It is a pretty rare event that we get some snow in the mountains here. My brother and I made plans to head up to the hills after he got off work this evening. We made it about half way up Gibralter before we were turned around by the police. Said we would get stuck. Only in Santa Barbara…
By last Monday the news was basically forecasting the end of the world in California from the “massive” storm headed our way. All reports were warning of 8-10″ of rain in the lowlands and 6-10 feet of snow in the mountains. When my buddy Tim said he and a friend were making a trip to Mammoth, I couldn’t help but ask to come along. If there was too much snow and we couldn’t make it I could at least take some pics, and if we got there it would hopefully be some awesome conditions.
Friday night we drove up to Bishop, arriving by midnight after hours of heavy rain and high winds, making the journey a bit longer than usual. By 5:30am we were on the road north to Mammoth. When the lifts opened at 8:30 we were near the front of the small line and cutting fresh lines through powder a few minutes later. Running through the trees, I had an encounter with one which did some damage to my leg and took me out of action in the early afternoon, unsure of what I could do on Sunday. Sat night we drove through blizzard conditions which required a police escort up the 395 to June Lake. Waking up on Sunday morning and looking out the window of our cabin, I saw beautiful blue skies and snow covered peaks in every direction. When we arrived at June mountain for a day on the slopes, I had to suck up the pain in my leg, and get out there, it was just too good! So we spent all Sunday running black and double black diamonds in awesome conditions, and there was hardly even anyone out on the slopes and never a line for the lifts! I think it will be hard to ever beat a day like Sunday. I took a few pics, but preferred to spend my time enjoying the conditions.
Saturday night at June Lake
Sunday Morning at June Lake
Pano from the top of the first lift at June mountain; June lake in foreground, Mono lake in background (click to see larger)
Tim on some steep slopes
Seth cutting through some fresh stuff
Too much fun!
A group of people gathered on the dark night. The days now grow longer…
Simple Tilt/Shift panoramic technique.
I like using a Tilt/Shift lens for my panos because the post processing is super simple and I don’t have to carry a separate rotating tripod head specifically for panos. Though I do have to carry a specific lens, my Nikon 85mm F2.8 Tilt/Shift is also a macro lens, so I can sort of kill two birds with one stone. If all is done correctly, I can put an image together in around 1 min or less. When moving elements enter the scene, such as water, that is where the fun starts; I’ll post on this in the future.
Requirements:
In the field:
Be sure the camera is in manual exposure mode. The camera can be used in either portrait (vertical) or landscape (horizontal) orientation, depending on subject and what you want to do. If shooting horizontal panos in landscape orientation, only 3 shots are necessary, left, center, and right. When shooting vertical panos in landscape orientation, I will usually take 4 shots, as the overlap is a bit thin with only 3, so 4 will give you a bit more to work with if there is any complex blending required (this depends on subject, and in general 3 shots are adequate). You can also experiment with utilizing focal plane shift in combination with panos for some cool and creative results.
(more after the jump)
Drove by this bugger the other day and thought it could make a cool photo, so I stopped by this evening. Didn’t quite get the shot I was looking for, need to bring a few more strobes nextime. Perhaps tomorrow.
Continuation of an epic day…
After heading back from Rincon and dropping my self-employed buddy Tim (who does not have as much free time as a self-unemployed person like myself) off at his office, I was off to checkout sandspit, at the end of the breakwater in the Santa Barbara harbor. The parking lot was a total gnarled mess but I luckily pulled up just as someone was leaving, else I may have just gone home. While the waves were much smaller than Rincon there was still plenty of action to be seen. (note to self: put on sunblock tomorrow)
I returned again in the afternoon, and Spotted Kelly Slater among the lineup.
And so the light faded…
Got myself up at 5:00am this morning and headed down to Rincon for some pics of the big swell coming through. Even though we arrived in the darkness of the pre-dawn, the parking lot was already almost filled to capacity, a good sign. The surf was big. With sets coming in of at least 2x overhead, if not bigger from time to time. People were getting pounded left and right and a few boards were broken within the hour and a half I was there. By the time we left, there were people everywhere, with cars parked past the 101 north bound on-ramp.
Here’s a few pics from the morning. I stopped by sandspit around noon, and got a ton more shots there as well, which I’ll post later, as its time to get back to the beach for some more shooting…
The storm that has been battering the Pacific north-west the last few days has sent a massive swell down to us. I didn’t get to the beach until near sunset, but the normally quite placid Ledbetter beach was breaking overhead. Tomorrow morning it’s an early 5:00am wakeup to head to either Jalama or Rincon for sunrise.
A couple pics from this evening, but the light was pretty much gone by the time I arrived. Better stuff tomorrow, with luck.
