Picture of the week

Natural Framing

The roots of a fallen Jeffery Pine tree framing another that is still standing.  Photographed in a forest of these trees amongst the Mono Craters south of Mono Lake.  I camped here last week as part of a longer dual sport oriented motorcycle trip, using this particular location as a base camp for off-pavement rides and explorations into this terrain.  In the evening I had the fortune of some good light to do a bit of photography after dinner, as show by the image above and below.  These were shot handheld using my more travel oriented setup consisting of a Canon EOS 70D DSLR and EF-S 18-135mm f/3.5-5.6 IS STM lens with a circular polarizer.  While exploring just the area around my camp I became facinated by some of the exposed root structures of these trees and their textures.  When staring at them for a bit, you would start to notice various different abstract possibilities.

The last row of images at the bottom of this page were captured while traveling on my bike through the area with a Canon G7X more point-and-shoot oriented camera, sporting a reasonably sized 1" CX-class sensor for capturing descent images.  The lens is not going to compare with those I use on my DSLR, but you can compensate a bit by shooting in the sweet spot around f/8.  In general I find the G7X is a good form factor for shoving in my tank bag, using the LCD for framing compositions without the hassle of having to remove more helmet for more snapshot oriented captures. As a side note for adventure motorcycle enthusiast, I have started documenting some of the more noteworthy rides at my 'Motorcycle Corner' page.  To document my tracks, I have been lately using a Garmin Oregon 600 GPS to capture a log along the way.  I can then transfer this track log to my PC, and then create a Google map of this to share with others.  See the map below for this particular day's riding and dry camp location.

As this set of images helps exemplify, the Mono Basin is much more diverse for explorations and photography than one can assume from the oft photographed tufa formations on Mono Lake.  For more information on this region, I cover this in my latest book: Travel Guide to California Photography.

AAll content and images are property of Stephen Fischer Photography, copyright 2010-2016.  Last updated: 6/5/2016   ()