October 29, our last day on the photo trip. Although we certainly could have found more things to see and photograph in the next two days, I was tired and quite ready to go home. But not until I got some pictures in Bridgeport and had my fill of photographing the weathered old miners’ houses in Bodie State Park.
Sunrise from Murphey's Motel in Lee Vining
I liked the morning light on these little houses in Lee Vining. It's a scene that I'd like to paint for my watercolor class.
A pastoral scene of sheep in the sagebrush outside Bodie State Park.
Bodie State Park
Old mine buildings at Bodie State Park
Rusted cans, Bodie State Park
Roof, Bodie State Park
Wheelbarrow, Bodie State Park
Old bedframe, Bodie State Park
Road from Bodie
Mule deer
Tule elk
And that’s the day from the point of view of the Nikon. Here’s how the Canon saw it.
Courthouse in Bridgeport, CA
Mallow outside Fred's Bait Shop, Bridgeport
Dun horse, view 1
Dun horse, view 2
Dun horse, view 3
Pinto horse, Bridgeport, CA
Farmhouse, Bridgeport, CA
Bridgeport Community Church
Virginia Creek Settlement Restaurant
Lamp, Virgina Creek Settlement Restaurant
Railing, Virginia Creek Settlement Restaurant
Church, Bodie State Park, CA
White stool, Bodie State Park
House interior, Bodie State Park
Bottles in the window, Bodie State Park
Shadow on the linoleum, Bodie State Park
Kitchen, Bodie State Park
Virginia Lakes
Aspen at Lundy Lake
What a great trip. But I was happy to get home. I miss my hubby when I go on camera outings with the club. I love sharing my photos with him. And with you! Hope you enjoyed them.
leafy path just outside the eastern side of Yosemite National Park
Lee Vining Creek
Path through the aspens by Lee Vining Creek, late October
Lee Vining Creek, late October
leaves in creek
Ice crystals by Lee Vining Creek, late October
Rainbow colors on ice crystals
Logs in creek
Clouds over Yosemite
autumn foliage over creek
Road in autumn just outside Yosemite National Park
Ice on twigs
Ellery Lake, Yosemite National Park
Tree
Creek
winter grasses
Creek coming out of Saddlebag Lake
Fish Creek Hot Springs near Mammoth
June Lake Loop
Aspen along June Lake loop, late October
I hope you enjoyed this little tour around the Mono Lake and Yosemite National Park areas. Next post will be Bridgeport and Bodie on the next and last day of the trip.
We got up before dawn to get shots of sunrise over Mono Lake. We were at the visitor center, which didn’t have the best foreground. Apparently the rest of the club was at the South Tufa Towers. Live and learn. Either place, the sunrise was spectacular.
The colors of this sunrise were spectacular, and ranged from hot yellow-orange-red to cool pink and blue, depending on camera settings.
By letting in a lot of light, the foreground shows up, but the colors in the sky got washed out.
sunrise at Mono Lake
These colors are fully saturated.
I loved the grays and yellows of sunrise over the Panum Craters.
With the intense colors of sunrise over, we moved to another location closer to the lake.
Frosted plant on frozen mud. Did I mention the temp was 19 degrees F?
Deergrass in morning light at Mono Lake
Golden grasses in morning light at Mono Lake
Tufa towers in morning light, Mono Lake, CA
Coyote tracks frozen in the mud
Historic 1922 roadhouse, Mono Lake
Roof with leaves, historic 1922 roadhouse, Mono Lake
Mono Lake in morning light from historic roadhouse
red bark
Yosemite National Park, eastern side, near Tioga Lake
Pinecone, pebbles and ice, Lee Vining Creek, Yosemite National Park
I think I’ll put the photos from the Canon of this day’s shoot in a separate post.
I just returned from a great trip to the Eastern Sierras with my camera club, Photographic Society of Orange County. We stay in the same motel and go our own way during the day, taking whatever pictures we like. We meet for happy hour and dinner, and occasionally run into each other while out taking photos.
I carpooled with fellow club member Mark Singer. We took pictures on the way up last Wednesday and all day Thursday. But then Mark received news that there had been a death in his family,. We headed back home on Friday, cutting the trip short by two days. We did join the club on Friday morning for a photo shoot in the ghost town of Bodie before heading back.
I took 844 photos with my Canon EOS D30 and 330 with my Nikon Coolpix P90. I got those narrowed down to 321 pictures that I worked with on my computer using Corel’s PaintShop Pro. Out of that batch, I really like 207 of them. Somehow I’ve got to narrow that down to something reasonable that I can post on my blog. Here are photos from the drive up, which includes the stretch of Hwy 395 that runs from Lone Pine to Bishop and beyond, including Tom’s Place.
The Eastern Sierras in October viewed from Diaz Lake.
Cottonwood at Diaz Lake near Lone Pine, CA
Yerba Mansa and autumn grasses at Lake Diaz near Lone Pine, California
Milkweed
View of Crowley Lake from road leading from Tom's Place
The shots above were taken with the Nikon. The ones below are from the Canon.
Rocks at the Alabama Hills outside of Lone Pine, California
Closeup of lichen on granite
Grasses between rocks of the Alabama Hills, Lone Pine, CA.
The lighting is better in the early morning. This is what the Alabama Hills look like closer to noon.
The Alabama Hills were favorite locations for TV westerns and movies.
Cottonwoods, black poplars, copper birch and aspen had turned yellow.
Round Valley near Bishop.
Cottonwood leaf on rabbitbrush.
Rabbitbrush in autumn
Honeybee on rabbitbrush
Round Valley near Bishop, CA
Creek near Tom's Place
Copper birch leaves
Pack mule
Mark and a pack mule confront each other. I love the light splatter in this photo.
Wild rose hips
Aspen trees
Path through the October woods near Tom's Place, CA
The camera club that I belong to, Photographic Society of Orange County, has been invited to submit photos taken in foreign countries. The rules are simple. Only five shots per member.
Cattle, Barossa Valley, Australia
The judges will select photos to represent as many countries as possible, and will also try to distribute entrants among as many people as possible. We’ll get the selected images printed to 16×20 inches and mat and frame them all identically in black frames.
1988 World's Fair, Queensland, Australia
I don’t do a lot of foreign travel, but did go with the club to Nice, France in April. Those photos were digital. My other travel overseas was two trips to Australia in 1988 and 1989, and a trip to Japan in 1995, all business trips. A few vacations to Mexico and Canada rounds out my limited international experience. My pictures from those trips are all slides.
Morning light on beach at Cairns, Australia
My son Scott lent me his slide scanner, and I’m loving it. It’s a PrimeFilm3650u, with digital ICE technology, whatever the heck that is. The scanner will scan at 3600 dpi. Once I get my images scanned, I can work with them with my software.
Whatamolla Lagoon, Australia
Every other photographer on earth uses Photoshop, but a friend gave me a copy of Corel’s PaintShop Pro and that’s what I use. I’m amazed at how much better I can make my images once they’re scanned in.
Night lights at Bombay Beach, Australia
Morning at the wetlands, Baja Mexico
I had a terrible time choosing only five images out of all of the ones I liked. It was frustrating to eliminate some of my favorites in favor of getting as wide a distribution of countries as possible. My best Australia shots are still somewhere in a carousel, and I couldn’t find my shots from Canada. So I went with what I had. The pictures in this blog post are my finalists.
Sunset, Baja Mexico
Fire Station, Anjo, Japan
Koi, Japan
Firefighter's turnouts, Anjo, Japan
Roof, Nagoya Castle, Japan
Roof, historic shrine, Japan
Courtyard, Cagne sur Mer, France
Window 1, Cagnes sur Mer, France
Window 2, Cagnes sur Mer, FranceLaundry, Nice, France
Fountain at Place Massena, Nice, France
Flower stall, farmer's market, Nice, France
Spices, farmer's market, Nice, France
Dried fruit, farmer's market, Nice, France
Garlic, farmer's market, Nice, France
Mosiac sidewalk, Nice, France
Harbor, Nice, France
Soft drinks, Cagnes sur Mer, France
Kiss me, Monaco
Can you see why I had a hard time choosing? Which five would you have picked?
I just got back from a week on the French Riviera. Sounds nice, doesn’t it? Well, it was and it wasn’t.
I can report many good things about the trip, but there was too much walking and climbing for my poor old knees, and our lodging left a lot to be desired. I’m going to make multiple posts on the trip. I’ll start off with our hotel, which had pluses and minuses.
I went with the Photographic Society of Orange County, a great group of photographers. They take an international trip every year; this was my first overseas trip with them. We had nearly 30 people in our group, but everyone split up and went their own way once we arrived.
The travel agency booked us on Swiss Air, a great airline. Although we were packed in coach seating like sardines, we got free wine, good food and Swiss chocolate. I grabbed this shot by holding my camera over my head and shooting behind me. Jerry and Dedra, right behind me, were in our group.
This was my first trip to Europe, and I was thrilled to see the Swiss Alps, even from the air.
The signage for the hotel at street level was computer printouts sheathed in plastic and taped to the hotel front.
The lobby of the Hotel Azur Riviera had nice marble on the floor, a remnant of what must have been its former glory days.
Fabien was one of the desk staff. I must say, the staff was excellent, especially Fabien and Jacques, who helped me get my new iPod set up and connected to the free hotel WiFi.
The marble staircase was quite attractive, but I have bad knees and needed to use the elevator.
The tiny hotel elevator only held one person with luggage, or a maximum of three people packed in. Here Carole, Carol, and Marianne cram in for a ride to their rooms on the 5th floor.
The elevator broke on our first full day there, stranding two members of our group inside. The staff had the elevator fixed within 36 hours.
I stayed in Room 410. The rooms were small and stark. Two out of three lights in my room did not work, nor did the phone. The bed was comfortable.
Small rooms, sparingly furnished, were situated on a VERY noisy street.
The tile in my bathroom was attractive, and the fixtures were in good shape. The shower was tiny, like one in a motor home, less than 2 ft square. Soap and shampoo were not provided, but were available by asking at the front desk. I brought my own, not being sure if they were furnished.
I didn't see screens anywhere. If you opened the windows to get some fresh air, bugs came in. One lady in our group was bitten by something in her room, probably a spider, and had to go to the hospital. This is the view out my window, leaning out to snap it.
View from my room.
View out my window looking the other direction. The neighborhood looked like a cross between the French quarter in New Orleans and New York City. Constant street noise.
The video is just people and traffic below my room, but you can get an idea of the noise level. Too bad I didn’t get the sirens in this video. Wee-ooo-wee-ooo.
Breakfast was included, and I thought that it was great. We had fresh baguettes and croissants every morning.
We had cold ham and cheese, canned fruit cocktail, cereal, orange juice and a coffe machine that had a choice of cafe, cafe au lait, cappucino, or cocoa. No decaf, so I drank cocoa.
We had the same breakfast every morning. Sometimes we had boiled eggs as well.
To avoid going back up on the tiny elevator, I looked for a toilette on the ground floor. This is what I found. I didn't have the courage to go any farther.
This is the tiny kitchen where the desk guys prepared our breakfast. They didn't have a separate kitchen staff. Fabien did a great job of arranging the baguettes and croissants on the table. When he wasn't on duty, the cocoa was too weak to drink.
There was an open air butcher shop next to the hotel lobby, part of our building. The butcher roasted chickens on a rotisserie outside the shop and it smelled GREAT.
I had never seen leg of lamb presented in quite this manner.
The butcher worked on this large piece of meat to cut it into smaller portions.
I’ve tried to present a balanced view of the hotel, at least my experience with it. Other people in our group experienced problems other than the ones I had, like no shower curtains in their in-tub showers, showers with leaky hoses that sprayed all over, no towels, etc.
All in all, the hotel wasn’t terrible. It was convenient to the train station and bus stops, with many good restaurants nearby. It would be good for students perhaps, or those who are on a tight budget. It just didn’t suit our group of mainly senior citizens, and one tiny elevator was no good for a large group checking in. The place was too noisy for me, but most of the hotels seemed to be in similar locations, right on the street, and older. If you stay there, bring your own soap!
My local camera club, Photographic Society of Orange County, took a trip to Monterey California last month. At the club meeting, we can show only four photos from our field trip. Wow. I took over 600 pics and narrowed that down to the best 90. Four was too few. So I’m sharing the best of the best with you here.
Abstract of Fisherman's Wharf buildings reflected in water.
Boats on a foggy morning at Fisherman's Wharf
Geraniums in the fog at Fisherman's Wharf
Children playing in front of a candy store at Fisherman's Wharf
Statue honoring fishermen at Fisherman's Wharf
Loved the colors, shapes and textures. It might be a flag holder. Doesn't matter
Irrigation pipes stacked in a field.
Old barn in Salinas.
Field of lettuces in Salinas.
Field of tuberous begonias being grown for their tubers.
Ripe pinot noir grapes ready for picking.
Bull California sea lion on the docks in Moss Landing, CA
Squabbling sea lions at Fisherman's Wharf
Sleeping sea lion at Fisherman's Wharf (with an iron gate between us).
California ground squirrel
There are so many other photos that I liked, but these were my favorites. Some of the photos were taken during our agriculture tour with Evan Oakes of Agventuretours.com. Great tour. Hope you enjoyed this peek into Monterey and nearby Salinas.
(To read more of Lou Murray’s environmental writing, see her weekly column, Natural Perspectives, in the Huntington Beach Independent at www.hbindependent.com/blogs_and_columns/)
