American River Canyon

Several weeks ago Kaela and I grabbed Obee and headed for the hills to get a day away from the city. Our first stop was the ridge overlooking the North Fork of the American River just below Lake Clementine.

Recently I purchased an adapter ring which allows me to use my old Canon bellows on my new camera. For macro work I use my old 50MM Canon lens with a reversing ring so the lens is attached backwards on the front of the bellows. This allows me to access the levers to set the F stop for control of the depth of field. It has been several years since I shot film with my old Canon F1 and I forgot how to release the stop lever. My first attempts at macro with the new setup suffer from a narrow depth of field due to a nearly wide open aperture. I have since figured out the trick to unlock the lever so things will improve in the future.

The florets in this, the first of three macro photos, are each about the size of the head of a pin.

To give a demonstration of scale - one of the pink flowers and the leaves can be seen at the tip of my boot.

Kaela caught me getting the shot with her iPod

Another small flower shot without the bellows.

Manzanita flowers.

No photo shoot is complete without at least one old rusty thing!

Soon we find ourselves on the ridge over the Middle Fork of the American River - the river lies far below.

Looking west - downstream - through the canyon.

Looking east towards the Sierra Nevada and our destination - Placer Big Trees to sit beneath a giant Sequoia or that snow in the distance, whichever comes first.

A couple of shots of the road twisting down into the canyon.

Nearing the bottom of the canyon we get a good view of an oxbow in the river.

The bridge over the North Branch of the Middle Fork of the American River.

Downstream from the bridge.

The river washes over veins of quartz below the bridge.

Next we head up the road on the south side of the canyon, back up to the next ridge.

Along the south side.

Over the ridge and down into the next canyon we find Ralston Reservoir

and the dam at the reservoir

An eagle soars above a ridge over Ralston.

Ridgetop trees silhouetted against broken clouds.

Several years ago a fire raged through the area leaving many trees skeletons.

Finally we reach the snow and a closed road about 5 miles short of our destination.

Obee had much more fun tossing his ball into the snow then digging it back out...

than in actually bringing it back to us.

Sculpted by wind, rain and warm temperatures a snow face looks over the forest.

We get one last look of the canyon as we return at the end of the day.

New Camera!

I finally was able to get my dream camera - Canon EOS T2i, 18 megapixel digital SLR with 18-55mm and 55-250mm image stabilized zoom lenses. Here are some of the first test shots along with a few artsy things derived from photos with the camera. Due to the huge 11-12MB sizes of the files I've had to reduce their sizes to facilitate uploading in a timely manner.

 

 Renaissance Tower 

Sacramento's first high-rise office building.

Lens at 28mm, building 2 blocks away

Closeup of the Renaissance Tower 

Shot from the same location, lens at 250mm

Color saturation and contrast have been adjusted.

 

Another closeup - same specs as above.

Balconies at the Citizen's Hotel

(Hotel photos various lens settings, 1 block away)

 

Details of the Citizen's Hotel.

(Cables are for earthquake protection)

Fire escape at the Citizen's Hotel

(Built in 1926, at 14 stories tall this was one of the tallest buildings before the Renaissance Tower)

Railing at the new City Hall

 

Bridge at confluence of the North and Middle forks of the American River

Foresthill Bridge over the North Fork American River

(This bridge was built in anticipation of the Auburn Dam.

Discovery of numerous earthquake faults at the dam site stop construction of the dam.)

Mushrooms in Libby's lawn

Horns at the Santa parade

(This and the following pictures were taken from the second floor of the parking garage at 11th and I streets. The garage is reflected in the horns. Subjects were approximately 75feet away.)

Rin's new van.

Old Slides

The following is collection of photos from 1976 - 1982. All were scanned from the original Kodachrome 64 35mm slides. Except as noted, all photos were taken with a Canon F1 35mm SLR camera with a Canon 50-135mm zoom lens. The Contax 3A camera noted here is a split image range finder type, circa 1948. This was my first 35mm camera and one of my favorites. It was stolen in a home break-in.
Since these slides were old and difficult to scan because they were no longer perfectly flat, the image quality suffers upon enlargement, but I felt they were worth putting up anyway.

The Mission Market fire. This building was to open the following day as a huge indoor flea market. By the time the fire was done only the exterior air conditioning ducts remained standing. The concrete block walls had all collapsed.


Lighthouse at the north headlands of the Golden Gate.
[Contax 3A, Zeiss 50mm lens]

Golden Gate.
[Contax 3A, Zeiss 50mm lens]

This one's for Agent 99 - wildflowers along Hwy 20 near Clearlake, CA.


Seedling growing out of stump.
[Canon F1, 400mm lens]

In 1982 several friends and I set out across the deserts east of Bakersfield...


as I returned to the Grand Canyon.
In 1976, on our way to California, my girlfriend at the time and I spent four days hiking from the rim where this photo was taken to the opposite rim, emerging during a blizzard at the higher land to the left of center in the background. The trail winds down the cliff then out onto the flat area in the foreground. From there it winds down the wash to the right of the point and down to the river below. After crossing the Colorado River it runs up along Bright Angel Creek in the large side canyon running from near center and off into the distance angling slightly to the left. The Colorado itself runs right to left, hidden in the canyon which lies in the foreground cloud shadow.


The trail Sally and I took in '76 on the way down to the river.


Leaving the Grand Canyon, heading towards Pariah Canyon, we pass the Little Grand Canyon.


Petrified sand dunes frame the entrance to Pariah Canyon in southeast Utah.

Another view of the petrified sand dunes at the entrance of Pariah Canyon.


In the the side of one of the hills we found these foot holes forming a staircase...


leading to this wind carved feature in the cliffs.


At first glance the floor of this feature seemed only to be covered with stones until we realized the stones were all pottery shards from the Anasazi Indians. (Notice the many different colors and the patterns on the light gray piece near the bottom, just right of center, and the darker gray piece above it.)


I was taking a photo of a lizard on one of the old corral logs here when I stepped on the tail of a six foot Diamond Back Rattle Snake. Hazard of viewing the world through a view finder! A very fortunately placed bush took the strike instead of me. I'm not sure when I have ever been so terrified! (The staircase, pictured above, is on the "Glacier" looking area beyond the foreground cliffs)


One doesn't have to travel far into Pariah Canyon before you are engulfed in shear rock walls. In some places the canyon folds to one side or the other blocking the view of the sky.


Hiking companion Gregg near the foot of the above slot canyon.


I broke in those hiking boots in a hurry on that trip!


Another road trip I took found me coming down out of Kings Canyon to the shores of Lake Isabella...


then out of the mountains into the desert valleys to the east before...
[Canon F1, Vivitar 400mm lens]

heading north on Highway 395 past Mt Whitney... (Bogie made his last stand in those large granite flakes on the mountain to the right, in the closing scenes of the movie "High Sierra")


and the High Sierra...


then up over the pass west of Mono Lake...


ending in Yosemite Park.


This is Pepper. I got her as a puppy from the dog pound. She was the most mellow of all the puppies they had, a terrier mix I was told, eight weeks old.
When I got her home I found she couldn't eat yet - almost drown in a bowl of water. I had to bottle feed her for three more weeks, by which time she was bigger than any terrier I had ever seen. She topped out at 135 lbs - I called her a Horse-Terrier. A Great Dane - Yellow Lab mix is the closest guess of her true liniage. What a great dog she was.


Until it became overrun with people, this was our favorite camping spot on Crooked Lake, about 20 miles west of Truckee in the Sierras. This photo was taken on our Honeymoon. 45 minute exposure.


I spent a chilly night on top of Twin Peaks to get this photo of the sunrise over San Francisco.
[Contax 3A, Zeiss 50mm lens]

Another of my favorite subjects - old rusty things!
[Contax 3A, Zeiss 135mm Lens on extension tube]

Molokoff Diggin's - an old Hydrolic Mine site in the Sierra Foothills. These mines were eventually shut down since the gravels were washed down into the Sacramento river, filling the natural riverbed thus causing flooding in the Sacramento Valley.
[Contax 3A, Zeiss 50mm lens]

Self Portrait in an old ramshackle house near Molokoff. My knee is up in the air and I have a pensive look on my face because as I stood there I had a board nailed to the bottom of my foot. I stepped on it getting into position - anything for the pose!
[Contax 3A, Zeiss 50mm lens]

Grass Blades.
[Canon F1, Canon 50mm lens - reversed, on bellows - image on slide 1.5x life size]

A tiny wasp on a grass stalk.
[Contax 3A camera with Zeiss 135mm lens and extention tube]

New Years weekend, Dec 31, 1976, a friend and I went camping at the middle fork of the Feather River just upstream of Bald Rock. We ended up trapped in a blizzard for five days. Upon making it back to Sacramento I found I had been fired for not calling in. As if there were pay phones or something there in the canyon three miles from the nearest road. This photo is from near the top of the canyon.
[Contax 3A, Zeiss 135mm lens]

Having no job, I returned to the canyon and lived the next six months in this old mining cabin at American Bar.
[Contax 3A, Zeiss 28mm lens]

A partial rainbow in the mist at Lake Clementine Dam. This dam was built to collect sediments washing down the north fork of the American River upstream of what was once to become Auburn Dam. Seismic concerns put an end to construction.
[Contax 3A, Zeiss 50mm lens]

A storm breaks up over the middle fork of the American River.
[Contax 3A, Zeiss 50mm lens]

The sun sets over the Sacramento Valley.
[Canon F1, Vivitar 400mm lens]