Tag: Sierra Nevada Mountains

Alabama Hills, California – Part 5 – Sunrise at Mobius Arch

As I’ve said many times, early morning landscape photography is the best for a number of reason, but especially for being alone on location.  Most casual tourists and visitors to a popular location, seldom get out and about in the early morning hours, so we seldom have to worry about people popping into our shots.

Mobius Arch Pre-Sunrise, Alabama Hills, California, March 18, 2024

The first images here are long exposure, pre-sunrise photos.  There is just a little pink color beginning to show on the distant horizon.

Mobius Arch and Sierra Nevada, Alabama Hills, California, March 18, 2024
Mobius Sunrise, Alabama Hills, March 18, 2024

Shooting from the rounded rocks in front of the arch, made using a tripod very difficult for getting down low, so I ended up shooting hand held, using a higher ISO to get my shutter speed high enough to counter my hand shake.

Mobius Sunrise 2, Alabama Hills, March 18, 2024
Mobius Sunrise 3, Alabama Hills, March 18, 2024
Mobius Sunrise 4, Alabama Hills, March 18, 2024
Alabama Hills Sunrise, March 18, 2024

I shot many images at this location today and could include more, but these are representative of the morning’s scene.  Having those magnificent, early morning clouds was a bonus for shooting today.

Until next time,

Ken

Alabama Hills, California – Part 4 -Photographic Scouting

After hiking the Mobius Arch Loop, we continued our photographic scouting in Alabama Hills, seeking out the better known features first.

Boot Arch, Alabama Hills, California, March 17, 2024

This arch is so named because it is supposed to look like a boot.  Maybe the base looks a little like a boot, but I’m not quite seeing this strongly enough to have it so named.

Alabama Hills, Broad Valley, California, March 17, 2024
Cyclops Arch, Alabama Hills, California, March 17, 2024

I can partly see the naming of this arch, but I’m thinking another name like “Lobster” or “Crayfish” might be more suitable, especially when other view points are considered.

Cyclops Arch Frontal View, Alabama Hills, California, March 17, 2024

Those foreground rock features look more like lobster claws to me.

Cyclops Arch and Moody Sky, Alabama Hills, California, March 17, 2024
Cyclops Arch – Wider view of the setting,  Alabama Hills, California, March 17, 2024

After today’s scouting, we have several possibilities for returning to at sunset and sunrise.

Until then,

Ken

Alabama Hills, California – Part 3 -Photographic Scouting

Mobius Arch, Alabama Hills, California, March 17, 2024

Upon arriving at the Mobius Arch, we began to work around it checking out various photographic compositions.  I suspect every possible view point of this arch has been photographed many times in all sorts of weather conditions, so the prospect of achieving any unique photo here is remote at best.

Mobius Arch and Sierra Nevada Mountains, Alabama Hills, California, March 17, 2024
Mobius Arch, Alabama Hills, California, March 17, 2024
Mobius Arch, Alabama Hills, California, March 17, 2024
Mobius Arch, Alabama Hills, California, March 17, 2024
Mobius Arch, Alabama Hills, California, March 17, 2024
Mobius Arch, Alabama Hills, California, March 17, 2024

These final two image are views through the arch towards the east.  The most impressive views all seem to be towards the west.

Mobius Arch, Alabama Hills, California, March 17, 2024

More Alabama Hills scouting next,

Ken

Alabama Hills, California – Part 2 – Photographic Scouting

This is a continuation of our first morning in Alabama Hills, California.

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Note:  After migration of my blog site to another hosting provider, there are ongoing problems with the migration.  I am finding (hopefully) temporary work arounds, so that I can resume posting, until a permanent fix for the website problems are found.

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Alabama Hills, California, March 17, 2024

I began to realize early in this scouting outing that photographing the scenes here would be more challenging than I had anticipated.  The scenery was spectacular, but the foreground tended to be so immense and dominant as to become a distraction for letting the eye get past it into the rest of the photo.  And those mountains!  The Sierra Nevada mountains were domineering as background, seemingly demanding to be included in every shot.  As a result, I’m not overly pleased with many of my photos, even those that I choose to present here.

Alabama Hills, California, March 17, 2024

Fortunately, there were often cloudy days, so the sky was not bland.

Alabama Hills, March 17, 2024
Alabama Hills, California, March 17, 2024
Mobius Arch, Alabama Hills, California, March 17, 2024

The images in this post have embedded links that will take the reader to that image in my WordPress Image Library.  The photo captions are links that will take the reader to that photo on my Flickr page.

To be continued,

Ken