California and Beyond

Well, it’s official–I’m moving to my own site (and so is this blog).

Robin Black — Sat, 29 May 2010 22:10:22 +0000

I’m putting the finishing touches on the site this weekend, but robinblackphotography.com is finally up for public consumption. I specifically sought out software that included a blog option, so I’ll continue writing about photography and experiences in the field over there. Take a look, and let me know what you think!

One of my photos is a finalist in Outdoor Photographer magazine’s Great Outdoors contest

Robin Black — Fri, 23 Apr 2010 21:39:49 +0000

It’s a photo I took at sunrise at Mobius Arch in the Alabama Hills a couple of months ago. One part of the contest is a “people’s choice” winner, which will be published in the magazine’s online gallery. If you like my pic, I’d love to have your vote at this link (registration is required, but you can opt out of any emails or spam).

It’s been a busy few months for me, but I’ve been busy photographing like a mad woman. If you want to catch up on what I’ve been doing–including the results of my trip last weekend to Arizona and Utah–just click on the link to my Flickr photostream on the right-hand column on this page.

I’m in the process of building my own photography page, which will be up soon at www.robinblackphotography.com. I’ll post here to let you know as soon as it’s ready for primetime, and my blog will move to the new site at that time.

I’ve also just gotten started on a documentary photography project, which will combine my photography with my past experience as a journalist. I’ll be documenting the ongoing restoration efforts at the Owens Lake in Eastern California, which was drained dry following the construction of the Los Angeles Aqueduct in 1913. What happened in the valley was the subject of the fictionalized story in the film Chinatown, and it’s a fascinating and important piece of California’s history. If you’re unfamiliar with the lake, stop by the project website often and find out about this unique and fragile ecosystem that’s beginning to come back to life.

As always, thanks for taking the time to stop by and check out my photos!

Sunset at Malibu, California

Robin Black — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 05:24:42 +0000

I moseyed up the road to Malibu today to catch some sunset action, and found a great spot on the beach about a mile north of Will Rogers State Beach.

Sunrise, snow and sadness.

Robin Black — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 03:44:27 +0000

We spent the first weekend of 2010 back up in my favorite place, the eastern sierras. The first morning we were up a couple of hours before sunrise, in time to drive up to Mono lake to try for some sunrise shots there. The state park folks hadn’t plowed the road all the way to the lake, and there was a layer of fog settled in tightly over the lake Since lake shots were a no-go, I turned my camera to the eastern wall of the Sierras, and was treated to a beautiful sunrise and setting moon. Spent the rest of the weekend playing in the snow and the aspens, and then visited Manzanar National Historic Site on our way back to Los Angeles today. We’ve probably driven past it a dozen times, and finally took a couple of hours to explore, learn and meditate on what a sad, sad episode this was for our country.

Winter comes to the Central Coast.

Robin Black — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 05:08:41 +0000

I had two goals in mind this weekend–try out my new ultra wide-angle lens, and see what the elephant seals were up to at the elephant seal rookery north of San Simeon.

Fall and early winter is when the elephant seals arrive at the rookery to fight, give birth, and mate (and in pretty much that order). The adult males began arriving a few weeks ago, and the fighting has begun. We saw several bulls who were bloodied and scarred, and the fighting was much more intense than the juvenile sparring I photographed earlier this summer. When they crash chest into chest against each other, you can feel the percussive violence of each strike from the viewing stand.

There were several yearlings at the beach, too young to join in the action but apparently more than happy to stay away from it, as they remained on the edges of the beach.

Birthing begins around the third weekend in December, and we counted five pups (one, sadly, dead) on the beach today. The one pictured here is no more than 24 hours old.

The seal pups weren’t the only babies at the beach today–this flock of barely fledged seagulls preened away in the middle of all the seals.

Last night, I got to try out my new ultra wide angle lens on the sunset just north of Cambria. Fortunately, mother nature cooperated generously by lending a lot of color to the sunset.

Looking back at Fall 2009 in the Eastern Sierras

Robin Black — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 20:20:52 +0000

Since the fall color has pretty much played out for the year (and since I’m homesick for Bishop but can’t squeeze in a trip up there for at least a few more weeks–hopefully, for some shots in the snow), I thought I’d go back through my photos from last month and see if any more jumped out at me as worthy of sharing. Here are the fall season leftovers!

The aspens at Lundy were only just beginning to turn to gold when we were there, but with the right light, aspens are, of course, beautiful to photograph year-round.

I’d hoped for some nice reflection shots from the big beaver dam in the back of the canyon, but it was far too windy that afternoon as the first snowstorm of the season was on its way across the sierras (we woke up to about 6 inches of snow the next morning!).

There are multiple beaver dams in the canyon that form a series of ad hoc lakes, and this is the final dam in the very back of the canyon, where it ascends up into the 20 Lakes Basin at the eastern edge of Yosemite National Park.

I spotted a few bare aspens on one of the upper ridges of Lundy Canyon, and liked the drama of the branches against the sky.

Bishop Creek below South Lake, one of my favorite places to visit this fall.

Looking down into Lee Vining Canyon from the Tioga Pass.

June Lake aspens.

Autumn reflections, Merced River, Yosemite National Park.

Merced River, Yosemite National Park.

And finally, a few black and white conversions.

Fall color in Lee Vining Canyon (and a few from Yosemite)

Robin Black — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 06:02:44 +0000

After what by all accounts has been a quirky fall color season in the eastern Sierras, the aspens I saw this weekend were glowing. I was pressed for time, and limited myself to what I could find in Lee Vining Canyon. If I’d had an extra day, I’d have explored June Lake Loop as well, because a quick drive through half the loop showed fiery aspens from lake level and ascending well up the hillsides. There’s nothing quite like standing in the middle of an aspen grove in full yellow-orange color; the glow is almost otherworldly. The fall colors were just beginning to show in Yosemite Valley, and should be glorious in another week or two.

Escape from Lundy Canyon! Or, how I went out looking for eastern Sierra color and got a little more weather than I expected.

Robin Black — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 00:07:16 +0000

There’s something especially surprising about having the alarm go off in your tent at 5:45 to go chase the morning light, only to look outside your tent and see near-whiteout conditions. That’s what happened to me this morning, when the weather system that promised light flurries resulted in three-plus inches and counting in Lundy Canyon when I high-tailed it out of there about an hour later. When I went to sleep last night, I thought we might even get off lucky, as the winds had died and the skies were pretty clear. Over the course of the next few hours, however, things changed dramatically, as they so easily can up in the mountains.

The trip was a bit of a letdown, as fall color hadn’t quite arrived in the eastern Sierras (contrary to several reports I’ve been following closely), so there’s a lot more green than gold in my pictures. We’re headed up to Yosemite in two weekends, so hopefully that trip will yield better results. The winter storm that moved through overnight will probably speed up the color change, so those of you planning trips next weekend should get lots and lots of color, especially in the June Lake, Bishop Creek (in the South Lake area), and Lundy Canyon areas (assuming you can even get into Lundy right now with all that snow).

First–a taste of what we woke up to this morning:

The storm moving over the Sierras this morning (from Highway 395):

And here’s all the color I could find yesterday–first, Bishop Creek near South Lake:

South Lake on an extremely windy morning:

After Bishop Creek, we were off to Lundy Canyon.

Lundy is littered with numerous abandoned mines, so hike carefully.

Revisiting Hetch Hetchy

Robin Black — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 06:40:31 +0000

You may recall a single picture of Hetch Hetchy reservoir I posted back in July after our trip to Yosemite. After watching the second installment tonight of Ken Burns’ miniseries The National Parks: America’s Best Idea, I decided to go back through my files and post a few more pics to reveal a little more of the area.

When we were deciding what we wanted to see in Yosemite, Hetch Hetchy had not been part of our original plans, though we had discussed it at some length. At the end of the second day in the park, however, smoke from the Grouse fire had become so thick in the valley that we decided to drive to the north side of the park and explore the reservoir after all.

I was well aware of the valley’s–now reservoir’s–past, and felt a mix of reluctance and sadness about seeing it. That feeling was strongly reinforced as I walked the length of the pedestrian bridge around the edge of the dam. I knew that Muir considered the valley to be Yosemite’s equal, if lesser known and less traveled. I knew Bierstadt had painted it (see below), and a handful of black and white photographs remained showing the valley in its untouched state. And I also knew that multiple studies have now shown conclusively that Hetch Hetchy valley can be restored without adversely affecting the Bay Area’s water supply. Watching Burns’ cover the fight for Hetch Hetchy in tonight’s episode, and being mindful of Muir’s broken heart over losing the valley that surely precipitated his death, I feel more strongly than ever that the push to restore the valley should go ahead full-force.

This is what we lost (this is an archival photo which is, as far as I know, uncopyrighted–if anyone knows who, if anyone, I should credit, please let me know asap):

This is how Bierstadt saw it:

And this is what Hetch Hetchy looks like today, subsumed by the dammed Tuolumne River:

Quick overnight trip to Red Rock Canyon State Park (and back in time for the Hollywood Farmers Market)

Robin Black — Sun, 20 Sep 2009 19:12:00 +0000

This park is already mostly closed down thanks to the state budget crisis, so we thought we’d better squeeze in a quick trip while we still could. If it remains open, I’ll be back to take more pics with a (hopefully more dramatic) winter sky.

And since the good light was gone by 7:30, we made the two-hour drive back to Los Angeles in time to make a quick stop at the Hollywood Farmers Market (just a few blocks away in my neighborhood). This gentleman has been playing his intense acoustic jazz–in Japanese–for at least 10 years, and is one of my favorite regulars at the market.