Carson Birthday Buzz
Location: Near Pickets Junction, Sorensen’s Resort area, Hope Valley, east of Carson Pass, CA
Created 09/23/18 02:40:23 pm
Camera: Canon EOS 5D Mark III
Lens: EF24-105 f/4.0L IS @ 24mm
Aperture: f/8 ; 1/500; ISO 1600; HDR pano; 176 shots (55x3); stitched in Photoshop
I was driving back from a 3-day kayak trip on Lake Tahoe when a grove of Aspen trees caught my eye. They were laid back 500 feet above me, and I couldn't resist exploring them. I turned my truck around, parked it on the service road, and set off on foot. A bush-whacking scramble barely got me to the spot. The forest smells, chill air, and echoing colors all vibrated. Strangely, that paranoid fear that I was hearing bears took over. Leaving the cell phone in the truck beside my napping wife was a rookie move. I felt vulnerable for little reason, I'm told bears are generally more wary of humans than we think. After lingering for a while, the trek back to flat ground was serene. I was glad to spend a few hours on my birthday reconnecting with the High Sierra's most effervescent season.
Perspective is a tricky thing to play with. This photo surprised me. After stitching 55 shots in Photoshop to become a single image, the view of three-dimensional reality alters radically when the image is presented as a two-dimensional photograph. With my tripod perched on top of a slender 15-foot boulder, the bottom third of the photograph was 20 feet below me, and the 40-foot vertical wall on my left was behind me.
... Go figure.
