Antique of the Creator by skifast25

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Sentinel by Sean_Bagshaw

This is my take on the well known Sentinel Trees in the Ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest. I visited the trees with colleague Christian Heeb and our photo group one evening last week. It was a treat to spend some time with the 4,000+ year old trees and see them bathed in the famous Eastern Sierra light. The moon added a great counter point. I moved right to separate the moon a bit and noticed that the two trees were overlapping in a way that made them appear as one larger tree. I liked it so I went with it. The late twilight glow was so rich! I like this image in color, but felt it was screaming out for black and white.

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Owens River by dkproperties

“Owens River Alpenglow”
I took this image just after the leading edge of a thunderstorm had moved overhead from the East. The sun had just set and clouds were beginning to turn color, everything was building for a great shoot but the lightning and thunder began growing closer and intensifying, next the rain began to fall. I know many of you are familiar with Owens River area but for those who aren’t; it’s basically flat; very few trees, with foliage mainly around the river, in-other-words not a good place to be shooting with a tripod when rain and lightning are bearing down on you.
The color in the sky was incredible but even more spectacular was the alpenglow on the western mountains, but it was too dicey to remain, I took a handful of final images and ran like a Ninny, I mean Olympic sprinter back to my car.

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The Palace In The Autumn by NESASIRAKI

A House in the deep Autumn From White Mountains

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Gnarly Mammatus Madness by MichaelBandy

I took this during one of the most insane sunsets I have ever witnessed. I was shooting with Roman Racela, Steve Phang, Chris H. Nguyen and John Paul DeRousseau and we almost didn’t stay for the show. The clouds came in rather heavy and thick and it looked like we were gonna get skunked. We had actually started to leave and stopped at the overlook point toward the top of the White Mountains.From there we could see down into the Owens valley and noticed a break in the dense cloud cover. We predicted it would work out perfectly for sunset and quickly hauled ass back up the hill. We jumped out of the car and hiked up the steep part of the mountain, foregoing the much easier trail from the parking lot for the sake of a more expedient route. While waiting for what we hoped would be an epic sunset, we sat through a few bouts of rain and wind. Suddenly the rain stopped and the sky opened up and we had our amazing sunset.

Now I know the location is overshot. I never fail to get at least one comment about this on 500px. But I don’t care. It is an amazing spot and an awesome old Bristlecone. It is overshot for a good reason.

The first shot I edited and already posted can be seen here: http://ift.tt/1f6kIcT

This shot I am posting here today was taken toward the end of the sunset. Roman shouted out that there were Mammatus clouds forming above us and to the North. I ran over and shot this comp handheld at around ISO 800 or so. The clouds were crazy and the likelihood of ever getting to see Mammatus clouds in California is pretty small. I was stunned and excited at the same time.

A great evening spent with good friends doing what I love to do while nature puts on an amazing show. Sounds like a hell of a good day. And it was!

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Methuselah’s Kin by alexnoriega

2015 Autumn in Olympic Tour with Alex Mody

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California’s White Mountains are home to the oldest trees on earth: the ancient bristlecone pines. The oldest of these is 5,065 years old as of 2015. The title refers to the previous known record holder, the Methuselah tree, which is “only” 4,845 years old (this is not it – its identity and location are kept secret to prevent damage/vandalism). Some of these trees were saplings when the great pyramids were being built!

Conditions looked favorable for thunderstorm/monsoon light on the fourth of July, so I went up here with my girlfriend to meet up with Paul and Mich Rojas. Unfortunately, coming straight from sea level in Los Angeles up to 11,000 feet in a matter of hours, Brittany and I got altitude sickness after a few hours, and had to drive down 7,000 feet in the middle of the night to sleep at the Owens River. Paul and Mich were fine, since they had already been at 11k for days up at Dusy Basin. Oh well, at least we were able to watch the fireworks in Bishop from high above!

This image is comprised of 6-ish frames for depth of field, and one for the sky.

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Twists of Time by alexnoriega

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(Sorry for the repost if you saw this earlier, I was alerted to some issues after uploading and 500px has no replace function). An abstract view of a gnarled ancient bristlecone pine, in California’s White Mountains.

I remember first seeing some shots like this from Marc Adamus a few years back, so credit to him for the inspiration. When I finally found myself at the pines earlier this year, I was enthralled by the shapes and patterns to be found in the wood, more so than the grand scene of the entire tree against a sunset or Milky Way sky.

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Wood & Flame by MichaelBandy

I took this a few weeks back while on a weekend photo trip to the Eastern Sierras with Roman Racela. We headed up to meet Ernie E Suto, Scott McReynolds, John DeRousseau, and Bert Dennison. This was the last night we were up there. Sunday night of the Memorial Day weekend. I received a FB message from Steve Phang that there was snow up at Schulmann Grove in the Bristlecones. The sky and clouds were looking promising and we decided to head up there and hope for a good sunset with some nice light and color bouncing off the snow.

When we got there we were at least 3 hours early for sunset so we just killed some time shooting the shit and hanging out. The clouds looked great and in hindsight I wish we had gone up to take a few mid-day shots while there was still snow, because as you can see from the photo it was all but gone by the time we shot sunset.

While waiting for sunset a dark stormy cloud cover moved in. Low and thick and ominous it looked very much like we were going to get skunked. Like really badly skunked. About 30 minutes before sunset the situation was looking dire. Ernie made the decision to take off down to the Alabama Hills and hope for better conditions. About 5 minutes later, John and Roman and I decided to do the same. As we started heading down, we stopped at the Vista point a little ways down from Schulman Grove. From there you can see down into the Owens valley and also back to Death Valley. I was impressed at the view to say the least. Also because light rays were beaming down into Bishop. It looked amazing. As we were taking shots of this John and Roman and I noticed a break coming in the dark cloud cover that we thought would cause us to get skunked on a good sunset. We also noticed high clouds where the sun would be setting over the Eastern Sierras. John and I quickly convinced Roman that there was a good chance the sunset would turn out to be pretty good at the very least.

Now none of us are meteorologists. Nor are we as skilled at reading clouds and weather as Marc Adamus. But on this evening, our read was more than mildly successful. We raced back up the hill and hiked the steep way up the side of the hill directly below this tree. It as brutal, but we thought it might be necessary since some other photogs had heard our prediction and beaten us to driving back up by a minute or so. As we were scrambling up the hillside, it started to rain. Not hard. But cold and wet. It caused the snow capped loose rocks under our feet to become even more precarious. None the less we made it. And after 10 minutes of hanging out in the rain and catching our breath, we realized the rain must have scared the other photogs off anyway as they never showed.

Suddenly the clouds parted and we sat there snapping away as the sky lit up and changed colors! It was dramatic and enjoyable and exciting! One of those you just had to be there to experience it moments. I know this location is overshot now a days. And I know this particular comp is nothing really new. But sometimes the moment and experience and the fact that you took a gamble and it paid off are more than enough to make you happy. And if you come away with an awesome shot like this…. All the better.

Thanks for your patience in taking the time to read all of this. If indeed you have. 🙂

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