Photo of the Month: June 2009
June Photo of the Month: Mountain Pride (Penstemon newberryi), Lee Vining Canyon, Eastern Sierra Nevada, CA
This month’s photo was taken four years ago on June 9, 2005. It was taken up Lee Vining Canyon on the Tioga Pass Road in the Eastern Sierra Nevada. 2005 was a big snow year in the Sierra Nevada and the day this was shot Tioga Pass still wasn’t opened up, (The pass opened on June 24th in 2005). Tammy and I had driven up there to check out the conditions. Ellery Lake was still half covered in nice, Tioga Lake was still completely froze and the snow was a good 5-6 feet deep.
But lower down, in Lee Vining Canyon, the Mountain Pride was blooming like crazy. We pulled over in an area where the flowers were very heavy and began shooting. Tammy saw this bunch of flowers first. She had climbed up some rocks and saw these guys blooming on a ledge. She called for me to come up there, but before I could get up there she had to get down since there was only room for one.
This was an area that I like to call a Creative Tripod Area. You have to get very creative with your tripod legs in areas like this. I was crouched on the ledge with rocks poking my butt and back, a little afraid to move to much. Tammy got a good picture of me taking this picture. I was so focused on taking the shot that I never knew she took it.
I would say that this is one of my favorite wildflower I’ve taken. It was a challenge to shoot not only due to where the flowers were, but there was a good bit of harsh side lighting too. That’s the reason the flowers glow the way they do. I was using the cliff to my right to shield the lens from the side light coming in. This image is a good example of going a little out of the way to get a good shot.
Prints of this image can be purchased at 25% off the regular price
through the end of June 2009.
Mountain Pride, Lee Vining Canyon
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