Early morning at Twin Lakes~SkyWatch Friday~072111

Early morning light at Twin Lakes, CA. Twin Lakes is just northwest of Mammoth Lakes. SkyWatch Friday for July 21, 2011. To see other skywatchers, go to: http://skyley.blogspot.com/

"People"~Sunday Stills Challenge for July 17, 2011

Last summer I traveled to Temecula, CA with a friend for the day. We wandered around the town and came across this huge mural, which covered the entrances to the police department. I was so intrigued with it, I took a lot of photos of it. It shows Temecula in its early days. As a history major, I'm always interested in the past events of a location and this mural captured Temecula's past. Look at the clothes and the transportation! What an interesting mural! "People" for Sunday Stills Challenge, July 17, 2011.

Mammoth Village~Scenic Sunday~071711

This was Mammoth Village over the July 4th weekend. Yes, Southern Californians, that is SNOW! There was snow alongside the road from Mammoth up to the ski resort and beyond! In JULY!!! Scenic Sunday for July 17, 2011.

Devil's Postpile~Stone~Shutterday~071111

We took the mandatory bus shuttle from Mammoth Village down to the Devil's Postpile over the July 4th weekend. I hadn't been there for...over 40 years. When I last went, there wasn't a shuttle. You just drove your car down to it. Nowdays, however, the bus is mandatory. Tickets are $7.00 each and it's well worth it to let somebody else navigate that road! Hubby had never seen the postpile before and he was absolutely in awe! Those columnal basalt pillars are incredible. We watched several of the other visitors from the bus and they were all amazed by them. They look like they were carved from the mountain. Some were perfect hexagons. Others were perfect quadrilaterals. Amazing! A few went off to hike to the top, but we stayed below and explored the area around it. "Stone" for Shutterday, July 11, 2011. Here's the link to Shutterday: http://shutterday.com/

Twin Lakes, early morning~SOOC Sunday~071011

On our last day at Twin Lakes, above Mammoth, CA, hubby and I woke up early to take some photos in the early morning light. There's nothing like early morning light, right? Yup...except you have to occasionally use your tripod. I just talked about using tripods on one of my other blogs (http://rav4adventures.blogspot.com/2011/07/tripods.html), so I decided to post these photos here. I looked up the properties for each one and I'll post them here. The bottom photo was taken at 1/15 second, F9, ISO 100. I like to just keep my camera on ISO 100. That way, the images don't get too grainy. Hubby sometimes sets his on a variable ISO, but I don't...just my own personal preference. I'm not yet confident enough using my manual settings to do that. The top one was taken first, so it is at 1/2 second, F9, ISO 100. I've learned that I HAVE to use my tripod at anything below 1/60 of a second. My hands just don't keep the camera steady enough! And, I've learned that from having too many out-of-focus photos! So, now I drag out my tripod in early morning or late afternoon (early evening) light situations. I really enjoy my tripod...it isn't heavy and it is fairly easy to just sling it over my shoulder and off I go! NO editing done on either photo...these are SOOC. SOOC Sunday for July 10, 2011. To visit SOOC Sunday, please go to: http://www.murrieta365.com/ Well, apparently Mr. Linky isn't cooperating this morning, so I don't know if I'll get this posted to SOOC Sunday or not! Here's the link to SOOC Sunday: http://www.murrieta365.com/2011/07/sooc.html

"F" is for frozen~Sunday Stills Challenge~071011

A frozen lake and frisky marmots...that's what we found in Yosemite National Park. Actually, the lake is Tioga Lake, which is just outside the eastern entrance to the park. When we were there in mid-June (June 16), this lake was completely frozen and the entrance to the park was still closed due to extremely high snow levels. I'd been watching videos on the Yosemite cam about the snow plows and snow removal equipment at Olmstead Point and hubby and I decided to drive up the Tioga Pass to see if the entrance was open or not. Nope. It didn't open until June 18th...We returned to the Sierra over the July 4 weekend and this lake still had ice on it! A LOT of ice! The road into the park was open, but there was still a lot of snow piled up in some places. The lakes were full, the streams and rivers were running wildly, and the meadows were full of water. I've never seen so much water at Yosemite and we've been there half a dozen times over the last few years. The Sierra had a record snowfall this winter (178% of normal) and there were even flood warnings from all the runoff. I took these photos early one morning and when we pulled into the turnoff, these frisky marmots were playing and completely ignored us! "F" for frozen and frisky ... Sunday Stills Challenge for July 10, 2011. Oh, and marmots are a mammal, a member of the squirrel family. They like to live in rocky places and we noticed other marmot families along the road in Yosemite. These two were very playful and allowed us to get close to them! To visit Sunday Stills, please go to: http://sundaystills.wordpress.com/

Yosemite~Weekend Reflections~070911

I took all of these photos during our day at Yosemite National Park, which was on July 1st. In the top one, Tioga Lake was still partially frozen on July 1st. Isn't that amazing? I'm sure it is free of ice now, but I could be mistaken. At over 9,000 feet, those high lakes still have freezing temps at night and parts of the park still had a lot of snow on them. We were there mid-June and the east entrance to the park wasn't even open yet because of late snow removal. But, it opened on June 18 (the day we left) and we returned June 29 through July 4th to the Sierra. I read somewhere that they had 178% of their normal snow fall this year and that's why the Tioga Pass was so late opening and why the higher elevations still had so much snow left on them, including the Mammoth Lakes area where we stayed for 4 nights. We always enjoy our trips to the Sierra and are already planning our next one. Weekend Reflections for July 9, 2011. All photos were taken in Yosemite National Park using my Nikon D40x on manual settings. There was water everywhere in the park. Waterfalls, lakes full, rivers running high...it was really a different view of the park from last summer, when we were there in August. To see other participants, please go to: http://newtowndailyphoto.blogspot.com/?

Tioga Lake, early morning~SkyWatch Friday~070811

Hubby and I woke up at 4 a.m. one morning on our recent trip to the Sierra and headed up the Tioga Pass to Yosemite. Along the way, we stopped at Tioga Lake, which was still partially frozen on July 2nd. The eastern entrance to Yosemite just opened up a couple of weeks earlier and at that time, this lake was completely frozen! What a beautiful, stark scene it was. When we returned on this morning, there was still ice along the edges of the lake. Skywatch Friday for July 8, 2011. I'll post more photos about our trip over the next week. We didn't have any Internet in our cabin the entire time we were there. To see other participants, please go to: http://skyley.blogspot.com/