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South Lake and Aspens

Posted on December 2, 2010 by Panikos under Uncategorized

We made the journey up to South Lake, which is just west of Bishop, while it was still dark so that we could be there for sunrise. What a peaceful and tranquil place that was! All that could be heard every few minutes was the splash of fish in the water as they leapt up to catch an insect or two, or the bait from the fishermen. It was overcast, but slowly it got brighter. The sun barely made an appearance though, just a brief glimpse of it behind the clouds lit up just the peaks of the mountains ahead of us, giving us this view for a few brief seconds. This is real “action” landscape photography!

Just a few minutes later though, after the sun had risen and a few of the clouds had parted letting the blue sky shine through, this is a reflection of the same view, with some Aspen leaves in the foreground as they began to take on their autumn colours.

Across the other side of the lake, there was a man patiently fishing, with his bright blue and red outfit standing out against the green surroundings. Can you spot him in the next photo?

I returned to the same area two days later, and the change in the colours of the Aspens was surprising, gone were the greens and light yellows as you can see in the photos above, and in came the orange and red hues so characteristic of these stunning mountainsides. What a change in just 48 hours! The snow had started falling and the streams flowing much more purposefully. Here are a few of my favourite shots:

The snow was falling quite heavily at the time I took the last shot. It may look like mist in the background, but it was a biting cold wind bringing with it some of the first snows of winter in that area.

As I drove down towards Death Valley I saw the ambient air temperatrue on the display in my car change from 32F near South Lake at around 7,000 feet, to 96F around 5 hours later in Badwater in Death Valley which was about 200 feet below sea level! What a contrast! En route though the scenery didn’t stop impressing me. What do you make of these images?

This last photo in particular has a surreal feel to it. The mountains having just been sprinkled with fresh snow have taken on an almost metallic appearance, with the flat land in the foreground having a violet hue, it almost didn’t look real!

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