Convict Lake, high sierras Kodak DX3700, 37mm fixed retinar lens

About 36 miles South on Hiway 395 from Eastern Yosemite Exit. Approx 8100 ft above sea level. Comments or suggestions welcome. At the time of this photo a wild ferrell female pig came crashing through the scrub brush headed for the water not more than 20 feet from me here. I thought it sounded like a tractor coming through the brush until I saw her. Probably over 400 lbs easily. Left over from an Old Jail up on this Lake. Early October. Gary N W

That is a beautiful image, Gary. I know it is a cliche to say America is beautiful, but you really can't appreciate the beauty of it until you have driven or hiked some of the highways and trails among the different States. I haven't checked out the high Sierras yet but I hope to do so someday. Thanks for sharing.

Hi Lorenzo,

Thanks for your very nice comments. You are very well describing the situation in your message. I have hiked and walked these areas as high as 14,500 ft above sea level @ Mount Whitney. And I have hiked short distances in the Death Valley during the early summer. You are totally correct there are as few places as beautiful as the sierras mountain range in California and Nevada.
Your images fascinate me from your locale in Southern and Central Americas.

Please do keep your fine images coming with the really interesting discussion accompanying them.

Warm regards, Gary N W

Indeed, as Lorenzo said, that's one beautiful image. By golly, you certainly live amongst magnificent surroundings, Gary. I just looked up the DX3700 camera on the database here and see it predates my first digicam which was the Kodak DC3200 with one point something Mpixels and a fixed-focus lens.

Btw, do you take oxygen with you when you climb those heights? LOL. And I've read about Death Valley.....not my scene! Have you any pics from that locale because if you do, I'd really love to see them.

Salutations, Bertie.

I think the Trinity Alps holds up well against the Sierra. The Alps have plenty of white granite too. The Klamath mountains has the greatest biodiversity on the planet and the Trinities is a small part of them. I have longtreked into the Minarets and did Yosemite Valley on the same trip in '86. Here are some 6x9 Velvia slides that I quick copied long ago with the P880 on a Gitzo mountaineer tripod over a lightbox of the Alps.
Rock at Canyon Creek Trailhead



Ward Lake



East Weaver Lake



All taken on a 9 LB. Bogen tripod 1, 10, 2 miles respectively from car, No filters. the line across the slides is the plastic protecting the slide.
--
Robert

How about the Warner mountains



The Coast? ... LadyBird Johnson Grove near Patricks Point. Mamiya Super 6x9 w/tiltback.



Thats all for now but I have thousands more to copy from a long list of North Norcal locations several hundred at least. Would like to see more of your Sierra work like off trail in wilderness Gary maybe some of your larger film format work. I drove by Convict Lake coming back from Vegas but did not take the June Loop road. Cheers.
--
Robert

Hi Bertie,

Nice to have you view my images. But I better be careful with my Oxymorons for sure. (smiling). To answer you I have had altitude sickness from time to time and it is no fun. I have had it actually bother me a lot just up to 8400 ft above sea level. Luckily they have really good medical stations up that way for just such problems. Usually a shot of oxygen will turn things around until we acclimate to the altitude.

And yes I have many images on top of Mount Whitney but all with slide film which I have yet to convert over to DVD's. I have a BluRay recorder but no fast way to read like 20k such slides onto my computer.

Honestly Bertie I do not know where you live but photography in Death Valley is one of the most exciting adventures you will ever have. On top of that I believe there are colors there that probably do not have equals anywhere else on earth. I often have stayed in a very nice Hotel there, too. Of course you can stay at Scotty's Castle but the rooms there are very sparse and they have brackish water for the showers and bathing in general.

Always fun to here from you Bertie. Thx, Gary N W

Hello Robert,

Those are some lovely scenics for sure and thx for sharing them with me. I am familiar with the Trinity Alps. My family comes from Redding area. I inherited 82 acres up there on the North side leaving Redding on the Hiway 5.

For me I just have migrated to the High Sierras that is where I love to be most of all. Here in San Francisco I live at the beach West of the GG Bridge. I love it here, too and we spend most of our time walking and eating at different restaurants along our beaches.

I have many many slides, some of Hasselblad and the rest the old timer Canon FTB.

Take Care, Gary N W

Hi again Robert,

I enjoy these slide images very much, too. Thx again for sharing.

My problem is that I have over 20k slides of the mountains and even some of my property in No. Redding area.

I have hiked the John Muir Trail but it took me in increments of 4-5 years mainly because I could not get enough time off and it is super rugged up that way. While my general health is ok I have had a bout of cancer treated @ Stanford here and that has made my ability to adjust to the altitude alittle slower. Usually it takes me a few days to adjust though and I get ok. I am very familiar with the June Lake Loop but I usually stay at Mammoth Mountain Resorts for convenience and comfort. Neither of us are Campers per se.

As I mentioned to Bertie I DO have a fairly new BluRay Recorder but my problem is how to feed them into my computer fast enough? It could take me a lifetime to do it this way. I guess I will have to find a place that I am sure will do a nice job and be ready to part with $300 to $500 to get them done nicely.

Keep you fine images coming.

Take Care, Gary N W

Gary, sorry we got off to a bad start but if you are a scientist by nature then your defense of your grasp of things in your post makes perfect sense. I understand that you must be absolutely sure of your convictions and project a firm will in defense of them.

Me I took 2 yrs. electronics and then 2 yrs of music major playing classical guitar and got my A.A. degree after taking 140 units total at Shasta College and did not progress from there to a career being something of a Shasta County homeboy since '58. I was almost born near Crater Lake high up in the woods in a small camper in '55 when my Dad worked for Oregons highway maintenance before starting at CalTrans.

So I have no claim to fame particularly my sister is a doctor, family practice and all siblings have far exceeded me in their career pursuits but I keep on keeping on for some reason!
--
Robert

Hi Robert,

It is nice to hear from you. No problems btw us so far as I am concerned. I started out as a manufacturing Engr for a large hard disk drive company. I traveled all over Asia and Europe where our company had manufacturing done for us or by contract from others. Believe me you would not believe all the parts that go into a computer hard drive. I know it to be truth that where you have something manufactured and assembled makes a huge difference. Some are outright telling me that M. China is now the Japan of Asia in manufacturing. Let me assure you Robert this is all baloney. There are some wonderful mfg plants in China but I have seen bathtubs being used for plating of aluminum memory disks there in China. Workers are so beyond poor and work such long hours in truly horrible conditions. Often many look like they are way underage working 12 hours a day and sometimes two shifts the same day.

It makes me sad to see what I have personally seen. On the other hand some wonderful cameras are mfd there in M. China but with unreasonably high reject rates. I have said that great manufacturers of digicams are from S. Korea and Thailand and Japan. They have more of a pride of workmanship in those countries.

Others think I am nuts but I have spent almost 1/4th of my adult working life in Asia including Indonesia too.

You see I always made time to visit known camera manufacturers wherever I was visiting if my time permitted.

My very first job was helping to develop sensors for digital cameras and other devices needing similar such sensors. I worked as part of a design team for 4 years before I moved on and stayed with the hard drive manufacturer.

But heck you seem to be doing well and you seem happy and I think you have progressed very very well with your enjoyment of photography obvious from some of your examples.

Stay happy and keep posting those nice images. My opinion is that you are doing just fine.

Gary N W

Gary I totally relate to your viewpoint about manufacturing but I have no personal experience myself other than all that I have read of China and I am inclined to give creedance to your POV. However since most of the design work on DC's comes from Japan and the machines that make the component parts as well, it seems that final assembly might not be as critical and a reason why it doesn't matter as much to people who have not worked as closely in a similar field like you and most of these people seem to buy new cameras each year anyway.

Other than my endless reading of rarefied engineering discussion on DPR and lots of articles about chinese production elsewhere, I can't really shed light on the conflict of your position over the others posting here but I don't doubt your having acquired the experiences you have had there or your personal convictions expressed in discussion.

My P880 was made in Korea which makes me feel a little better but am amazed at my luck with my first digital camera to have lasted this long anyway! I could just as likely have bought the Fuji you did but for my wideangle preferences I went Kodak. Funny using my camera more than the Pentax 645 system I had after the Mamiya Press and before I went Large Format.

I have read most of your posts here so no need to repeat for my benefit. I read your Fuji postings on the subject as well!.
--
Robert the Redding Owl

We made nine trips to Palo Alto before & after my wife's gastric bypass surgery at Stanford and I walked around alot, but don't remember the Oncology Dept, maybe 8 years ago it was. You must be near to Ansel Adam's childhood home where you are though it is on the ocean side around the bend from the GG.

It must have been very hard for you the last 4 years to get through your treatments. I hope you get back up to the Alpen glow again ...you know the golden hour or golden owl as my wife & I call it but most of all to get back to making images which I need to do myself!

Oh and how about that Shadow lake or Ediza, Garnet, Ruby and Thousand Island all of which I have Big slides of!
--
Robert

Hello Robert,

Yes we live not far from there. In fact I was stationed at the Presidio of SF many long years ago. Loved the area and luckily bought here around 1964. Still enjoy it here very much.

The Stanford Oncology Center is just off of Louis Pasteur Drive. Two surgeries and radiation 8 weeks x 5 days per week one year ago have left me exhausted still. But still breathing and that is what really matters.

Glad your wife is doing well along with you way up your way.

Best, Gary N W

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/01/20/BAGDSGQD161.DTL

Wow sounds like you are a decade older than me so kudos to you for getting up in the high God's Country not long ago even if only for day hiking. I have climbed Lassen Peak but not Shasta or Mt Whitney. my highest camp besides the Minarets was on top of Mt. Eddy in Siskiyou Co. straight across from Shasta at 9100 feet.

My last serious backpack was in 2000. I managed to fall backwards over a creek cliff 30 feet to the granite floor with one bounce off my gear on the rock face while solo with full pack. I had to walk out from there high off the flank of the magnificent Sawtooth Mtn., injured, some 10+ miles and 12,000 vertical feet up & down to get back to the car starving for a burger and have not been backpacking since then! Can you blame me!
--
Robert

That's a nice landscape Gary, however the slanted of picture make me uncomfortable.
--
chiue -

Gary, we drove thru Death Valley coming back from Vegas but didn't stop or take pictures. Can you believe it?!. She who must be obeyed did have us stop for a smoothie at an interesting rustic driveby restaurant just before the overheating steep grade to climb up out of DV and back to highway 395.
--
Robert

Hi Chiue,

You are very right. I just did not want to start messing around in the photoeditor before I released it. Please know that I respect your opinion always and next image I will try to prevent the crooked image.

Stay well and happy, Gary N W

Not at all do I blame you Robert. I have had some bad falls while hiking but nothing that severe. I have hiked Lassen and Shasta Peak but say like 14 years ago. I know exactly what you mean by "Always count YOUR Blessings", too.

The main thing is that you are well now and hopefully much better and I must say much wiser for the experience.

I am glad you are still getting around and enjoying your scenery up your way. As for me I still hike but cautiously and usually alone. The highest peak I ever truly hiked up was Mt Whitney. Also went up one time to Lassen with my wife and we hiked in reasonable weather though chilly. When we reached the top all of a sudden it started snowing and an ranger with a pickup asked us if we could use a ride back down the hill. hahahahaha We said YES because we were not dressed nor did we expect snow. Unfortunately all those images are on slides too.

Stay in touch and keep those cards and images coming here.

Thanks for sharing your experiences with me,

Gary N W

Hey Gary, I didn't realize they could drive up to the top of the peak now tho I have heard that they did some renovations up there. Do they drive up the backside? This is how I get around but it is in need of minor repair so I just have not got a start this year on photo adventures.

This shot is halfway up the South Fork Mtn. lookout road in Whiskeytown N.R.A. on P880.



A view from the top of the lookout at Iron Mtn. Mine



--
Robert