Panorama: Round Valley, California

"A lot of people think that when you have grand scenery, such as you have in Yosemite, that photography must be easy."

-Galen Rowell

(It does make it a bit easier though, and a lot more fun and rewarding. -Andy)

Comprised of ten separate photos. Round Valley lies between the town of Bishop and the Mammoth Mountain ski resort, both located at the bottom of the eastern edge of the Sierra Nevada mountain range. I was visiting Mammoth one particular day in early October looking for fall color. A weather front moved in that dropped about three to four inches of snow in Mammoth, and liquid in the Owens Valley below it. On my way back from the Mammoth day trip to my motel room in Bishop, the clouds began to break in the west, making for visually stunning skies, while throwing animated shadows upon the landscape below.

The photo above has got to be a better pic of me than those ungodly ones Gayn took at the get-together some of us attended in Laguna Beach last Friday. I have now developed an inferiority complex that may persist and prove to go chronic. Marion, I may have to request the need of your services.

GACK!!! 

Gack: The sound of a cat coughing up a hairball.

Self portrait taken up at Mammoth. Didn't find any fall color, but I was rewarded with an early snow - even in the village. This photo was taken a bit further up the mountain, past the ski resort and before dropping down towards Devil's Postpile, off of a ski slope access maintenance trail.

The whole town of Mammoth and its environs was virtually deserted, as it was in between seasons. I had the whole place to myself! Those tire tracks in front of me were made à moi when heading up the service road.

It is so darned peaceful when all is calm and quiet, the sky is pregnant with gray, and big flakes of snow are falling straight down in lazy spirals. The quiet, serenity and solitude are unimaginable. One can literally hear the silence. It lays upon one's soul like a cool, comforting blanket.

But, I digress: Next is a panorama of San Diego's partial downtown skyline taken from the wharf of the U.S.S. Midway museum.