Eastern Sierra Fall Color 2011

This past weekend I had no weddings and no kids, thus my third completely open weekend all year. (I think I have 2 more coming up). Instead of picking my toenails around the house or watching TV, I booked a couple nights of camping up in the high Sierra Nevadas and thought I'd test my luck at capturing the Fall Color up there. So here's what I came up with, and I'll try to explain the dates and where I got them so you have an idea of what is happening right now:

  Manzinar which had some wicked clouds behind it Pull-off on 168 about a mile past Aspendell




Okay, all the following photos are from the Lake Sabrina basin, from the lake itself and then alongside HWY 168 within a half mile of the lake. These were all taken on Friday, Sept. 30th, but went back up there on the 2nd, and still has the same color





Lake Sabrina on Sept. 30th sunset

Standing on the Sabrina dam, looking south



Went on a hike Saturday, October 1st, from South Lake to Long lake. Took 2hrs to get there, and we're in decent shape. Took these photos along the way to show the fall color as well as the lakes along the way:

Long Lake

Long Lake





Sabrina Campground area alongside HWY 168 on Sunday, October 2nd




Along North Lake Road you might be able to get this view:

And you'll see the majority of the Aspens, as of Sat, Oct. 1st are pretty close to peak throughout the valley.

Ten minutes away up to North Lake, I captured these around noon on Saturday, Oct. 1st:





Camped at Twin Lakes in Mammoth, and despite being REAL windy, still some beautiful areas up there:

Lake George

View from the waterfall on top of Twin Lakes

Didn't have ANY clouds in the sky the morning I photographed the Owen's River looking at the Sierras from Chalk Bluff Road near Bishop.

And finally our new friend on our way back home Oct. 3rd along 395.

Also had to head to the Alabama Hills to capture this as well

Also had to drop by Convict Lake quickly since the clouds were nice and puffy and the water was clear:

If you have any questions about the locations or suggestions on where the best fall color is, feel free to contact me via email. I'm sure you can find it on here somewhere. Thanks!

Photo taken at the end of the trail at Long Lake

Party on the Dance Floor

I realize a lot of the wedding photos I post are lovely staged photos, in beautiful light, perfectly timed, romantic and stoic. But just as important to the bride & groom are those crazy party photos showing the guests having a great time. Now sometimes (and by ‘sometimes’ I mean ‘often’) some guests go a little overboard and get carried away. Part of my job is to jump right there in the middle of it all and get those crazy shots. I’m 90% of the time using bounce flash on the ceiling and holding the camera way above my head, angled down to get these shots and need to predict when these moments occur. So it’s part luck and part skill intuition. Here are just a few of the many, many moments from my first 115 or so weddings Yes, Jon Voight crashes my weddings Ladies love Jon Voight Someone drank too much before the ceremony So as you can see, I like to keep my weddings fun. I don’t say classy; that’s up to the people attending. But one way or another, people end up having a lot of fun, and I love being there to capture it all.