Author: jingmin

Dual Milkweed Trees, Santa Cruz Island, Channel Islands National Park

Santa Cruz island features many milkweed trees, a specific plant that provide food source for larva of the famous migrating monarch butterfly. We didn’t find any monarch butterfly on those trees on the island. Nevertheless, the trees were a wonderful subject to photograph on black and white film, just like oak trees.

These two milkweed trees were at the edge of a campground on the island. When passing by them, we were attracted by the shape of the trees with their far-reaching branches and bare barks. We set up our Intrepid 4×5 large format camera, and captured this photo on a sheet of Fomapan 400 film. We positioned the tree in the front and let it play a dominant role in the frame. The tree in the back, while smaller, provides a sense of depth and balances the weight in the frame. At a small aperture of f/32, both trees retain the sharpness we wanted.

Fall colors of an aspen forest, Inyo National Forest, Eastern Sierra

We love the fall season! Mother Nature brings us so many wonderful colors each year during this period. In California, Eastern Sierra is one of the most popular destinations to observe fall colors. Melting ice water from the top of Sierra mountains create many creeks here. These creeks provide valuable water source to many aspen forests, which changed color seasonly. We had been to this region many times in the past, and every time there were new surprises, even at the same locations.

In a late afternoon of early October, we arrived at Conway Summit, a popular scenic viewpoint alone high 395 in Eastern Sierra. Alone the hill, some aspen forest was near the peak of fall colors. Several years ago, we captured some memorable pictures here after the peak. This year, it was a mix of green, yellow, and orange. It was even more impressive than pure yellow.

Season’s finale, Inyo National Forest near Lake Sabrina, Eastern Sierra

On October 9th, after a crowded sunrise at North Lake, we headed to the nearby Lake Sabrina. Each autumn, this is one of the earliest places in Eastern Sierra to appreciate the brilliant fall colors due to its high elevation. This year, we were right on time to capture the moment.

Lake Sabrina is a small lake at the foot of several beautiful alpa peaks created by a dam. Walking on the top of the dam, the bright orange color of a few aspen trees on the east side of the lake caught our eyes. By the time, these trees were still in the shade of the mountains. The soft light brought out the best colors of the trees.

Young Oak Tree in Smoke, Yosemite National Park

We walked around El Capitan meadow in an early morning of November when it was filled by thin smoke from controlled burn. Unlike fog, the smoke had slight blue hue, which would make any warm colored objects stand out from the background. When passing by this young oak tree next to the bank of Merced River, we knew we have found our subject. Because the smoke was thin, the forest on the other side of the river was barely visible and lack of distracting clarity. It provided the perfect context we wanted. There was not any wind in that morning. Thus, we could capture super sharp image of leaves of this oak tree with a relative long exposure. It was a lucky moment when all conditions of a perfect exposure came together.

First impression of Santa Cruz Island on film

This is our second time to visit Santa Cruz Island, the largest island of Channel Islands National Park. A few years ago, we planned to visit Anacapa Island. However, strong wind forced us to change the plan, and we ended up on Santa Cruz Island instead. It was a short tour of only a few hours. This year, we decided to camp on the island for two nights and explore it more throughly.

By the sunset of our second night, we were on the west side hill next to the boat landing dock. It offered a beautiful view of the sea stacks near the dock. We set up our Intrepid 4×5 camera, and made a 15 second long exposure of this view on a sheet of Kodak TMAX 100 black and white film.