A heaping third helping of Idaho Pics

I just had to post another set of pictures from Idaho.

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This one below was one of the best ones during the entire 3 weeks I was there. The 2nd day I was there, I drove out of town for just 6 miles and found this scene with superb "golden hour" evening light.

Here's another "dead wood" picture, with those great browns and textures built up over a few centuries.

The Little Lost River Range has its own ruggedness and charm. Bell Mountain dominates the skyline, far above the sagebrush-covered rangelands.

This area of Idaho also has its share of volcanic rock formations that captivate the imagination.

My ski lift ride to the top of Sun Valley Ski Area allowed me to capture these abundant wildflowers at the peak of bloom.

Idaho Bounty

I love the richness of colors and textures in this dead wood shot. I'm still too lazy to adjust my camera to get the best of close-up macro shots. I guess I have to learn all about ISO settings and aperture control, eh?

Despite all that California smoke that found its way into eastern Idaho, there were plenty of days of perfect lighting conditions. This kind of wilderness is certainly no worse than the Amazon Rainforest or Denali National Park. Just different. Different is GOOD!

On my Sunday hike, I was atop some cliffs along the ridge I was climbing, setting up shots when I heard a commotion and rockfall beneath the cliffs. I looked down but couldn't see through the tree canopy. While there are lots of wildlife in this area, including wolves, I figured it was a mule deer or maybe even a bear. I continued shooting for a few minutes until I heard another sound nearby. I looked up and saw this guy looking back at me so, I turned into the sun and couldn't see much at all through the camera. The first shot was underexposed as he was running away so I quickly made a squeaky noise and that caught his attention, somehow. I locked in a different exposure and snapped the shutter, not really seeing what I was shooting. This picture below was cropped out of a bigger picture.

Wildflowers were blooming through the Challis National Forest. Brilliant mosaics of yellow, blue, red and white dominated most of the landscapes, at least for a week or so. Cactus flowers seemed to be the most rare so, when I found these two perfect blooms, I had to capture them.

Not everyday in Idaho was perfect. That morning, I had to get a flat tire fixed on the truck I was using. It happens quite a bit on the angular rocks of Idaho's dirt roads. So I go out to survey some aspen stands and I get 30 miles from town only to get another flat tire on the same tire. Now, only an idiot goes on those terrible "roads" with only 4 good tires. On the way back to town, this thunderstorm forms and provides me with such dramatic landscapes.

This pic below is looking eastward towards the Little Lost River Range, with 11,000 foot Bell Mountain as the most distant peak.

Sunday Morning Hike

I took a good long hike yesterday morning in the fabulous Pass Creek area of the Lost River Range in central Idaho. I saw many sights but this video will make you wish you were here with me. Towards the end of the video, while I was twisting to get a decent panning shot, I struggled to keep from losing my balance. A tripod would have been handy but I was quite limited in what I could bring on this trip.

More still pictures later including a proud white tail buck and an acrobatic raven to go along with all that scenery. Also I got some very artsy pics of some anciently superb pine snags

Slacker!!

Yeah, guilty as charged! However, I'm still taking lots of pics in my many travels this season. We'll take you on a tour to give you a taste of where I have been.

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My several weeks near Mount Shasta resulted in some very fine images.

I just love the lenticular clouds that form as a "cloud-cap" over the peak.

My next assignment was to work on the Mendocino National Forest painting cutting unit boundaries. In one of the units, I found this massive ponderosa pine that was around 70" in diameter and well over 200 feet tall. I decided to try and make a vertical panorama shot, stacking three vertical format pictures on top of each other. After "stitching" together the shots in Photoshop, I used the "Perspective Tool" to adjust for warpage of the trees image. This made the picture's edge all fouled up but, the tree is pretty darn straight. So, I cropped off the goofy edge and here's how it came out.

Since there are no motels in the very remote wilds of the Mendocino, I had a very long commute from Willows, all the way down on the Sacramento Valley floor, to the top of the Coast Ranges. I was struck by the beauty of those golden hills so, I stopped and took this dreamy shot.

I'm currently in the town of Mackay, Idaho, a remote place in the eastern-central part of the state. The Lost River Range is home to several 12,000 foot peaks and Mount Borah is the tallest peak in Idaho. Everything is just so HUGE here and my 10X zoom can only get me so close. These peaks tower 7000 feet over the valley floor and the geology is exquisitely-varied while not masked by deep soils and thick forests. Folded layers of cliffs and elevational variations of plants make this place a visual fascination for a guy like me. Everywhere you look you'll see beauty and "wildness".

However, I still have a job to do, and that involves some picture taking, as well. Me and a co-worker are searching for and documenting stand conditions in patches of aspen. It's very interesting and important work to see how we can improve or protect these very important clumps of trees.

More to come!