The Sturgeon Full Moon

 The so called "sturgeon" full moon occurred on August 9th. I decided to trudge up into the local hills with my DSLR and 300mm lens and see what I could see. It turned out to be a beautiful evening, and well worth the effort. In case you were wondering, the sturgeon moon got it's name because it coincides with the time of year when sturgeon fish were most abundant and were being harvested in the Great Lakes and other major lakes. 

 

For moon photos, it's nice to have something interesting in the foreground. A photo of the moon in the sky is OK, but something in the foreground makes it even better. I'm always racking my brain for composition ideas. The moon rises in the east, and you can check websites for the exact compass heading in your area, so that will help you with composition. I had scouted the trail a few days before the full moon to pick out possible photo locations.

 

If memory serves, moonrise was at about 7:30pm. The mistake I made tonight was to be in position about 10-15 minutes ahead of the scheduled moonrise. Most often, there is haze on the horizon, so thinking you will see (and can photograph) the moon the moment it rises above the horizon is often incorrect. It's obscured by the haze, and probably won't be visible until about 15 minutes after the scheduled moonrise. That means I had about 1/2 hour to twiddle my thumbs on this particular evening, waiting to see the moon.

 

One final tip, and it's an important one. Usually the night before the full moon (called the "photographer's moon") is when you want to be out taking pictures. Moonrise is usually too late (well after sunset) on the actual full moon night, so you can't get good foreground shots because it's too dark. 

Something about old gnarled trees in front of a full moon appeals to me. The b&w version is below, which gives it an even creepier vibe.

 

A nice bonus is that sunset is happening about the same time the moon is rising, so it can be very productive for photographers.

 

Basque shepards roamed these hills with herds of sheep back in the 1800s.

 

 

Hiking back to my car in near darkness, I came across this huge gopher snake. Initially I thought it was a tree branch lying on the trail, but then the branch moved! This trail is heavily used by both hikers and bikers, and Mr. Snake was taking his sweet time crossing the trail. I was worried he might get run over by a biker (see all the bike tracks?) so I decided to hang around and direct traffic just in case. The snake safely made it to the other side of the trail and I went on my way.

 

Thanks for stopping by!!

Linking with Skywatch Friday.

Gone Surfin'

 Surf Camp, summer of 2025, for granddaughter Lilly. I was getting tired of driving her and her friend back and forth every day for a week (about 45 minutes each way), but I love the ocean and enjoyed all that beach time. And it gave me lots of time to get creative with my iPhone. Here's one of my first attemps to add music to a video. I tried to sync the beat to my footsteps. Fun stuff!

 

I guess you could call this a "vertical pano". Usually you pan horizontally, but this was an attemp at panning vertically. Makes for a long, skinny photo!

 

Flotsam and jetsam: I did long walks on the beach a couple of mornings, and couldn't resist taking pictures of some of the stuff that had washed up on the sand. The textures are really interesting. Technically, I think it would all be considered "flotsam" since jetsam is defined as something deliberately thrown overboard by a ship in distress (had to look that one up!).

This brown algae is kind of alien looking! The round part is called a float, and is filled with air. It keeps the fronds up near the surface of the water and closer to sunlight for photosynthesis. The long tentacle-looking thing would have a "holdfast" at the end (not visible) that would anchor the algae to the ocean floor. Technically not classified as plants, algae are fascinating! The scientific study of algae is called phycology.
 

We had overcast skies every morning, clearing to blue skies in the afternoon. Perfect!

 

The most interesting sky of the week!

 

Lilly's becoming a good surfer and loves being in the water!

 

There was the occasional wipeout!

 

Strange to see a military helicopter flying along the beach. Maybe following the coastline down to the marine base at Camp Pendleton?
 

Another low-flying aircraft. This guy was so low I could see the pilot's face! He was pulling one of those banner adds behind the plane, which seemed to be slowing him down.
 

Thanks for joining me for this week at the beach!

Linking with Skywatch Friday.

Sierra Milky Way

 To this point, all my attemps at Milky Way photography have been done in the desert. But while planning for my recent Sierra hike, it was brought to my attention that we might want to attempt capturing the MW over beautiful Sierra mountain peaks and alpine lakes. That was certainly a motivator for me, so I packed my heavy DSLR and tripod, even though I knew I was going to have a hard time lugging it up mountain trails. It also turned out that our hike coincided with the new moon, so I figured it was certainly worth a try!

Using the PhotoPills app on my phone, I figured this area on Long Lake would be a good spot. I have to give Mitch credit as well. He had the original "vision" of the MW spilling into Long Lake, and that ignited my interest. According to PhotoPills, the MW should be over the center of the mountain peaks and also over the center of the lake around 10:30-11PM. I was worried about the clouds blocking out the stars, but I figured I would set my alarm for about 10:15PM, step out of my tent, and assess the situation. If I see clouds, I'll just crawl back into my sleeping bag! I'll be camped at this location for two nights, so there's always tomorrow night.

 

I was also prepared for mosquitos. All I had to do was put this fancy get-up over my head and I'm good to go! Fortunately, the mosquitos were light and I didn't have to wear it often.

 

Ring-ring-ring. 10:15PM alarm. Getting in and out of an ultrilight one-person tent is harder than you might think. There's barely room to sit up at one end of the tent. Shimmying out of a sleeping bag takes me a while, then pivoting around to exit the tent feet-first takes gymnastic moves my old joints just can'd do anymore! Eventually I crawl out from my tent and know instantly it's going to be a great night. Big smile. The MW is very visible, no clouds, and probably the darkest sky I have ever seen!

Exactly what I was hoping for! A beautiful MW over the Sierra peaks, with stars reflected off the water. It was a perfectly calm night with no breeze, so the stars were reflected beautifully. Initially I fumbled around for a while. It was so dark that I couldn't see anything through my viewfinder, which means I couldn't frame the photo. Solution: Point the camera, take a photo, and adjust as needed. This took a while, but eventually I was satisfied with the composition. This is just my camera, tripod, and a single image. No blending or taking multiple images. When the sky is this dark, it makes things easier!

 

Vertical format, with the stars spilling into Long Lake. Beautiful! This was taken at 11:11PM. After this photo, I knew it was a good night. I hiked back up to my tent and slept soundly until daybreak.

 

The next morning I could tell Mitch was anxious to find out how things went. I think he was convinced the cloud cover would ruin things, so he elected to sleep in and wait for night #2. When I told him it was really a good night, I know he was kicking himself for not joining me!

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Day Two at Long Lake

 

Day two was even cloudier than day one, but we figured that, just like the first night, it would eventually clear (fingers crossed).

We set our alarms for 10:15PM. When I got up, I could tell Mitch was upset about something. Turns out the "head" on his tripod (which connects tripod to camera) was missing, and he had no way to use his tripod. No tripod means no MW photos. It was a huge disappointment, but he elected to get up anyway and join me at the lake's edge under the stars. I told him one of my "photo visions" was for him to be sitting in my camp chair, back to the camera, so it would appear he was sitting under a beautiful MW sky contemplating the universe.

It turned out to be my favorite photo from the trip!

 

Thanks for dropping by!!

Linking with Skywatch Friday.

The Many Moods of Long Lake (Sierra Nevada Mountains)

 Well, I survived. At the risk of sounding like a drama queen, there were times when I wondered. A quick recap: A four night/five day backpacking adventure at high elevation in the John Muir Wilderness area of the Sierra Nevadas. I got to check off two "bucket list" boxes: I've never hiked in the Sierras, and I've never done a multi-day backpack trip (other than my quick over-nighters in the desert). 

    Monday: 5 1/2 hour drive to the campground (Rock Creek Lake Campground), 10,000' elevation. 3.3 miles hiked (mostly flat) around the lake. Feelin' good so far.

    Tuesday: This was supposed to be 2-3 miles of easy hiking for me to get acclimated to the elevation. Turned out to be 6.8 miles to explore the Eastern Brook Lakes. Fortunately, my pack was light, and other than a headache and fatigue, I did OK. 

    Wednesday: This was my big challenge day. All hiking would be above 10,000' in elevation with a full pack. We depart Rock Creek Lake Campground to hike up to Long Lake, which would be our "base camp" for the rest of the week. I never weighed my pack, but with tent, sleeping bag, food, water, camera gear... I'm sure it was close to 40lbs, perhaps a little more. The hike up to Long Lake had some significant elevation gains with lots of big stone steps, and by the time we arrived, my legs felt like noodles and I was totally spent. 5.7 miles, unknown (but significant) elevation gain.

    Thursday: Supposed to be another light day with a short hike to Gem Lakes. By the time we added a hike over to "unnamed lake", it turned out to be 7.1 miles for the day. I was feeling really wiped out, and I told my hiking partners (Mitch and Doris) that I was so glad I made the decision to hike back to my car Friday morning. Mitch and Doris were staying one more night, doing a more challenging off trail hike on Friday, and hiking back to their cars on Saturday. I was spend. Done. Dead. I had given 120% effort. There is no possible way I could have done a challenging hike on Friday, so I made the right call.

    Friday: Solo hike back to my car at Mosquito Flats. My phone says 3.7 miles, but I don't think it's that far. I had a lot of time to think since I was hiking solo. My legs were so sore and tired that I was doing a lot of slipping and tripping. Have you ever had legs so tired that they refused to obey the commands from your brain? Very dangerous, and I was lucky I didn't fall. My hip joints were aching so each step was painful. I hyper-extended one knee. I found myself grimacing as I slowly made my way back to the car. It's a popular trail, so I saw lots of smiling people hiking up the trail for a day hike. Families, fisherman, young people, kids, dogs... everyone animated and happy to be out in one of the most beautiful areas of the country. I couldn't help wondering what they thought about the grumpy old man grimacing as he hiked slowly down the trail?

 

At home preparations: My pack (red) surrounded by tent, sleeping bag, and other gear. Camera gear and food still to come. How do I get it all in the pack? And more importantly, how do I carry such a heavy pack??
 

Stay Left.

 

I felt relieived to have made our destination goal for Wednesday. The above photo is one of my first views of Long Lake. Perhaps the prettiest lake I've ever seen. The trail continues on the left side of the lake (photo), but we choose to step across rocks and logs to get to the other side of the lake to find a nice, private camp site for the next few days. We'll follow that trail on the left up to Gem Lakes tomorrow. For today, we enjoy a beautiful sky with a lovely reflection off the water. 
 

Mitch's camp site. A nice filtered view of Long Lake, but away from the trail for lots of privacy. My tent site and Doris's tent site are not far away.

 

Wildflowers were a nice surprise.

 

5:30PM, and clouds moving in.

 

A pretty filtered view of Long Lake.

Mitch rehydrating some peach cobbler for desert. It was delicious!!

 

This was a surprise! We had rain and hail on the afternoon of day 1 at our base camp (Wednesday). It required a quick scramble to make sure none of our gear got wet.

 

Long Lake under a cloudy sky. Very moody!

 

The clouds were always changing and moving fast, which gave me the idea to try to capture a time lapse photo. I didn't have a tripod for my iPhone, so I just had to tilt it against a rock and hope I was getting both sky and lake in the frame. I let it do it's magic for about 1.5-2 hours, and it condensed it down to a 20 second video. I'm really happy with the results. It gives you a good feel for how dramatic the Sierra skies can be! 

 

The mood of the lake first thing in the morning was totally different, with just the surrounding peaks lit up by the sun (and reflected in the lake). The reflection was so strong and true it was almost disorienting!

 

Evidently I was so tired I couldn't open my eyes!

 

Friday morning, and it was time to say goodbye to Mitch and Doris at Long Lake and make my solo hike back to the car. I've already shared with you how tired I was. My leg muscles and joints were beyond tired, which makes for a challenging (and potentially dangerous) hike. Was I happy I did the hike? Absolutely!! The natural beauty of the area is unlike anything I've seen before, and I got a ton of great photos. It also gave me a wonderful goal to work towards. I'm extremely grateful to Mitch for pushing me to do something well outside of my comfort zone and for answering my never ending questions. Would I do it again? Hmmm... Probably not. I actually trained quite a bit for this hike, with every-other day hikes in the local hills for at least a month prior to the Sierra hike, along with a training hike at the top of the Palm Springs Tram. Even with all that, I was definitely the weak link and my hiking partners were always patiently waiting for me and keeping the hikes short and easy (by their standards!). All of the hikes were very much beginner-level hikes, and yet I still found them difficult. That should tell me something.

 

PS: When I got home Friday night, I got a text from Mitch that he was at a motel in Bishop. He said about the time I was hiking back to the car, he and Doris were hiking off-trail, climbing up a talus slope, and he stepped on a wobbly rock that sent him flying. The result was a long gash on his forearm, bruised shoulder, and a bruise on the head. Luckily no loss of consciousness. He was able to hike back to Long Lake with Doris, pack up all their gear, and hike back to the parking lot. Doris drove him to the ER in Bishop where they cleaned him up and taped his wounds, and he drove home Saturday morning. Thankfully he's fine, but it could have been so much worse! Mitch is an elite level hiker, I I'm sure this incident won't slow him down in the least!

 

Linking with Skywatch Friday.

Thanks for stopping by, 

and I'll be posting more from my Sierra wilderness backpacking adventure!