Since Santa Ysabel Open Space Preserve West is one of my favorite places in the back country, it was quite obviously very important to see what it looks like in infrared. :-) My friend Tracy and I hiked it in mid June. It was a bit too sunny, and a bit less cloudy than we had hoped for when we read the weather forecast, but for infrared photos, these conditions worked out quite nicely.
Santa Ysabel
Live Oak under Stormclouds
Wednesday a system coming from the southeastern Pacific moved through Southern California and brought heavy clouds and thunderstorms. I can’t remember that anything like that happened in the three previous summers since I’m in San Diego – usually, what little summer precipitation we get originates to the southeast, when some leftovers of monsoon storms make it across the mountains. This system came in from the ocean however and moved inland from the southwest, over the coastal areas. Maybe that has to do with the rumored El Nino in the making? I don’t know.
Backlit Oaks
An excerpt from my “Arbres Monochromatique” gallery of black & white tree photos. It’s always interesting when photos made throughout months or even years are so closely tied together, more or less suddenly (not that it would be entirely unexpected, given how much I love to photograph the oak trees of Southern California).
A Late Winter Storm
Early last week a minor trough moved through Southern California and brought a bit of rain, and even some snow in the higher regions. Wednesday morning the clouds looked excellent. I simply wanted to enjoy some clouds and thought I’d take Toni for a morning walk at the beach — but when I left home, there were no clouds to the West. Disappointed, I just took a walk on some local trail instead.
Rainy Santa Ysabel Hike
Thankfully, we had another day with clouds and rain. I went with two friends to Santa Ysabel Open Space Preserve East and hiked in from the eastern entrance into the preserve, which lies closer to Julian, a bit north of the entrance to the Volcan Mountain Preserve. Both preserves belong to the San Dieguito River Park system of open spaces that stretch from the coast at Del Mar up to Volcan Mountain.
Back Country Rain II (b&w)
Black & white impressions/alternatives from the same day as in the previous post. I’m always glad when I have enough of both black & white and color photos to split them into separate posts. :-)