Eastern Sierras 01/26/23

In January, I was interested in photographing the Eastern Sierra Nevadas. There was plenty of snowfall and I thought it would create some stunning images. The two locations I wanted to capture were Convict Lake and Hot Creek. Originally I had thought I would get some beautiful reflection shots at Convict and some star trails near Hot Creekthis was at least the plan going into the weekend.

Once I arrived, I was blown away with the amount of snow that was in the area. I first went to Convict Lake to scout the location. Reflection shots I envisioned on the road trip down there were completely out of the question. The lake was completely frozen over… to the point where some courageous people were ice skating on the lake. Their attitude morphed mine, so I put my microspikes on my boots and walked across the lake to search for some images that would light up my imagination. As I walked across the ice, I looked at the textures on the ice to photograph. There were some textures that caught my eye and I snapped a couple images. After the scouting trip, I drove to the lodge I was staying at to get some rest and prep for the next day.

MT MORRISON

I woke up the next morning to beautiful blue skies. Mount Morrison is a mountain I also wanted to shoot for sunrise on my last day. I loaded up the car with my gear and snowshoes, once again to search the area for compositions. The area I was shooting Morrison at was close to the Hot Creek trailhead, but once again the snow posed as an issue. I did some test shots for Morrison and thought it would definitely be better if sunrise light would be hitting the mountain.

Around 3 o’clock, I started my trek to Brees Lookout, which is where Hot Creek is usually photographed. It was about a two to three mile hike in the snow; when there’s less snow, you can typically drive to the lookout point. This being my first time in the area, I had no idea where the composition was that I wanted to photograph. Turns out, I completely walked past Brees Lookout and photographed the creek in the opposite direction. As the sun set in the west, I was shooting east. It wasn’t the image I had originally wanted but I settled on it anyway.

Once it turned into the blue hour, I found the portion of the creek that I wanted to document. Instead of documenting it for star trails, I thought it was best for me to turn back; there was just too much snow and being alone out there, I didn’t think it was ideal. After getting in the car, discouraged and tired, I thought it would be best to try my luck at Convict Lake.

I arrived at Convict Lake around 9:30 PM and put my microspikes on to traverse the frozen lake. As I was walking the lake looking for those textures in the ice, the sound of water pockets kept ringing all around. Me being alone, I thought it would be a good idea not too walk across the lake like the day before. I walked closer to the shoreline I arrived from and  found a nice line of snow on the ice that led the eye to the mountains on the other side of the lake. It was a half-moon that night which helped with seeing but the moon was reflecting too much light on the lake's surface. So here I was, playing the waiting game with the moon.

At 11:15 PM the moon was finally out of shot enough to begin photographing the image. I created a 3 layer focus stack for the foreground which took about a minute and a half for each image. I set my camera to interval shooting and fled to the car to escape the frigid mountain air.

MELTDOWN

It was about 1 AM at this point. As I sat in my car, still cold, doubt crept into my mind. The wind was picking up, gusts of about 20 to 30 miles an hour. I feared that my camera and tripod was being blown to the other side of the lake! I jumped out of my car and went searching for the spot I set my camera. I couldn’t find it at first… now I was really freaking out. Luckily, as you can see from this shot, I just completely missed it in the dark. In this image, my headlamp and flashlight illuminate the lake as I try to find my camera.

After my short mental breakdown, I decided to keep the interval shooting going. It wasn’t until about 2 AM when I decided to call it quits. I went back to retrieve my gear and drive back to the lodge. The car’s temperature was reading -1 degrees outside and I couldn’t wait for a warm shower and a comfy bed. I should have just stayed up until sunrise - my adrenaline was pretty high - but I rested instead.

Cold As Ice.

First image is a 50 star stack to make it look as though comets are raining down from the skies. The second image is just one still of the timelapse with Orion’s Belt in the middle of the frame. And the third image is over 200 images compiled into a 2 hour long star trail.

Although I didn’t get the images I had originally planned, I was pretty content with what I captured. The star trails on Convict Lake were worth the trip and now I have a better idea for my next trip down to the Mammoth area. Until next time!