hiking
Erratic on basalt
A few weeks ago I went to go find these basalt columns off of highway 88 near Silver Lake. There was lots of bushwacking since there is no established trail and the cairns that lead you out there are random at best. I found them and they were pretty cool but there was these boulders of granite on top of the columns. I thought the contrasting colors played well against each other.
A hike in the woods
“Keep close to Nature’s heart… and break clear away, once in awhile, and climb a mountain or spend a week in the woods. Wash your spirit clean.” ~ John Muir
Morning contrasts
I missed a week of posts because I was out backpacking with friends. It’s was great to get outside and unplug from the world around us. On this particular morning I was up early and wandering around our campsite and was able to capture these plays on light and color. 
What’s in store for 2017?
Happy New Year!
Past few months (year) I felt like I lost some of my creativity or maybe more to the point it went into hibernation. I let my daily work life take over and it became mundane. Get up early, go to work, fix this, file that, eat, sleep, look forward to the weekend. BLAHHH! Then this past summer I created a few side projects for myself and I started making time for photography. I re-discovered that my creativity is exactly what I need on a daily basis. And I have to, ‘I get to’ – make time for it; just like I have to make time for lunch or dinner. Sometimes, there’s a plan and sometimes it happens on a whim but I gotta do it. Photography makes me happy, it makes others happy, seriously, just how did I forget how much fun being creative is?
I started reading articles by David duChemin about finding your vision. I’m on week 8, 9? and the articles are inspiring and has me thinking about my craft. He talks about concepts and studying other artists and i’m enthralled with each article. There are points that stick out better than others, like “What do you love enough to spend your short life, or your limited free time, photographing?”. That’s easy, nature, the mountains, the forest, hiking, dogs, flowers, rivers, the Milky Way (stars, not the candy bar), flowing water… oops, maybe it isn’t that easy to narrow your focus afterall.
One suggestion from duChemin is to to take fewer photos or more specific, “…consider making fewer final photographs. I want you to consider demanding more from each final frame and being choosier about what you show to the world.“. I take hundreds of photos, probably closer to a few 1000 within a year. So this year I will be “choosier” with my final product. The first article in the series recommends looking through the last year of my ‘work’ and added some questions to ask myself as I work through this process. “What commonalities do you see in the work? What themes repeat themselves? Which images do you love? Why?” Here are a dozen that I chose for this first post of the new year.
The obvious theme here is nature and California landscapes (if you recognize some of the locations). I honestly have to say that I enjoy all of these shots. So much so that these are featured in my annual calendar. But, for me what made these special was the adventure to get these photos. Some of these adventures were on a whim, some were planned out, google searched potential locations and a few were simple walks along places I’ve been to hundreds of times. I’m gonna work on ‘conveying the adventure’ part, more on that later.
I look forward to 2017 and what it holds in photos, in adventures and reigniting my creativity.My goal, publish something weekly, so 52 weeks of cool imagery that I hope inspires you as much as it did me. Oh and for the following weeks, less writing, it’s really not my forte.
thanks for stopping by!
Kats
Freel Ridge Hike
One of the highest peaks in the Tahoe Basin is Freel Peak. At 10,886, the last mile to the summit can be challenging but the views along the trail are spectacular!
Bald Eagle in Flight
A young Bald Eagle in flight on an early morning hike at Alpine Lake last month.
Backpacking
Heading out for another backpacking trip in the Tahoe Basin today. Here are some shots from last month’s trip around Tahoe 🙂 Stayed at Round Lake a couple of nights. It’s an easy hike that meanders through a large meadow and ends at an alpine lake. Beautiful sunrises, sunsets and so many stars that you fall asleep if you try to count them the all. All made better with great company. Got to get out more 🙂
Hike a Ridge-line
“April showers bring May flowers”. Showers in the high country mean snow and what better way to take in the views than a hike along the ridge-line.
Lagomarsino Canyon, NV
Been back from my Southwest trip since early March. I had so many photos that I wanted to post from that trip that it’s taken me all the way into May. Now, for some shots from other adventures on the West Coast. Towards the end of March we ventured into Nevada to look for the Lagomarsino Canyon near Virginia City. Over 2000 petroglyphs have been recorded. The site is believed to be over 10,000 years old.
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- Bring water
Tonto National Monument
The Southwest trip was ending and we drove the old Apache Trail (Hwy 188) to visit the Tonto National Monument. Here they have two cliff dwellings (one was closed) of the Salado people that lived in the Tonto Basin roughly 700 years ago. To get to the dwelling there is a steep path with switchbacks to get up the cliff. As I stood along the mouth of the entrance looking over the basin, I could only image how the people traveled throughout the area without modern conveniences.
Snapshots by Kats 