Ray and I really enjoyed our hike up the San Joaquin Ridge trail. The weather has warmed up and it felt good to be out again. I was worried about trying my backpack out with everything I’ll be carrying in it. The SJ Ridge trail starts out at 9265′ and goes up about 1200′ in 2.25 miles. So I got a good test going up and coming down the 2.5 miles. I won’t say it was easy. It was actually the hardest day I’ve had hiking with my pack. But Tailwinds and Liz and I will be starting our backpack in four days at around 5,600′. And, the first day out we’ll be hitting the trail around noon and only hiking up into the Sierra about 5 miles. So, hopefully I’m good to go.

My friend Tailwinds arrives tomorrow. Her mate Fred is flying her into the Mammoth Airport around 8:30am. Fred is then going to take me up in his plane to get some shots of the Sierra. Unbelievable. Normally I’m very frightened to fly in a small plane, except flying with my brother who I trust completely. I hope I’m able to hold the camera steady through my fear.

Ray's getting good at taking photos. I wanted to show off my full pack weight backpack, with the NEW orange Big Agnes Fly Creek tent.

To see the tent….(i’m sure LR will be checking it out.)

View from the San Joaquin Ridge hike today.

This view of Ritter and Banner is for LR.

My hiking hubby.

After dinner in Mammoth I ran into this little girl and the bird she's had for two weeks.

Male Brewer's blackbird.

The Intimidator found some nice light just before the sun set.

This little guy hung out so quietly right behind me for longer than any birds hang out.

Hike over Mammoth Pass on down to Red's Meadow. Can you see Ray?

Click here to see a few more photos from hike.

And now for a few photos of our very hungry birds and squirrels that weren’t happy we were away so long today…..

Gluttony is this one's name.

And good old Intimidator.

Ray and I had a fun day with our Santa Barbara friends. After lunch we bought tickets and took the bus down to the Devil’s Postpile drop off.

We walked to Rainbow Falls, passing Devil’s Postpile, walking another 2 miles south to Rainbow Falls before cutting back up to Red’s Meadow Lodge where we took the bus back to our cars by the Mammoth Ski Mountain. parking area.

Here are a few photos from our day. To see more, click here.

Santa Barbara friends who came for the weekend to hear Ray speak Saturday night. Ray, John, Jeanie, Cindy, Laurie and PC in front.

Devil's Postpile

Rainbow Falls

The next four days I’ll be busy and not shooting much.

I went out the door twice today looking for a shot. This was all I could come up with. The geese are loving that the Palmer Golf Course is closed for reseeding. The workers spread the new seed and the geese eat it up.

Trying to get in close up on the geese is not easy. I’d move off to the right of the geese and they’d turn and move off left. Then I moved over to the left, ahead of the geese a bit, and the geese would turn and move back right. After a while I felt like a sheep herder, making small movements to see what it would take to get the geese to change direction. The geese were quite responsive to my small movements left and then right. I got bored with the shots I was getting and left them to their eating.

Geese in front of our home.

The transfer from one server to another is finally taking place. I’ve been asked to not post anything new until the move is completed.

Sad.

I won’t be posting for a couple of days. Just found out my sponsor will be speaking in the LA area at 3 different meetings over the weekend. Because she lives in Oakland and I don’t get to see her much I’m headed into LA tomorrow for a couple of nights.

Book stuff with Patricia, a massage, and fun opening a big box filled with lighting goodies from B&H.

It’s hard for me to stay focused. It’s a good thing Ray doesn’t video me as I go from one thing to the next. I’m surprised I don’t make myself dizzy.

Practicing flash with a snoot. Ray was a willing subject for about 20 minutes!

Brave me, I ventured out in the 110 degree heat at 7pm.

Trying to see and stay focused while seeing.

Tonight’s walk was different. I actually met a neighbor named Jerry. I spotted him off in the distance throwing a ball in the lake to one of his two dogs. I’d just decided I’d set my camera up for some action shots and thought photographing the dogs would be interesting. It was. I made my way over and found Jerry open to some chit chat. Jerry mentioned his dogs’ names probably a 100 times and I can’t remember their names because I was so focused on getting focus.

Playful subject.

Tireless dog.

Evening view 300 yards out my back door.

Found some light.

Where the land meets the water is what caught my eye.

Another sunset. Sorry Lane:-)

Morning pages (2, not 3 pages) got written before Margaret came over at 8:30am. No more intentions to write the morning pages. I’m back on the page.

One hour watching a webinar on monitor calibration from 12 – 1pm.

Brought in Carol’s photography travel suitcase I am considering buying and tried to figure out whether I will use this to store lighting equipment.

Stole a few minutes to shoot some high sync off camera flash with my 85mm f1.2mm L lens.
5d Mark ii camera settings: Manual, ISO 200, shutter 1/180 sec, f13. Circular Polarizer (did nothing as I wasn’t at a 90 degree angle to sun.)
580 EX II flash – Manual, 1/2 power, zoom 14mm.

Photo was shot at about 2pm where everything looked very washed out. To be able to shoot in full midday light using high speed flash is exciting.

So many things to remember to check. Now I need to nail down better focus. I had spot focusing on the tallest flowers but see I didn’t succeed. I’ve been using the 85mm lens just so I can get use to it. I find this lens difficult to focus. I really didn’t think I’d have trouble focusing with a f13 stop. Guess I need to figure out how much depth of field this 85 mm lens has at differing apertures.

I’m enjoying the process involving off camera high sync flash and happy I’m willing to learn from trial and error. Before I never would have posted a photo like the one below for others to see.

1pm off camera high sync flash practice outside the back door.

Not great light to shoot bunny in, but maybe the heavy cropping and vignetting will hopefully keep you from staining to locate bunny in the photo.

Bunny is back and drinking the water in the turtle pond.

I want free days. I live for free, unstructured days. When I get one, like today, I find myself STILL in my pjs, in front of my computer, living everyone else’s life online, feeling guilty and uninspired to get up and take the shower, I know will give me the motivation I don’t have now to get into MY day, back into MY life. 11:20am.