This was the scene we awoke to while out snowcamping in the Echo Lakes basin near Lake Tahoe, California.

The evening was pretty mild and the previous day had been sunny and near cloudless but these skies, first thing in the morning, were a sign that weather was approaching.  We decided to pack up our camp and head out, and it turned out to be the right decision as a storm did head in and bring snow and cold into the region.  On our trek out we were under heavy clouds the whole way and the snow started as we neared the car.

I exposed this photo for the clouds but I didn’t compensate enough and still managed to blow out some of the brighter areas.  I was shooting for a silhouette of the trees and mountains so I wasn’t concerned with losing details in the shadows.  The dead tree on the right was my main point of composition – I wanted to give it enough space in the frame (on the right and at the top) while still capturing just enough of the distant horizon to give the clouds the majority of the frame.  I also liked the cut-off tree in the left of the frame to help hold down that side.  Looking now, it would have been nicer if I would have been able to capture more of the trunk along the edge.

I didn’t do much in post production other than bring down the blacks deeper and punch a little color into the sky to better represent what we saw, peeking out from our tent.

Last year Meghan and I went for a weekend snowshoe in the Sierra Nevada just outside of Lake Tahoe.  It was one of those great Sierra spring weekends with blue skies and warm weather.  Which was good as we were going to be camping out on the snow.

We hiked along the trail until it lead us to Echo Lakes where we had to decide whether we would walk around or directly atop the lake.  Given the warm weather we were a little hesitant but the snow covering proved to provide enough insulation from the bright sun and onward we trekked.  Besides, the conditions were definitely better than the last time I had been in this area where the lake was really starting to thaw..  (That prior trip pre-dates this site so I don’t have any photos to link to).

I snapped several shots of the surrounding wilderness and stitched them together once back home in front of photoshop.  This shot was a little tricky to put together as there’s a lot of dynamic range from the bright white clouds and snow to the dark pine trees.  I had to compress the brightness a bit in order to keep the photo from blowing out the whites or losing detail in the darks.

What I like about panorama shots like this is that it really helps represent the breadth and grandeur of the scene that was in front of us.  Yes, the far end of the lake really looked that distant.  And yes, the view really was that expansive.

For this shot I used my Canon G10 -  I was trying to pack light for this trip as the winter camping gear is enough to carry.  I’m satisfied with the resulting image (and the other images from this trip) and continue to think this is a great camera, even though I’m starting to covet something new..

Tioga Pass Resort is one of those great California places.

At least, it used to be in the winter.  Each year we eagerly await to see if it will be open and each year we’re met with disappointment.  For some not-too-clear reason the lodge has been closed for the last several years in the winter (though it remains a popular summer resort).

Its location on the Eastern entrance to Yosemite gives it great access to the Yosemite high country which is otherwise a little difficult to reach in the winter (the ski in to the lodge is about 7 miles up hill which would be a pretty good day with full backpacks).

This photo was taken during one of our visits, on our last day of that stay.  Jim, Jimbo and I climbed up one of the faces above Ellery Lake for one last bowl run before heading out Tioga Pass road.

I framed this up with my Olympus D40 point and shoot camera with Jim along the edge of the frame and waited for Jimbo to get a little distance between us.  The point and shoot suffered from shutter lag like all digital cameras of that era so I wasn’t able to time the shot precisely but I like the results.

I’m happy with the progress that digital cameras have made in the last 5 years but I’m also amazed at the quality some of these earlier cameras were able to achieve.  Really the best improvements to the cameras in that time have been around usability and reliability more than image quality – though that being said, newer cameras do have amazing resolution and low-light capabilities.

But really, it’s about getting out there and being in the mountains more than it is about the camera.

This is the time of year to be in the mountains.

Back in 2006 a few of us took a roadtrip out to Idaho to do some backcountry skiing in the mountains outside of Ketchum.

For a trip like this I brought along my digital SLR for sure, and at that time it was my Nikon D70 – from the humidity of Vietnam to the cold of the Idaho mountains, this camera proved to me that a digital camera was up to the task of capturing the images I was interested in taking.  In this case, this included action shots of friends enjoying the great snow.

This year we reserved some backcountry yurts which are a great way to get into the remote slopes without having to lug in camping gear (but of course we instead lugged in some deluxe food and drink).  One of the really cool features of these yurts are the wood-fired saunas that they also have on site.

This image is of Mandy having a blast cruising down a powdery slope on our 2nd day in the woods.  I skied down before the crowd, stopping halfway down the slope and setting up my shooting position.

Kneeling in the snow I set the camera to f/5 providing a deep enough aperture to allow for a little play in the focal range (so I could be off by a little as I tracked the moving target) while also allowing enough light to completely freeze the action with a shutter speed of 1/6400.

As usual with shots like these, I fired a few while Mandy was above me and a few below, but the really fun shots are right as the subject passes by – when you can get the vistas in the background, the snow spraying away and ideally, a turn as they move to avoid the photographer.

Boy it’s time to get back to the snow!

In 2006 Meghan and I made a long weekend trip to Colorado to see the fall.  As I’ve said before, here in San Francisco we don’t get great fall foliage so October trips can be a good way to experience fall for a quick weekend.

This year though we were a little late.  The colors were mostly gone from the hillsides and during our trip we were treated to a pretty big snow storm.

I took this photo along the Yampa River in Steamboat Springs – one of the towns where we hung out this trip.  I like the rather stark feeling of this shot – which is pretty colorless except for the band of shrubs cutting across the frame.  This was a pretty typical sight for us, as the skies were grey with clouds and weather and the ground was dusted with snow – obliterating most of the colors from the scenes.

For this shot, I left it pretty much as I shot it, though I cropped the bottom just a tad to square up the image just slightly.

This photograph is from a Yosemite backpacking trip back in 2001.  This was my big break from work during which I took several trips both international and throughout the US.  One of those domestic trips was a ‘family’ backpacking trip in Yosemite with Karl’s family and a few stragglers (including me).

I took this picture of Cindy, sitting along the ridge of Yosemite Valley, just around the corner from Yosemite Falls.  I was going for a farily typical environmental portrait, placing emphasis on the individual while still providing details of the surrounding area.  In this case, the valley assisted in the set up.  First, the sheer distance between the subject and the valley floor (3000 feet straight down, well over a mile to the trees and mountains in the background) provides a good separation and easy focus isolation.  Second, the frequent campfires in the valley campgrounds create a hazy distance, which bumps up the relative clarity of the near subject.

This picture would have been taken with my Contax camera (I’m fairly certain) though it could also have been one of my earlier Nikons.  I most likely would have been shooting a Kodak color negative film.  My negs and slides are in deep storage now so I can’t know for sure without digging.  It was printed at Photoworks though and then the print was scanned back in on a Canon flatbed scanner – that was how I did things back then.  That I know because of the ‘sloppy’ full borders around the image.