October 22, 2011 – Bodie Light

Earlier this month I was in one of my favorite California cities — Bodie, California. Okay, Bodie might not qualify as a city anymore, but there was a time when this was California’s Third Largest. Nowadays Bodie is a remote and very well preserved ghost town high up in the Eastern Sierra. This last visit was the day before the first winter storm came in. The autumn light was stunning. And while I love photographing Bodie, my real dream is to be an artist in residence up there for a spell so I could paint those old buildings day after day.

October 4, 2011 - Walker River

I did this piece along the Walker River in Toiyabe National Forest up in the Eastern Sierra. According to the calendar it’s fall. The mid-morning sun is low in the sky and I had to deal with the blinding glare off the river. It was warm and one could say, the last moment of summer. Later in the day I headed south down Route 395 to get out of the way of the first snowstorm of the season. As I drove south I could look towards the peaks of the Sierra and see the storm looming over the Tioga Pass and Mammoth Lakes. The Eastern Sierra is like California’s attic. It’s up there, a hidden quiet place full of treasure like Mono Lake, Bodie, Devils Postpile National Monument and the Walker River.

Below is a photo of today’s piece drying on rock along the river. Actually it dried very quickly in the mountain air.