunset and I had just enough time to make a 75 shot panorama. To the left you are seeing Lone Pine and Bishop, CA to the right. Clouds overwhelmed Big Pine so there were no colors straight ahead. This was an epic effort, and I have previously managed to pull off similar panos at Griffith park and Columbia river gorge, but this one was bigger than both of those images and the lighting conditions were changing even faster. I love how it turned out, hope you all like it too, thanks for visiting.