I Am the Storm

2023 People's Choice Award Winner

Category: Large Print
Large Print Category

For over 4,000 years Mother Nature has thrown everything she had at this tree... Unbearable cold, blizzards, gale force winds, drought, searing heat, earthquakes, and unrepentant tourists, and The Guardian has weathered every storm, every threat, every challenge and endured.

This ancient bristlecone pine, situated with one other tree on the edge of a steep slope in the White Mountains has been the subject of countless photographs under a variety of conditions. I was here with a group for an astrophotography workshop, and although I am pleased with some of the images I captured later that night, this one is the one that stands out above all others.

During the last weekend in August, the daytime high temperatures - even at 9,000' elevation - were above 80° F, and at nearly 8 PM, still holding in the upper-60s, while Bishop and Big Pine in the Owens Valley below, roasted in the 90s and 100s. The heat of the valley combined with the cool air crossing the ridge tops above the Sierras to the west create interesting weather and clouds in the late afternoon, which seemed daunting initially, but cleared soon after sunset to allow for clear skies when it was time to capture the galactic core of the Milky Way above.

Monochrome Lone Pine Peek

Honorable Mention

Category: Black & White - Scenic

I know. It's a play on words using the homonym.

Mobius Arch in Alabama Hills is an oft chosen frame through which to view the Eastern Sierras, specifically Lone Pine Peak and Mount Whitney.

Whereas Mount Whitney is the tallest mountain in the contiguous 48 United States (14,505'), it is deeper in the Sierras than Lone Pine Peak (12,944'), and thus not as impressive from this vantage. In fact, Mount Irvine, the peak to the right of Lone Pine Peak in this image, which appears significantly lower, is actually taller than Lone Pine Peak by nearly 1000'!

This image was captured at first light, when the sun had not yet cleared the Panamint Range to the east. The indirect light created an ideal (IMHO) condition for a rare monochrome image of this feature.

Red Rimmed New Year's Morning

Category: Color Scenic Landscape (Winter)

For some that phrase would describe their eyes after a late night of partying and ringing in the New Year. For me on this first morning of the 20s, it meant first-light reaching Towers of the Virgin in Zion National Park.

Being a native East-Coaster, who has transplanted to life on the West Coast, I still feel that the New Year occurs when the crystal ball drops in New York, and that's the end. So, with the aide of staid Springdale, Utah, it was easy to get an early bedtime on New Years Eve so we could begin the trek to the Canyon Overlook Trail at 6:00 AM to catch first-light and sunrise from this vantage.

The trail is a relatively flat mile hike with a few tricky spots where the ice and slickrock conspire to give even the most sure-footed concern in the dark. Once we reached the overlook, I was a little concerned that our cold trek may have been for naught, due to the heavy cloud cover. Though they were thick overhead, there still was some clearing to the East, along the sun on the horizon to light a narrow band, reflecting off the cloud bottoms and warming the sheer rocks faces of the Temple of the Virgin ahead. This image was captured about 10-15 minutes before the local sunrise time, and is considerably brighter than what we saw with our eyes, due to the 20-second exposure.

Once the actual sun rays reached the Temple directly, the light only lit the areas seen here in red for less than 5 minutes before disappearing above the clouds for the remainder of the day.

Fiery Sunset after a Storm

Category: Large Print

Fire Canyon in Valley of Fire State Park, Nevada is a dramatic sandstone formation that showcases exactly where iron deposits seeped into the silica millennia ago, by an abrupt change from white to red. On this evening, the last throes of the sun shone right along that line of demarcation to illuminate the prominent snowcap of Virgin Peak below the clouds in the distance, while also showcasing the full moon above the clouds.

It was a blustery evening with temperatures in the low 50s and winds gusting to 30 kts, but it was a spectacular sight to behold, and true to Colorado Plateau form, within a week the high temperatures were forecast to be near 100°F.

Images of the World in Which We Live

2023 San Diego Fair Selections