Bob Kent 11/5/21 Bob Kent 11/5/21

Five Reasons to Buy a Wall Calendar

With all the technology we have at our fingertips why would anyone want to buy a wall calendar these days. Think about it. We have calendars on our phones, calendars on the computer, calendars in our Email application, calendars on our watches, and even the date on our car stereo.

The wall calendar should be as dead as a doornail. Yet the more accurate phrase is “the wall calendar is dead, long live the wall calendar!” What magic gives this lowest timekeeping device alive and well?

Here are my top five reasons the low tech “wall calendar” thrives in this technology-driven society:

In our high-tech screen-driven world, images and information are fleeting. This creates a human desire for something physical and more permanent. We have two calendars in the house. One in the kitchen and one in the main bathroom. I usually make two calendars, one of the Eastern Sierra and one of Dodger Stadium. We catch ourselves regularly stopping and looking at the images. It takes us back to places and experiences we love.
It is like having Christmas twelve times a year. The calendar in the kitchen is too high for my wife to reach. On the first of each month, one of the first things she asks me to do is to flip the page on the calendar. She looks forward to seeing what the next image is going to be. It’s like opening a present! Some of the images have a special meaning because, as my “Photographer’s Assistant” she told me to take them!
Wall calendars bring people together. You can write something on a calendar for a specific date. From that point on everyone can see it without having to ask Alexa. We have a group of longtime friends with who we get together several times a year. With kids, sports, and work it is hard to schedule things. We have a planning party every year to map out the things we want to do together for the next year. You should see the calendars come out at that event. If you have a friend that really likes a particular topic a quality wall calendar on that topic is a great way to provide an inexpensive gift that still has a very personal touch.
I think having a wall calendar hanging up is also a character statement. Let me give you an example. In the Book Blue Highway, the author takes a trip around the US trying to drive only on “Blue” highways, meaning back roads. In the book he stated he could predict the type of meal he was about to have by the number of calendars the restaurant had on its walls:

“No calendar: Same as an interstate pit stop

One calendar: Preprocessed food assembled in New Jersey

Two calendars: Only if fish trophies are present

Three calendars: Can’t miss on the farm-boy breakfast

Four calendars: Try the ho-made pie too

Five calendars: Keep it under your hat, or they will franchise”

Now think about it. The last road trip you made. If the joint had a calendar or two, usually of a local youth sports team or a local business, the food was pretty good and the service was friendly. Now think about the last time you saw a calendar at a McDonalds. Enough said.

Well, maybe one last point for my Highway 395 friends. Our first impression of the Aberdeen Resort was a Margie standing in front of a wall calendar hanging next to a rotary phone. The food was off the chart.

5. The benefits of buying from a local or small-time artist that focuses on a place or thing you love.
In my case the Eastern Sierra. You are supporting a local artist. That artist will put some of that
money back into the local economy of the place you love. If that was not enough, the calendar will
bring you back to your happy place all year long.

We have several calendars up on the walls of our house. The connection between calendars on the wall and good food that the Blue Highway author makes is true. The BBQ at the Kent house is pretty tasty.

After reading this you have the desire to buy a wall calendar of the Eastern Sierra check out mine at the link below.

2026 Eastern Sierra Calendar

Begin 2026 with the Eastern Sierra Calendar from Bob Kent Photography—beautiful photos showing the area’s wild beauty and changing seasons. Each month displays colorful skies, tall mountains, and classic landscapes, bringing the Eastern Sierra’s charm to your home. A year-round tribute to nature’s beauty.

This year has something new. QR code that leads you to the story behind the picture!

Bob Kent 2/26/19 Bob Kent 2/26/19

Lone Pine the Little Town Below a Big Mountain

I have been going to Mammoth since I was a teenager. Until we bought our place in Mammoth we would do a non-stop drive to Mammoth ignoring all the amazing stuff between LA and Mammoth. With a place of our own we started spending more time in the Eastern Sierra. With that regularity the need to rush straight through to Mammoth went away We started exploring cool things all along Hwy 395. It was then I fell in love with the towns in the Owens Valley. These towns seem one dimensional as you drive through but when you get to know them they have multiple layers that make them gems in their own right. Today’s post focuses on the town I know best - Lone Pine.

Lone Pine has incredible layers both natural and man made

Let’s start with a trivia fact. The famous hills to the west of Lone Pine are called the Alabama Hills. The name for these hills were given by pro-Confederate prospectors They chose the name after the CSS Alabama, the most successful Confederate war ship in the war. The CSS Alabama captured 65 ships, flying the American Flag, and sunk one Union warship. The pro-Union prospectors were not to be out done. They named the pass above the Alabama Hills the Kearsarge pass after the USS Kearsarge which was the ship that sunk the Alabama. Pretty funny when you think about it.

Lone Pine and it’s Alabama Hills are famous for its relationship with the movie industry. Over 300 films have been filmed here over the years including the 1938 classic Gunga Din, countless westerns and famous movies like Spencer Tracey’s Bad Day at Black Rock and Humphrey Bogart’s High Sierra.

You can check out this rich history at the Lone Pine Film Museum.

If you go be sure to watch the film it is pretty cool.

The Alabama Hills are also famous for there unique rock formations that are both beautiful to view but also spark your imagination. Explore enough and you will start to see figures in their shapes.

The Mobius Arch is one of the most famous arches in the Alabama Hills

But it is not the only one.

After a while you start to see images in the formations.

Octopus maybe. If you look close you might find a laughing pig.

Towering above Lone Pine is Mt Whitney. With a height of 14,505 feet it is the tallest mountain in the contiguous United States.

About 9,000 feet up is Whitney Portal. There are camp grounds there and it is the trail head for the hike to the top of Mt Whitney. The portal is a wonderful stop on its own, It has a small pond with trout in it. Many like to fish others just like to sit and relax.

There is also a gorgeous waterfall as well.

If you don’t want to hike all the way to the top of Mt Whitney a much shorter but rewarding hike is to Lone Pine lake.

Lone Pine Lake sometimes looks like a scene from Jason and the Argonauts

If all this physical activity makes you hungry then the Whitney Portal Store has you covered with their huge pancakes!

Two plates are required to hold these pancakes.

If you want to wait to get back to town to eat there are some awesome restaurants it town. A few of our favorites are:

The Alabama Hills Cafe - Breakfast and Lunch

Seasons - Dinner is a great sit down restaurant.

Lone Star Bistro - Great sandwiches, hot dogs and ice cream

Frosty Chalet - for a quick bite to eat.

There is a nice grass area and shaded patio to enjoy your food at the Frosty Chalet

If you want just to sit down have a beer and possibly meet folks from around the world Jakes is a great little old saloon-. We have met folks from France, England, Australia, and more while we were there.

Just north of Lone Pine is Manzanar one of the WWII Japanese Interment camps. It is now a National Historic Site where you can see both the hardships endured and the courage that our Japanese citizens displayed.

I hope you see there is much more to do in Lone Pine than grab a burger and gas. Next time you are heading up 395 plan to spend time in Lone Pine!

Mt Whitney and the Alabama Hills always look good in snow!

Bob Kent 9/11/17 Bob Kent 9/11/17

Eastern Sierra Early Morning Scramble (ESMS)

A great Eastern Sierra Morning Scramble (ESMS) is a plate of “Golden Hour” Light, beautiful puffy, clouds, and a side of water (a still lake or a running stream will do.) When you get up to enjoy ESMS that is cooked right it truly is a moving experience!

The problem is you need to get up pretty early to get served because once nature runs out it is gone for the day!

A great "Eastern Sierra Morning Scramble" (ESMS) is a plate of “Golden Hour” light, beautiful puffy white clouds, and a side of water (a still lake or a running stream will do.)

When you get up to enjoy an ESMS that is cooked just right, it truly is a moving experience! Sorry for the food reference but we have eaten twice at the Aberdeen Resort in the last couple of weeks and good food is on my mind!

The problem is that to truly enjoy an ESMS you need to get up pretty early to get served. Once nature runs out it is gone till dinner! I usually get up early for work so you would think it should be easy for me to get up early for an enjoyable ESMS. Unfortunately, I tend to enjoy sleeping in on days I don’t work.

So when that alarm goes off at 4AMish there is an epic battle between good and evil. Evil is to fall into the sins of the body and continue to enjoy that comfy warm bed. Good is forget the temptations of the flesh and get up and go to enrich your spirituality.

My past routine was to silence the alarm and lay there for a bit re-thinking of where to go. What I was really debating was if I should get out of bed. If "Good" is winning I get up and take a peak outside the bedroom window. If the wind is blowing or it looks like a cloudless sky it is like "Evil" gave "Good" a knock out punch and I jump back into bed to the temptress' warm sheets.

That routine has cost me to miss out on some epic ESMSs. So I have begun to try the stoic method to give "Good" the advantage over "Evil." Here is my simple two step stoic method:

Jump out of bed. Don’t let the temptress of warm sheets sing her siren of evil to get me to stay.
Use Shawn Achor’s (author of “The Happiness Advantage”) 20 second rule. His research has found that you greatly increase your chances to continue a positive habit by making it three to 20 seconds easier to start a good habit. So now I get everything ready the night before so it is just a grab and go. Saving way more than 20 seconds!

The new method seems to give “Good” a big competitive advantage over “Evil.” Not perfect but a way better winning percentage.

This particular morning “Good” won. I got up and went. As I was driving the clouds that had a chance to turn colors seemed to be best in the east so Hot Creek won out over Convict Lake. As the sky was lightening up I was bummed. Several of the spots I normally shoot were already occupied by folks illegally camping. It was still pretty early so I did not want to wake them up tromping around with my camera and tripod.

Turned out being considerate was the right choice. Shooting at the Hot Creek’s little white bridge turned into a “target” rich environment.

The location was the perfect recipe for an ESMS. Beautiful warm light, high clouds that the sun was painting with wonderful colors, and a wonderful running stream!

So sit back while I replay the wondrous ESMS morning:

Pre-Sunrise with the clouds hinting of what's to come!

I had time to take pictures at as the sunrise unfolded and in different spots.

A nice person made a comment on my Facebook post of the image below that summed the scene in one word perfectly "majestic!”

So I figured I had captured the bridge as best as I could so I would try some other spots and compositions. I don't think you could have taken a bad picture this particular morning.

Sunlight playing with the top of the sage!

The moment when you realized it was a good decision to get up that morning

I then packed up my camera and tripod and decided to wander the fire roads while I let the ESMS digest. Doing so I found nice spot on the north side of Hot Creek.

I also found a more direct route to the Chalk Bluffs.

Finally, the "Golden Hour" magic light was pretty much gone and I thought I would finish the shoot with a nice shot of the Eastern Sierra under some nice puffy white clouds.

Just another boring view in the middle of knowwhere

But the days ESMS was not done. Driving back to our condo Mammoth Mountain, under those puffy white clouds, was just too majestic to pass up.

Mammoth Mountain Under Clouds V1 -9600.jpg

Hope you enjoyed the story. Hope to see some of you out there enjoying your ESMS sometime. Love to hear your thoughts.