Traveling close to home.

[Vaughn]

I am fortunate to live in the redwoods, about 45 minutes south of some of my favorite areas. A couple of fellow LF'ers are in the area and we have been meeting up and photographing for the last few days. This morning I picked them up at their camp in Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park and we drove over the hill to the ocean for their first visit to Fern Canyon. The often-packed parking lot at the end of the road had only two or three vehicles. Into the canyon three 8x10 cameras were carried by their servants. Light down canyon breeze moving the ferns covering the walls, my first image was a detail of the pebbles and water splashing off the wall into the creek. As noon approached we got a rare spell of still air, allowing multi-minute exposures including maidenhair ferns, thimble berry, and other such foliage in the canyon. The breeze picked up again and a light rain started as we splashed out of the canyon.

I dropped them back at their camp around 2:30, But as I was leaving, the still air kept me in the Park. One of the most beautiful sights and sounds -- a good rain falling through an opening above the creek...on maples with a backing of redwoods. The rain detaching large golden leaves, 6 to 10 inches wide floating slowly down. The rain slackened, so I walked back to the van, grabbed the 11x14 and ended the day with a couple more negatives exposed (a full-frame, and for fun, two 5x14s). I hope I got the sound of that rain -- just like a creek stretching after a long summer slumber. The gold in the air will be more difficult to translate. At 5:30 a quick stop in Orick to buy a Mountain Dew and a Moon Pie...caffeine and sugar to get me home.

The next couple days I will be in the redwoods to the south. Eel River flood-plain redwoods, very different from the hill redwoods in the north. A mud line 15 feet or more up the trunks mark the height of the 1964 flood...less visible than I saw them 45 years ago. Poison oak, climbing 30+ feet up the redwoods, will be dropping their red leaves at the slightest breeze. Pretty! Maples should also be in full color. Got to load up some more Acros in the 8x10 holders tonight!

Here's to our (sometimes extended) backyards!

A previous image made in our redwoods. 4x10 carbon print. Mill Creek, Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Park

[Drew Wiley]

I've got no choice at the moment. It's difficult for me to drive far due to a nasty incident of shoulder bursitis. But several large ranches nearby have recently
opened to the public, added to our already numerous Regional Parks and the John Muir Land Trust. I hiked around one of them Monday. Nice, and nobody in sight until some trail cyclists showed up late in the afternoon. I really like our inland Calif. subtle beiges, greiges, sagetones, golds, etc, this time of year. Our extant redwoods are across the Bridge. But on this side of the Bay, we also get lovely yellows from the maples, sycamores, and willlows, as well as rich reds from wild grape and poison oak leaves.

[Alan Klein]

Nice shot, Vaughn. Just like our woods here in New Jersey.

[Jim Fitzgerald]

This is always a special pilgrimage for me. To visit these massive trees is always special for me as is spending time with my good friend and fellow carbon printer Vaughn in this special cathedral. After we were dropped back at camp we refreshed ourselves with some snacks and took the trail right out of camp no more than 100 yards to an incredible group of trees. The light was soft and bright enough for me to shoot my 8x20. The exposure was an hour! During this time the rain came and it was all around us. The music of the rain and the creek was something I’ll never forget. The canopy kept us dry the whole time. Thanks for the great day and onward to the south we go. So nice to be only 6 hours from heaven . The day up the canyon is etched in my memory as one of the best.

[Jim Graves]

Any time in the redwoods is special ... October is magical.

Missed it this year ... hopefully next year.

[John Kasaian]

I'm fortunate being so close to Yosemite, Kings Canyon and Sequoia. The revamped Mariposa Grove is about 50 miles from my front door with a pretty good craft brewery about halfway in between . Big Sur, Pinnacles NM, and the Gold Rush country are also day-trippable.
My son and his pals are planing to climb Royal Arches this weekend.

[Drew Wiley]

It's been a bad season for selfies in Yosemite, John. A couple stepped back a bit too far at Taft Point recently, and right over the edge; and not long before, a fellow made the same mistake with a selfie stick at the edge of Nevada Falls. But as usual, I'm sure you won't select a long lens and excess bellows extension for your own Dorff self-portrait at the rim of a cliff.

[John Kasaian]

It's been a bad season for selfies in Yosemite, John. A couple stepped back a bit too far at Taft Point recently, and right over the edge; and not long before, a fellow made the same mistake with a selfie stick at the edge of Nevada Falls. But as usual, I'm sure you won't select a long lens and excess bellows extension for your own Dorff self-portrait at the rim of a cliff.

I don't do much photography in Yosemite, Drew. I keep tripping over Ansel's tripod holes.
My son is working in Vail this Winter and taking my car, so until I can get the Model T up and running I'm limited to what's on the No.26 Crosstown bus line for subjects.
Fresno Area Rapid Transit---the municipal bus line that dare not be referred to by it's initials!

[Vaughn]

It is a bit of a drop from Taft Point -- time enough to take several selfies on the way down.

Taft Point, 8x10 platinum/palladium print:

[Drew Wiley]

Just this afternoon I finally printed a 4x5 neg of the Enchanted Gorge I took about thirty years ago on my third attempt at good lighting from atop Goddard Divide. I hauled about 85 lbs of gear up the ice, including my Sinar and a big 120 Super-Angulon replete with a center filter and bag bellows. My nephew was good with ropes, so we strapped ourselves to a narrow ledge for the night, and there was an adjacent flat rock projecting over the void not much bigger than a bar stool, which was a bit dicey to set a tripod on and make lens adjustments without going over myself. But I finally got the good evening and dawn
shots I wanted, in both color and b&w. But I didn't have much experience in b&w yet and overdeveloped this particular negative, and that is why it was on the backburner so long, until really good VC papers arrived.