Fall Color From California's Eastern Sierra

16, 17, 18, 19 & 20 October 2024

How I Created These Images

Introduction

I made these photos on a trip I helped lead with Dave Wyman to California's Eastern Sierra. We'd love to have you on this year's tour.

This was a GREAT trip. It's the first time since our best-ever trip of 2019 that we had a full group; ever since COVID this trip had either been cancelled or not particularly promoted.

We were outside shooting from well before dawn until long after dark, shooting all day, every day. This wasn't a nerd-a-thon locked in a motel room fiddling on computers; we were outside hiking around the whole time.

Viewing top

Everyone's screens, from iPhones held vertically to computers with squinty 16:9 monitors, have different shapes. I can't make my differently-shaped shots fill everyone's screen at the same time.

On iPhone and iPad, everything changes size and gets bigger when you rotate from vertical to horizontal.

Click or tap any image to make it fit your screen. On Mac Safari, command ⌘ and + or - will change the size of the page or image, and command ⌘ + 0 brings it back to normal.

Turn up your screen brightness for best results.

These are 1,920 pixel-wide images; the originals are much higher resolution. These images will fill your screen horizontally, up to 1,920 pixels wide (3,840 pixels wide on Mac Retina displays). The vertical size will vary with each image.

Enjoy!

16 October 2024, Wednesday top

16, 17, 18, 19 & 20 October 2024 How I Created These Pictures

I left my house at 6:39 AM and headed to the Redwood Motel in Bridgeport, California. I stopped to take on fuel and eat my sandwich in Bishop, California from 1:30 to 2:00 PM.

Storm clouds appeared and I snapped this after I finished:

Brewing Storm, Bishop, California, 2:12 P.M. Apple iPhone 16 Pro Max 0.5× (2.2mm actual or 13mm eq.) camera at f/2.2 at 1/2,004 at Auto ISO 16 (LV 15.9), Skylum Luminar Neo software, split-toned print. More tech details. bigger or fit-to-screen.

I met Dave and Nina at the Bishop Paiute Gas Station, and followed them north. We were arriving a day early so we could check out all the locations before the group arrived tomorrow. I was nearly killed on 395 north of Bishop when a huge wooden assembly fell off a truck ahead of me, and thankfully due to paying attention and my insect-like reflexes I managed to steer around the rapidly-moving obstruction with only inches to spare — otherwise I'd be dead today. Don't ever take your eyes off the road to look at a touch screen; if my car had touch screens instead of dedicated buttons I could be dead right now.

It started to rain when we got to June Lake loop, and voilà, rainbows:

Rainbow Over Grant Lake, California, 3:42 P.M. Canon R5 II, Nikon 77mm Circular Polarizer II hand-held in front of my RF 24-240mm IS USM at 44mm at f/7.1 at ¹/₁₂₅ at Auto ISO 100 (LV 12.6), Skylum Luminar Neo software. More tech details. bigger or fit-to-screen.

Polarizers help emphasize rainbows. I don't worry about adapter rings or buying more polarizers to fit the 72mm filter threads of my RF 24-240mm IS USM; I simply hold my Nikon 77mm Circular Polarizer II over smaller lenses and all is well.

We went to the Whoa Nellie Deli at the Lee Vining Mobil Station, the best restaurant for a hundred miles, and had dinner. As we ate, these colors came over Mono Lake:

Mono Lake and The Mobil Station at Sunset, Lee Vining, California, 6:22 P.M. Canon R5 II, RF 24-240mm IS USM at 79mm at f/5.6 handheld at ¹/₂₅ at Auto ISO 200 (LV 8.6), Skylum Luminar Neo and Radiant Photo software. More tech details. bigger or fit-to-screen.

Negit Island at Sunset, Lee Vining, California, 6:23 P.M. Canon R5 II, RF 24-240mm IS USM at 157mm at f/6.3 handheld at ¹/₅₀ at Auto ISO 640 (LV 8⅓), Skylum Luminar Neo and Radiant Photo software. More tech details. bigger or fit-to-screen.

After eating we we stopped at Conway Summit on the way to Bridgeport:

Conway Summit Under Moonlight, Lee Vining, California, 7:06 P.M. Apple iPhone 16 Pro Max 1.5× (6.8mm actual or 35mm eq.) camera at f/1.8 at 1 second at Auto ISO 640 (LV minus 0.7), free Snapseed app in-phone, Radiant Photo software. More tech details. bigger or fit-to-screen.

I think I used my Oben CT-2491 Carbon-Fibre Tripod, Oben GH3W-15 Geared Head and Oben SPA-1000 iPhone adapter for this shot. It lets the iPhone make longer exposures in the dark for cleaner results — or maybe I handheld it. I forget; it looks great either way.

I deliberately waited to tap the shutter until a truck glided by so I could get the red and yellow lines above, as well as light on the well-stickered guard rail.

We continued to Bridgeport and checked in. I got room 15 again 😊!

Redwood Motel Rooms 14 and 15 Under Moonlight, Bridgeport, California, 7:51 P.M. Apple iPhone 16 Pro Max 1× (6.8mm actual or 24mm eq.) camera at f/1.8 at ¹/₄₀ at Auto ISO 800 (LV 4.0), Radiant Photo software. More tech details. bigger or fit-to-screen.

I noticed the moon over the REDWOOD MOTEL sign as we pulled in. I dragged out my Oben CT-2491 Carbon-Fibre Tripod with my Oben GH3W-15 Geared Head so I could shoot this at a very low ISO with my R5 II:

Redwood Motel Under Moonlight, Bridgeport, California, 8:03 P.M. Canon R5 II, RF 24-240mm IS USM at 24mm at f/8 for 30 seconds at Auto ISO 200 (LV 0.0), Radiant Photo and Skylum Luminar Neo software, perspective correction in Photoshop CC. More tech details. bigger or fit-to-screen.

I should have used one minute at ISO 100, but I was too lazy to trek back to my room to find my remote cord or to twiddle with the Bulb Timer out in the rain, so I let Auto ISO set itself to ISO 200 rather than trying to figure it all out manually as the scene changed by the moment. I chose f/8 so I could get sunstars and a reasonable exposure time.

All in all, not a bad bunch of shots for us cheating and showing up a day early to our own workshop.

17 October 2024, Thursday top

16, 17, 18, 19 & 20 October 2024 How I Created These Pictures

We rolled out at our leisure since we saw overcast at dawn, and when we did get out we saw inversion fog over the Bridgeport Reservoir!

Inversion Fog Over the Bridgeport Reservoir, Bridgeport, California, 8:49 A.M. Square crop from Canon R5 II, RF 24-240mm IS USM at 100mm at f/13 at ¹/₁₂₅ at Auto ISO 100 (LV 14.4), Skylum Luminar Neo and Radiant Photo software. More tech details. bigger or fit-to-screen.

We poked around the reservoir, and popped back to Bridgeport. Honestly in decades of coming here, we'd never poked around Bridgeport, and we discovered the area around the Mono County Museum:

Mono County Museum, Bridgeport, California, 10:09 A.M. Canon R5 II, RF 10-20mm f/4 L IS USM at 12mm at f/10 at ¹/₄₀₀ at Auto ISO 100 (LV 15¼), Radiant Photo software. More tech details. bigger/fit-to-screen or camera-original 45 MP © JPG Quality 1 file.

We had lunch at the unusually good The Barn food stand, checked out the Hunewill Ranch and then relaxed until the rest of our group arrived around 3 PM.

Once everyone arrived, we headed out to the Chemung Mine, north of which I saw some great storm clouds:

Storm Brewing North of the Bridgeport Reservoir, Bridgeport, California, 4:56 P.M. Canon R5 II, RF 24-240mm IS USM at 105mm at f/8 at ¹/₂₅₀ at Auto ISO 100 (LV 14.0), Skylum Luminar Neo software. More tech details. bigger or fit-to-screen.

We walked to Rhino's for dinner as we usually do. Unlike in 2019, nothing changed.

18 October 2024, Friday top

16, 17, 18, 19 & 20 October 2024 How I Created These Pictures

Since forecasts predicted today to be the coldest morning of our trip, we met and headed out for Conway Summit at 6:45 A.M. It was about 20ºF (-7ºC).

Morning Dew on Blue Car at Dawn, Conway Summit, Lee Vining, California, 7:10 A.M. Canon R5 II, RF 200-800mm IS USM at 288mm at f/7.1 hand-held at ¹/₈₀at Auto ISO 100 LV 12). More tech details. bigger or fit-to-screen.

Sunrise Over Mono Lake as Seen From Conway Summit, Lee Vining, California, 7:20 A.M. Canon R5 II, RF 24-240mm IS USM at 240mm at f/11 at ¹/_1,000 at Auto ISO 100, -1 stop exposure compensation (LV 17.0). More tech details. bigger or fit-to-screen.

Our group enjoyed breakfast at the Whoa Nellie Deli at the Lee Vining Mobil Station, then headed out to explore along Lee Vining Canyon and June Lake Loop:

Fall Color, Silver Lake, California, 12:51 P.M. Canon EOS R5 II, RF 24-240mm IS USM at 24mm at f/22 for a sunstar at ¹/₅₀ at Auto ISO 100, -0.7 stops exposure compensation (LV 14.6), colors fortified in Skylum Luminar Neo and Radiant Photo software. bigger or fit-to-screen.

We came back and rested for about 15 minutes at the motel, then headed out to Little Walker River for sunset.

Later in Bridgeport out by the Hunewill Ranch we looked for the Comet C/2023 A3 Tsuchinshan-ATLAS. It was history, dim and boring and took us forever to find it. This highlights how useless is news media and how useless are astro apps. No source gave us what we needed, which was a day-by-day guide to how bright and where the comet would be. All the news articles I read cluelessly just gave a general idea, but nothing specific by day (it moves significantly every day), and my astro apps never highlighted the comet in their assisted reality views. Waste of time!

We broke for dinner at The Bridgeport Inn.

I set my alarm for 5AM tomorrow and hit the sack.

19 October 2024, Saturday top

16, 17, 18, 19 & 20 October 2024 How I Created These Pictures

The forecasts were a little off; today was the coldest at 16ºF (-9ºC) when we got up 🥶.

Here's a tree and the constellation Orion as seen right outside my room at 5:45 A.M.:

The Constellation Orion and Tree Before Dawn, Redwood Motel, Bridgeport, California, 5:46 A.M. Apple iPhone 16 Pro Max 1× (6.8mm actual or 24mm eq.) camera at f/1.8 handheld at ¹/₂ second at Auto ISO 5,000 (LV minus 2¾), Skylum Luminar Neo and Radiant Photo software. More tech details. bigger or fit-to-screen.

Oh man, I love how I can take grab shots handheld by moonlight. As a kid with Kodachrome II at ASA 25 and its strong reciprocity failure, even with a tripod shots like this were nearly impossible.

We rolled out from the motel at 6 AM and headed towards South Tufa.

We arrived at the parking area at 6:45 AM and waited in our heated cars until about 7AM before walking down to the tufa. The sun started to peek over the mountains to our east at 7:23 A.M.

Moonset Behind Tufa at Sunrise, South Tufa, Mono Lake, California, 7:26 A.M. Canon EOS R5 II in 4:5 crop mode, RF 24-240mm IS USM at 42mm at f/16 at ¹/₆₀ at Auto ISO 100, -0.3 stops exposure compensation (LV 14.0), colors fortified in Skylum Luminar Neo software. bigger or fit-to-screen.

I used f/16 for depth-of-field, not realizing until after I returned from my trip and read the 1,200-page manual that my new EOS R5 II easily does focus bracketing and compositing in-camera, even for hand-held shots.

I composited a bigger, better moon from Pacific Beach on 15 October 2024 in Photoshop CC, which was a waxing gibbous the same shape as the waning gibbous today. I also rotated the better moon image to match the orientation of the real one. Usually I select and enlarge the actual moon in the image, but recalling how I had a much better one the same shape from the week before, went with it to make this a much more accurate rendition, meaning this work captures the feeling of the moment much better than the straight image - knowing that no one will ever know I embellished the moon 😁.

We drove up Lundy Lake Road. The road was washed out halfway up, so the group walked the rest of the way up to the lake.

We then went to Bodie:

Bodie Mercantile, Bodie, California, 2:45 P.M. Canon EOS R5 II and RF 10-20mm f/4 L IS STM at 17mm at f/16 handheld against a window for 0.8 seconds at Auto ISO 100, -0.7 stops exposure compensation (LV 8.4), perked up with Radiant Photo and Skylum Luminar Neo software, perspective correction in Photoshop CC. bigger or full-resolution 45 MP © 6.2 MB JPG file.

I used f/16 for depth of field, but if I had realized my new EOS R5 II easily can do focus stacking and compositing all in-camera automatically, even handheld, I would have used that mode at about f/8 for much sharper results with both deeper depth of field and less diffraction. Don't get too excited; this is shot through a dirty old ghost town window.

Interior of Orange House, Bodie, California, 2:59 P.M. Canon EOS R5 II and RF 10-20mm f/4 L IS STM at 10mm at f/11 handheld against a wobbly window frame for 0.8 seconds at Auto ISO 100, -0.7 stops exposure compensation (LV 7.4), perked up with Radiant Photo software. bigger or full-resolution 45 MP © 7.5 MB JPG file.

Again I used f/11 for depth of field, not realizing that my new EOS R5 II does focus stacking and compositing in-camera automatically, even handheld. I would have used about f/8 for sharper results with deeper depth of field.

We headed back to our motel in Bridgeport, relaxed for a whole half an hour and then headed out to the ranchlands past town for sunset.

Later we headed south for dinner at the Virginia Creek Settlement for our final dinner together for this trip:

Virginia Creek Settlement at Night, Bridgeport, California, 6:48 P.M. Apple iPhone 16 Pro Max 1× (6.8mm actual or 24mm eq.) camera at f/1.8 at ¹/₄₀ at Auto ISO 320 (LV 5.3), Radiant Photo software with perspective correction in Photoshop CC. More tech details. bigger or fit-to-screen.

This scene has very difficult lighting from big light sources like the VIRGINIA CREEK sign and bare neon to dim starlight at the bottom. Normal cameras like my R5 II rarely can handle huge variations in light like this (I'll admit I didn't try the R5 II's handheld HDR mode), and the results from my R5 II were awful due to the huge lighting range, while my iPhone 16 Pro Max just got the shot above as it always does.

After we returned I went walking around town by myself:

Silver Maple Motel, Bridgeport, California, 9:01 P.M. Canon R5 II and RF 28-70mm f/2.8 IS STM at 32 mm wide-open at f/2.8 hand-held at ¹/₈ of a second at Auto ISO 400 (LV 4.0), perked up in Radiant Photo software. More tech details. bigger or fit-to-screen.

20 October 2024, Sunday top

16, 17, 18, 19 & 20 October 2024 How I Created These Pictures

I was up about 6:45 A.M. We headed out for the hot springs at 7:30 A.M.:

Evolution, Travertine Hot Springs, Bridgeport, California, 7:52 A.M. Canon EOS R5 II, RF 24-240mm IS USM at 87mm at f/6.3 at ¹/₁₂₅ at Auto ISO 100 (LV 12.4). bigger or fit-to-screen.

I used a curves adjustment layer in Photoshop CC to silhouette my friends and make the sky purer in color.

We returned to Bridgeport and enjoyed breakfast together at The Bridgeport Inn starting at 8:30 A.M.

We returned to the motel, checked out and I headed home at 10:45 A.M. I stopped in Bishop for fuel and goodies at Schat's Bakkerÿ and arrived home at 9 PM, 10 hours,11 minutes and 52.99 seconds after leaving Bridgeport and 110 hours, 23 minutes and 10 seconds after I had left home a few days before.

It was a wonderful trip; everyone had a great time!

Whew! That's it; thanks for reading!

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