Alabama Hills, California

The next photo location after Bodie Ghost Town was Alabama Hills (Lone Pine), California. Alabama Hills has been made infamous by its use by Hollywood in the making of western movies. If you have seen a western where John Wayne or Kirk Douglas fights off the Indians as they shoot from huge boulders amidst a pink sky at sunset, then you have seen Alabama Hills.

After arriving early evening, scoping the locality for a sunset shot it was time to try and find something identifiable to eat for dinner. Although there was a huge box of dried food in the vehicle, a local town meant that perhaps something fresh could be discovered. After negotiating the main street several times Pizza seemed the only option. The cafe was decked out in movie posters personally signed by many of the movie greats - Kirk Douglas, Karl Moldan, John Wayne, Errol flynn et al. The pizza was surprising well made and tasted reasonable - but anything tastes reasonable after a few days eating freeze dried food!

Sunrise the following morning was cold with the temperature hovering around zero degrees Celsius. The sky was turning pink as the four wheel drive rocketed along the corrugated dirt road bound for a location called Mobius Arch. A short while later found myself surrounded by large granitic boulders, many the size of football fields amidst frozen vegetation, frost and snow. The rocks are an exposed batholith and many of the formations reminded me of an Australian location called Girraween in southern Queensland.

Mobius Arch is a hole that has been eroded in the rock and by positioning yourself to one side with a wide angle lens you can shot through the arch and toward the Sierra Ranges as the early morning sun baths the snow capped peaks. After obtaining the iconic image, it was time to spend a few hours exploring the mesa to determine locations for further photographs before heading to town in search of a late breakfast. I was lucky to see a small group of California Quail, California's state bird, along the access track. Whilst photographing the birds I came across a rock motif of a dinosaur face which I thought cute. The "rock art" was not within the protected area but was located within private property along the main road from Lone Pine.

A small cafe, with the insoiring name of "The Wagonwheel Cafe" was chosen which looked quite dubious from the outside, however, upon entering several locals were dining in what was obviously a 1960 - 1970's style eatery (or diner as the Americans call them). A waitress quickly ushered me towards a table, gave me a menu and offered to bring coffee and water. I ordered Oakley's Eggs (don't ask) and a large plate was soon delivered comprising a 3 egg omelet, various local vegetables and hash browns - along with a bottomless cup of coffee. The clientele was interesting as they were all local: two workers in ball caps, a Mexican family, and a rancher sporting a camo jacket, riding boots, and cowboy hat! They all drove rather large pickups (utes).

I would have liked to spend a further day or two at this location as the scope for early morning and late afternoon photography is excellent; the lines, s curves, shapes and textures of the rocks make excellent subjects. Although the day produces harsh lighting (it is a desert environment) the area avails itself to black and white photography which does not require soft golden lighting.

Bodie Ghost Town, California

After an early departure to capture images at Lake Tahoe, Bodie Ghost Town was next on the list. Bodie was a thriving gold producing town during the 1850's. At one stage the population of the small town exceeded 8000 people as miners, pastors, gunslingers, barbers, bar tenders, and prostitutes plied their trade in the hope of striking it rich. A large commercial gold mine was sunk at Bodie and produced gold for many years before leads ran dry.

Bodie Town eventually became derelict and deserted with only a few residents attempting to eek out a living searching for gold. Because of its relative isolation, the town was forgotten by the mainstream community until the mid 1960's when it was passed to the Parks Service to administer.

 

Today the town is more or less as it was left. The temperate and dry conditions of the high Sierras have protected the wood from decay and minimized decay of many implements left around and within the "city" limits. The condition of the buildings must be seen to be believed and in some buildings their contents were still present. The store contained various bottles of whatever, saws, picks, miners lamps and wooden containers. The saloon still had a piano, snooker table, chairs, table and eating utensils - waiting for the next guest. The local church still had its bell. Littering the streets of Bodie were old vehicles, the remains of horse driven equipment and two early 1920's petrol bowsers complete with "Shell Petroleum" signs.

Visitors maybe tempted to collects omething here or there and take home, but the collecting of artifacts is impossible as parks personnel monitor visitors and for those attempting to try a hefty fine and possible jail term await.

Access is via a dirt road which in this instance was covered with winter snow. The scenery along the rack leading to the ghost town is well worth the visit by itself; towering mountains, large volcanic rocks and stunted high desert alpine vegetation.

Following Bodie we traveled south to Lone Pine (Alabama Hills) stopping at Bishop along Highway 395 to photograph the moon rising through sunset tinted clouds above snow capped, precipitous peaks of the Sierra Mountains. Reaching Lone Pine relatively late in the evening, a quick survey was made of the town to determine what food was available before cleaning cameras, lenses and downloading and key wording images for another early morning starts at 0500 the coming day

Sonoma Coast State Beach, California

Before heading east to the Sierras and the arid region a quick stop was made at Sonoma Coast State Beach.

This region of northern California has to be witnessed to be believed. Massive ocean going swells generated from the Pacific Ocean roll into shallow water and dissipate their power onto the rocky headlands, offshore rocks and beach. The power of these waves is awesome with some wave sets reaching 5 meters in height.

Unless your here in the very early or late afternoon to capture images at the prime time, you will definitely require a polarizing and/or neutral density filter if you intend to try and slow the shutter speed to such as extent that the water will flow across your image giving a ghostly appearance.

Northern Elephant Seals, California

 

During the afternoon after photographing Sea Otters at Moss Landing we made the 2 hour drive south to Piedras Blancas to photograph the Elephant Seals. It was hoped to capture the seals in the later afternoon "golden light", however the seal colony is not ideally positioned to take full advantage of the afternoon light. Despite this, it was a productive afternoon as the male bulls were particularly active in securing their territories from rival males. 

As evening approached the marine layer (sea fog) preceeding a westerly frontal change slowly made its way toward shore. The mist was chilled the atmosphere several degrees cooler as it came closer to shore and quickly enveloped several rocky outcrops offshore. It soon became apparent why the California coast has many lighthouses and fog horn that sound continually. Any mariner would have a difficult time in securing passage in such foggy conditions. By night fall the fog had moved slightly inland a visibility driving back to Moss Landing was only a few meters at the most.

I am amazed at the diversity of habitats and wildlife that occur in northern California. Usually marine mammals breed on offshore islands

away from urban coastal development, however, California authorities have been determined to protect vital breeding areas for certain mammals allowing them full reign of prime coastal areas.

Sea Otters, Moss Landing, California

Two days have been spent at Moss Landing 2 hours drive south of San Francisco. Moss Landing is an estuarine habitat for California Sea Otters, Harbor Seals, California Sea Lions and several species of shorebird. The harsh sunlight conditions on day one caused many images too be just too contrasty while the second day provided overcast conditions resulting in slower shutter speeds and small f stops! Ideal lighting was only available for a short period of time and I was lucky that at that particular time a few otters were out and about.
Sea Otters have variances in the colour of their fur and colour can range from jet black through to rustic browns to blonde. The otter population at Moss Landing is stable with three dozen or so individuals.

We observed several behavioural aspects; mating, feeding, sucking young, hunting and sleeping. Otters raft up together for protection and mothers carry their young on their stomachs. A variety of food is consumed with bi valves being the favoured prey, which they capture from the sea floor and devour on their stomach whilst swimming on their back.